Month: April 2020

A pandemic offseason: How women’s basketball adjusts to a new normal

Team on Zoom

The team’s first online meeting (from their Twitter feed).

By Kathryn Rajnicek

KentWired sports reporter

Associate head coach Fran Recchia spends much of her time these days at her kitchen table, searching for future Flashes.

“At least two hours a day,” she said, “watching film or highlights or calling coaches.”

Freshman forward Nila Blackford starts each morning practicing yoga on a mat on her deck in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I do it to wake my body up, stretch, work on my flexibility and ease my mind,” Blackford said.

Sophomore guard Hannah Young has packed and carried box after box to her family’s new home.

“They were pretty heavy boxes and furniture,” Young said. “I lifted about 25 things a day when we were moving.”

In a world where the coronavirus keeps people at home, offseason activities take place in basements, bedrooms and driveways. Recchia, Blackford, Young and the rest of the women’s basketball team are recruiting, training and connecting in ways they never imagined.

“This is an unprecedented thing for anybody in our lifetimes,” coach Todd Starkey said.

Recruiting from the kitchen

To help try to prevent the spread of the virus, the NCAA banned coaches from visiting players and players from visiting campus. High school basketball tournaments and spring AAU basketball were canceled, so coaches haven’t seen prospective players in person since at least March.

“Everybody’s trying to be creative right now,” Starkey said. “We are using social media and FaceTime with current high school juniors.”

Most seniors have already signed with colleges; coaches are not allowed to contact high school freshmen and sophomores.

When Starkey talks to prospective players, the conversation doesn’t often start with basketball.

“We’re interested in the whole person whether this [the coronavirus] is going on or not,” Starkey said. “We want to know what motivates them and what’s important to them. Those are probably the first things we talk about on calls, then we move into basketball.”

When Recchia evaluates tape, she prefers watching full games instead of highlights.

“You can see them on both sides of the ball,” Recchia said. “You can see how they respond to mistakes on the defensive end, or after turning the ball over, or missing a shot, or being subbed out.”

It’s still not the same as being at a game.

“When you’re there in person, everything’s just a bit clearer,” Recchia said. “You can see how they are when they’re receiving tough coaching, their eye contact and response to their coach.”

She also watches what players do after the game is over.

“Are they helping pick up the bench? Are they the first ones out? Are the parents carrying their bags?” she said. “Things like that you don’t really get to see on film.”

Recchia spends a lot of time talking to coaches about a player’s strengths and weaknesses — but also emphasizing what kind of person they are.

“You rely on a lot of relationships with their coaches,” Recchia said.

Usually, Kent State will not offer a player a scholarship solely based off of video.

In normal circumstances, that almost never happens,” Starkey said. “We’re looking at more video, but it doesn’t mean that getting video from recruits is going to lead us to offering just because we see a player have a good highlight tape.

“It’s more involved in that. It’s understanding who a player is, how they react to adversity, how they react to coaching, those different types of things. It’s certainly not a simple process.

“In a situation like this, we are starting to get involved with some players we’ve only seen on film. That may need to be the case at least in the short term.”

Training at home: Using what’s available

With stay-at-home orders in effect, players cannot go to gyms or work out in groups.

“I’ve been going on runs in the parks that are open,” sophomore Lindsey Thall said. “The training staff gave us some ball-handling drills.”

Sophomore Mariah Modkins works out two to three times a day.

“I do cardio, weight lifting, some basketball and boxing,” Modkins said. “I just make the most that I can with the resources I have.

“One of the things that comes with being a student athlete is self-motivation. You know what you need and how to adapt to what your body is telling you. You know if you need more rest or extra workouts.”

Blackford started practicing yoga as a unique way to stay in shape.

“It’s something active, and I can’t just sit around all day,” Blackford said. “I’ve also been doing things like running and weight lifting to help maintain overall strength and endurance.”

Kent State’s training staff has sent out some home workouts to help the players that do not have access to a lot of equipment.

“The workouts include a lot of body-weight and using dumbbells,” Young said. “It’s a lot of lunges, squats, push-ups, pull-ups and core-type workouts.”

The workouts compensate for lack of equipment with more repetitions.

“It’s been a lot of body-weight workouts for strength,” Thall said. “They have us do more reps instead of higher weights because a lot of us don’t have home gyms.

Keeping busy: Quarantine style

Mostly, the players are like other students. They do school work and try to entertain themselves.

For many, having all online classes is an adjustment.

“It’s really easy for you to be like, ‘All right, I’m just going to hold off on this and push it to tomorrow,’” Blackford said, “because you aren’t forced to go to class and do the whole face-to-face type of interaction. Online is definitely more challenging, but it’s still class and still a priority you need to have.”

Young, a physical education major, doesn’t think some of her classes work as well online.

“A lot of my classes are based on participation and take place in a gym,” Young said. “My professors have had to change the whole curriculum and figure out a way to put it online. It’s been a lot of lectures and essays, so it’s a lot more time consuming.”

Redshirt senior Megan Carter finished her degree in December and had been taking classes to keep her eligibility.

“It’s a little hard to stay focused,” Carter said. “I am taking ‘unnecessary’ classes, so it’s a little hard. But I just have to finish strong in these last few weeks.”

Netflix is a popular diversion.

“I’ve watched Rhythm + Flow and All American,” Blackford said. “I just watch whatever looks good. Sometimes I watch basketball and other sports reruns.”

“I watched Tiger King,” Young said. “I’m not really into documentaries, but my friends told me, ‘You have to watch this.’ By the end of it I was thinking, ‘Everyone’s just crazy.’

Keeping in touch from a distance

In early April, the team posted a TikTok video, which begins with Thall and freshman guard Clare Kelly shopping in a grocery cart like an old Chef Boyardee commercial.

“As a kid I always used to watch that commercial,” Thall said. “Clare and I thought it would be a great idea to incorporate basketball into it.”

So the ball bounces off a shelf and down the aisle after they walk by. Then it cuts to Modkins chasing it down the street while spraying Lysol on it, then other players follow it down streets, through fields and on beaches until it bounces back to Thall and Kelly unloading their groceries.

The players miss each other.

“They are some of your closest friends because you are with them every single day,” Thall said. “So it’s completely different not being able to see them.”

So the players keep in touch electronically.

“We have a group chat that we’re always talking with each other through,” Young said. “We talk about how to do certain workouts and what everyone is up to. We’re a pretty close team, so it’s not too hard to stay in touch.”

This week marked the start of online team meetings through Zoom.

“I’m so used to seeing them in person, so it was different seeing them on a computer screen,” Blackford said. “It was good to be able to see and connect with everyone.”

The meetings are used as a time to catch up.

“It’s nice to see everybody’s face in the same place,” Starkey said. “It’s a lot of information sharing, talking about their off-season workout schedule, encouraging them to finish strong academically and looking at what a summer schedule might look like. We give them an opportunity to ask questions and be together when we’re apart.

The coaching staff also tries to talk to the players individually each week.

“We check in to see how they’re doing, how their family is doing and their mindset right now,” Recchia said. “We talk very little about basketball. It’s different times for everyone, so we are trying to help them process it and find their new normal.”

Cutbacks, schedule changes are probably ahead for KSU (and all college) sports

KSU logo

An online post by Athletic Director Joel Nielsen today gave hints about possible budget cuts and schedule changes ahead for Kent State and the MAC.

From the post:

“As athletic departments plan and prepare for the road ahead, many in our industry have said, ‘College sports as we know it will never be the same.’

“While I tend to agree, it doesn’t mean that college sports won’t still be able to provide the opportunities and entertainment it’s been providing for over a century.

“Keeping that in mind, athletic departments will face difficult decisions in figuring out how to operate with less money. Staff sizing, travel restrictions, schedule modifications, and other budget reductions are logical options.

“Those decisions even become more difficult if the pandemic affects our fall sports. There is also uncertainty as to when the economy will be ‘reopened’ and how quickly it will rebound. That will affect fundraising, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, merchandise sales, etc.

“At the direction of the MAC President’s Council, and under the leadership of Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, the conference has been working on modifications to schedules, championships and other items.

“The recommendations will be reviewed and discussed over the next couple of weeks, and then shared with our students, staff and supporters.”

The University of Arizona, a far richer school than Kent State, is projecting a $7.5 million shortfall in athletic revenue. It is freezing all athletic spending, hiring and raises. Cuts in salaries, programs and scholarships are possible. (The measure were  announced in a memo that was leaked to USA Today.)

Cincinnati announced Wednesday it was eliminating men’s soccer as a cost-cutting measure.

Earlier Wisconsin said that even though the NCAA had granted current seniors in spring sports an extra year of eligibility, it wouldn’t be able to afford scholarships for them.

Tough times ahead — for sports and the rest of us.

In the national news

I just starting subscribing to a site called CollegeAD.com. Here’s a link to some of today’s news, including a item on how the Group of Five is asking the NCAA for permission to cut back on sports and scholarships. Its worth a look (and following, if you’re interested in this kind of them.)

The NightCap | Q&AD: G5 ADs Talk NCAA Distributions

Up in the air

There are so many things unclear about what’s ahead for sports at Kent State and elsewhere. It certainly will be a long time before we get to any kind of new normal. The state will start to “reopen” sometime this summer. But it’s very likely it will be gradual, with fits and starts.

  • Almost all sports have summer workouts. For example, all women’s basketball players, including incoming freshmen, usually have been on campus when summer school starts. The NCAA allows basketball teams to train and practice a total of 10 hours a week.

All Kent State summer classes are online. The university has announced there will be no campus activities until at least July 4. Does that mean summer workouts are dead? (I’d guess yes. Maybe something will happen in August if the “reopening” goes smoothly.)

  • I’ve seen all sorts of speculation on the football season. It’s hard to imagine public health officials approving of 100,000 fans together in a Power 5 stadium (or 20,000 in a MAC stadium) in the first week of September. That’s especially true if there’s no proven treatment by then. (There almost certainly won’t be a vaccine until 2021.)

Could teams play in an empty stadium? Will practice be able to start on time in August? Would it be safe for 150 players, coaches and staff to be in the same place? How do you practice “social distancing” in an athletic practice?

I’ve seen stories speculating that the Big Ten might cut the football season to only conference games to save on travel. I’ve seen stories wondering whether football might be postponed to spring.

(I’m pretty sure that as football goes, so will other fall sports like soccer, field hockey and volleyball.)

  • Some universities have begun discussion on whether campuses should remain closed and online classes might continue for the fall semester. If so, what happens to winter sports, all of which start official practice in October? Teams could be on campus — if the state and university deem it safe — to practice and take classes online.

But would universities allow that? Even if it were safe, could sports go on when on-campus group academic activities like musical and theater groups and science labs are suspended? Some classes simply can’t be taught remotely any more than a team can practice online.

I’m sure discussions on all these points and more are going on at Kent State and every other university in the country.

 

Dingle lands at Stony Brook, which went 28-3 and won its conference last season

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The image Asiah Dingle tweeted when she announced that she was headed to Stony Brook University on Long Island. She wore No. 3 at Kent State.

Former Kent State guard Asiah Dingle announced on Twitter Monday that she would join the women’s team at Stony Brook University, last season’s American East Conference champions.

Dingle, who was KSU’s leading scorer last season, said last week she was transferring from Kent State. She scored 785 points in her two seasons with the Flashes.


ANALYSIS: What Asiah Dingle meant to Kent State and what next season looks like without her.


Stony Brook went 28-3 last season, the best record in school history. The Seawolves were ranked 12th in the final Mid-Major Top 25 by CollegeInsider.com.

Dingle spoke publicly for the first time about the transfer in an interview with Boston Globe correspondent Greg Levinsky posted Tuesday.

The primary reason, she said, was the health of her father.

Most important, she said was “being closer to my family. In case anything happens to him, I’ll be able to come home right away.

“Besides that, [Kent State] wasn’t really a good fit for me. I love the people there, though, especially my teammates.”

Stony Brook on the north shore of Long Island, about 250 miles from Boston, about a four-hour drive. Kent is about 630 miles from Dingle’s home.

Dingle said she planned to apply for a hardship waiver to NCAA transfer rules to become immediately eligible to play for the Seawolves. The NCAA currently requires transfers to sit out a year. Such a waiver can be granted for an illness or other need to be near home.

The NCAA is actively studying on a “one-time transfer” rule that would allow any player to transfer once in her career and immediately be eligible to play. Some observers have speculated that a decision could come in May and that the one-time transfer could go into effect this summer.

If she’s eligible, Dingle should have a chance to move immediately into the starting lineup. Last year’s starter at point guard was Kalea Haire, a graduate transfer from Seton Hall. A second-team all-conference selection, she was second on the team in scoring and led it in assists.

The Globe story said Dingle was impressed that Stony Brook head coach Caroline McCombs reached out to her directly once Dingle put her name in the transfer portal.

“It’s a family atmosphere,” Dingle said.

On Monday, Stony Brook gave McCombs a contract extension through the 2024-25 season.

 

 

Asiah Dingle had a huge impact on the KSU program and the MAC in 2 years

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Asiah Dingle scored 785 points in her first two years, tied for fifth all-time for Kent State. (Photo by John Conley from KentWired.)

This post is more analysis than Thursday’s story about Asiah Dingle’s decision to transfer from Kent State women’s basketball team, which was a pretty straight report on the situation.

Asiah Dingle made a huge difference in her two years in a KSU uniform. She was the spark of coach Todd Starkey’s outstanding 2018 recruiting class. In her first year, she gave the Flashes a scoring threat at point guard we haven’t seen since Dawn Zerman, MAC player of the year in 2000.

I can’t imagine Kent State winning 20 games last season and 19 this year without her.

Her ability to drive the basketball changed Kent State’s offense. When the Flashes rallied in the second half to win their first-ever WNIT game last season, Green Bay had no answer. Her quick hands on defense could turn a game. At Akron this season, she had a steal and basket, then stole the inbounds pass and scored again in a sequence that changed the course of the game.

This season she came off the bench for her last 11 games and played the best basketball of her career. She made 54% of her shots in that time; in her freshman year, she made 37%. Her play was critical to Kent State’s late run that gave them a tie for the MAC East title and the third seed in the conference tournament.


Dingle announced Sunday that she would attend Stony Brook University on Long Island, which went 28-3 last season and won the American East Conference.


Only a technicality kept her from being the MAC’s sixth player of the year. To qualify, a player needs to start fewer than half of her team’s games. Dingle started 15 of the 28 games she played in. The winner of the award, Central Michigan’s Gabrielle Bird, averaged 8.6 points a game. Dingle averaged 13.3.

She averaged 12.8 points her freshman season. That was more than the freshman average of all but four of Kent State’s 1,000-point scorers, including Larissa Lurken, Jordan Korinek, Lindsay Shearer, Julie Studer and Dawn Zerman. Her 785 points tied Zerman for fifth in points scored in two years.

Dingle had her flaws. Her sometimes out-of-control play (“reckless turnovers,” Starkey said after one victory) could drive coaches and fans crazy. Fouls could keep her off the court for significant periods. According to analytics site HerHoopStats, she ranked 3,311 of 3,321 Division I players in fouls per game. She had very limited shooting range; She took only 20 three-point shots all season and made only two.

Starkey pushed Dingle hard to overcome those problems. I never saw a sign she resented that, but I’m not in the locker room, either.

Did she leave because she was unhappy at Kent State? The tweet announcing her transfer called her time her “an amazing two years,” and she thanked her coaches and teammates. That’s pretty standard stuff for transfer announcements.

I’m sure Dingle wasn’t happy when she was suspended for two games in early February.  Starkey never said why; I heard much later that she missed a required team activity.

She never started after that. But the team was better for it. Before that time, the  Flashes had gotten minimal points from their bench. Dingle gave them energy and production, and the team won eight of 11 games.

The way she played in that run was far from that of an unhappy player. Her attitude in postgame interviews was the same it had always been. She was never a particularly articulate interview, but she was fun to be around.

In an interview with Allen Moff of the Record-Courier, Starkey said Dingle was “trying to get closer to home, where she has family going through some significant health situations (not related to the coronavirus). I think that played a pretty big part in her decision.”

A source in Boston (Dingle’s hometown) said the same thing hours before I read Starkey’s statement. She does indeed have a close family member with major health problems, and Boston is 600 miles away, way too far away to easily go home for a quick visit.

I have no way of knowing how much her suspension or not starting had to do with her decision.

But my best guess is that the decision was at least as much family related as it was basketball related, and maybe a lot more.

Life without Dingle

The Flashes certainly will miss her. No team can lose a leading scorer with a unique style like Dingle’s without having to make adjustments.

The dynamics will be different. She was part of a cluster of players — her, senior guard Megan Carter, freshman wing Katie Shumate — who were very good at creating their own shots. And that’s a big reason why the Flashes were 295th in the country in assists.

More and better passing, I think, will help the team.

Mariah Modkins took over as starting point guard when Dingle moved to the bench. She is a calmer player, a better distributor and a better 3-point shooter. But most of the time, the Flashes were a better team with Dingle on the floor. Modkins averaged about 3.5 points in about 16 minutes per game. I’m glad Modkins is on the team, but I’m not sure she’s a full-time championship guard in Division I.

I think incoming freshman guard Casey Santoro will be very good, but you never know with freshmen. Sophomore Hannah Young scored 1,998 points in high school, but it took her almost a season and a half to find herself at Kent State.

Santoro, a four-time all-Ohio choice, averaged 25.2 points a game her senior year and scored more than 2,100 points in her career. Her high school statistics are quite similar to those of Miami’s Peyton Scott and Central Michigan’s Molly Davis. Both guards made the MAC all-freshman team this season.

Next year’s Kent State team is likely be more post-oriented than this year’s. Linsey Marchese, the team’s 6-4 transfer from Indiana, will be eligible. I’ve seen her in practice a number of times. She has the potential to quickly become one of the best centers in school history.

Significant transfers

Dingle is the first front-line player to transfer in Starkey’s four years. Five players left over the last two years, but none were in line to play a major role on the team.

Her transfer is the most significant in the 30-odd years I’ve been following Kent State women’s basketball. The only other major loss I can remember is a guard named Jena Stutzman, who was one of the best 3-point shooters in school history. Unhappy with coach Bob Lindsay’s ultra-demanding style, she transferred to Ashland. There she led her team in scoring as it finished runner-up in the Division II NCAA Tournament in 2012.

In 2004, Andrea Csaszar, at 6-6 center the tallest player in Kent State history, chose to forgo a redshirt senior season to play professional basketball in Europe. It’s not quite the same as a transfer, but it was a big loss. Csaszar still holds the Kent State record for blocked shots in a game and a season and is second in career blocks..

 

Sophomore guard Asiah Dingle is transferring; she scored 785 points in 2 seasons

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Dingle starts one of her trademark hard drives to the basket. (File photo from KSU website.)

Asiah Dingle, the 5-4 sophomore guard who led Kent State in scoring last season, is transferring.

Dingle announced her decision on Twitter Thursday afternoon.

“Thank you, Kent State, for giving me the opportunity to experience a great university,” she wrote. “I especially want to thank my coaches, teammates and lifelong friends for an amazing two years. After much thought with my family, I will be transferring and pursuing a new home.”

Dingle scored 785 points in her two seasons in Kent and made the MAC all-freshman team her first year. She scored most of her points on aggressive drives to the basket and had quick hands on defense. She was fifth in the MAC in steals this season.

Dingle started at point guard for her first year and a half, She missed two games in early February with a disciplinary suspension, then came back as the first player off the bench.

She averaged close to 30 minutes of the game the rest of the season and played the best basketball of her college career, making almost 55 percent of her shots. Her play was integral to KSU’s late-season run to the MAC East title and their quarterfinal win in the MAC Tournament.

Dingle, Boston Globe player of the year in her division in high school, was a key member of coach Todd Starkey’s outstanding recruiting class of 2018. Starkey pushed her hard and made it clear she had areas to improve, especially in turnovers and fouls. But he also once talked of her as potential MAC player of the year some day.

Starkey said Dingle’s move wasn’t a complete surprise.

“She’s looking for a fresh start,” he told reporter Allen Moff of the Record-Courier. “She’s trying to get closer to home, where she has family going through some significant health situations (not related to the coronavirus). I think that played a pretty big part in her decision. We weren’t blindsided by it. We knew it was a possibility. We wish her all the best.”

Dingle’s transfer leaves a significant hole on the Flashes’ roster. For two years, she played handled the point guard spot far more than anyone else. Many teams had a hard time keeping her from driving to the basket.

Fellow sophomore Mariah Modkins started when Dingle became the first player off the bench. She’s a calmer presence at the point and a better 3-point shooter than Dingle, who made only two long-distance shots all season. But Modkins is generously listed at 5-1 and can struggle against taller guards. She averaged three points and two assists in about 16 minutes a game for the season and a little higher in conference play.

The Flashes have one of Ohio’s top high school point guards in its incoming freshman class. Casey Santoro of Bellevue is a 5-4 guard who scored more than 2,100 points in her high school career. She was first- or second-team all-Ohio for all four years in high school and district player of the year twice. This season she averaged 25.2 points a game.

Santoro’s high school record is quite similar to Central Michigan’s Molly Davis and Miami’s Peyton Scott, both of whom made the MAC’s all-freshman team.

Beyond Modkins and Santoro, there is no true point guard on the KSU roster. The third person who ran the offense last season was senior Megan Carter. Freshman Katie Shumate and sophomore Hannah Young, I think, played some point in high school.

Kent State still has three scholarships available. I’m pretty sure Kent State is still actively recruiting for the 2020 class, but most highly ranked players have committed by now. Looking for a graduate transfer is also a possibility.

There are literally hundreds of players in the NCAA’s transfer portal. But recruiting nationally is in some turmoil because of coronavirus quarantines. The NCAA has barred any off-campus visits by coaches and any visits by prospective players to campus. Few players want to commit to a school they’ve never visited.

“We’ve got scholarships available,” Starkey said in his interview with Moff. “We’ve got the room and ability to potentially bring in some other players. But we don’t think it’s absolutely essential. The only thing we’re really interested in is a good fit, a player that would potentially help us get significantly better.”

The Flashes return six of their high top scorers from last season, even without Dingle. Besides Santoro, they add Linsey Marchese, a 6-4 transfer from Indiana who was one of the top high school centers in the country, and 6-4 freshman Lexi Jackson, who averaged a double-double her last two years in high school.

A bittersweet end to a banner season for Kent State women’s team

The Flashes and their fans celebrate after quarterfinal win over Buffalo. (Photo by John Conley from KentWired.)

Kathryn Rajnicek covered the women’s basketball team for the Kent Stater and its online arm, KentWired.