November 2020 - wbbFlashes

Flashes to host Ohio Dec. 5 in what could be season opener

By Carl Schierhorn on Thursday, November 26, 2020

We may have a date for the Flashes’ first game, and it’s against an opponent we never expected.

If all goes well on the COVID-19 front, the Flashes could open against Mid–American Conference opponent Ohio University on Saturday, Dec. 5 at the M.A.C. Center. (The Ohio date is firm; it’s possible there could be an earlier game.)

It would be the first time in school history KSU opened with a conference game. Usually MAC play doesn’t start until after Christmas and a full non-conference schedule.

It’s another thing the pandemic has made unique in 2020.

Coach Todd Starkey updated reporters on the team and the schedule on a Zoom press conference Wednesday.

Starkey said the team, which saw practice “paused” last week because of COVID-related issues, has returned to the court on a very limited basis. That means some players are working individually with one coach. If all goes well, practice can ramp up from there.

A most complicated schedule

It’s possible that the Ohio game won’t be Kent’s first. Starkey said he’s working every day on the schedule and might try to fit in a game earlier next week.

“I can honestly tell you that our non-conference schedule in the past four weeks has changed no less than 15 times,” the coach said, “whether it be changing dates of games or postponing or pushing games to next year, or somebody gets dropped and you have to put another game in place.”

The Flashes originally hoped to open Sunday at Northern Kentucky, but the COVID problems canceled that. Starkey also said the Flashes also had had a game with St. Bonaventure canceled because of COVID.

Starkey said the virus had disrupted schedules of 196 Division I teams (out of about 350). MAC teams Akron, Miami, Toledo and Buffalo had their openers canceled (though the Bulls found a substitute opponent).

“It’s kind of crazy,” Starley said. “We’re looking for games and being prepared for things to be canceled.

“I’m on a group text with about 20 coaches in the Midwest. We’re posting when games get canceled, and it’s like, “Can you play on this date?”

“It’s going to be like that all year.”

The Dec. 5 Ohio game appeared on the KSU schedule this week. The Flashes will play at Toledo on Sunday, Dec. 13. That game was originally scheduled for Dec. 30.

Starkey said that moving the Toledo game gave players a chance to be home for a few days at Christmas. Moving the Ohio game allows an empty date in the schedule after Christmas where a postponed MAC game could be rescheduled.

All MAC teams have two conference games in December.

About Ohio

Ohio was picked second in the league behind Central Michigan. The Bobcats have four starters back from last season’s 20-11 team, including all-MAC forward Erica Johnson and all-MAC guard Cece Hooks. Johnson had 31 points and 10 rebounds Wednesday in OU’s 76-72 opening game win against Liberty. The Flames were 19-11 last season.

The Bobcats are scheduled to host Notre Dame Friday.

“For us to be ready to play one of the top teams in the league right out of the gate, off this pause, is a tall task,” Starkey said. “But at the same time, this whole season is not going to be an even playing field.

“There are going to be teams that are in some sort of quarantine or coming out of some sort of quarantine throughout the year. Either you or your opponent may or may not have gotten in a full week of practice before you play. It’s just the way it is.

“We’re just happy to be bouncing the ball in the gym and have games on the schedule.”

Notes

• The whole team was in Kent for Thanksgiving. Anyone going home, Starkey said, could bring back the virus and set back the team further.

• Kent State has formally applied for a waiver to the NCAA rules to allow Penn State transfer Bexley Wallace to play this season. Most — but not all — such requests have been granted this season to allow teams as many players as possible in the pandemic.

• Sophomore guard Katie Shumate is recovering well from off-season knee surgery, Starkey said, and is likely to be able to play at some point this season. She has worked out in the gym but hasn’t participated in full drills.

Opening day MAC scores

No. 25 Michigan 93, Central Michigan 75 at Michigan. Michaela Kelley, the returning MAC player of the year, had 30 and sophomore guard Molly Davis 24, but CMU got pounded on the boards by the Wolverines., 41-23.
Milwaukee 67, Ball State 56 at Milwaukee. Senior Oshlynn Brown, a preseason all-MAC selection, didn’t play for BSU.
Ohio 76, Liberty 72 at OU. Ohio trailed 25-14 after the first quarter.
Eastern Michigan 65, Southern Illinois 52. Areanna Combs had 24 for Eastern.
IUPUI 85, Northern Illinois 61 at Northern. IUPUI is the Horizon League preseason favorite.

Kent State women's basketball

COVID-19 ‘pause’ for women’s basketball could last into December

By Carl Schierhorn on Friday, November 20, 2020

We don’t know much more about the “pause” in women’s basketball than we did when the Record-Courier broke the story yesterday.

Coach Todd Starkey was asked when practice might resume at the MAC coaches’ Zoom press conference Friday. He said, as expected, all information had to come from Eric Mansfield, Kent State’s chief spokesman.

I exchanged afternoon emails with Mansfield, whom I’ve known for years. He confirmed the “pause,” as colleges seem to like to call the stoppage of team activities. He confirmed it started this week, which wasn’t had to figure out.

But he couldn’t say:

How many — if any — players actually had COVID-19. (It’s possible players were quarantined because of exposure, though I doubt it. More on that later.)
When practice might resume, assuming there were no further developments on the virus front.
When games might start.

Neither Mansfield nor the Athletics Communication Department could point me to the protocol that stopped practice, nor could they tell me how many times the team was tested recently.

The involvement of top-level public relations people isn’t unusual at Kent State, which has long tried to control information on what it considers sensitive topics. And the pandemic has made everyone’s job harder.

But it seems unfair to refer questions to someone who doesn’t have the answers. It was clear to me that Mansfield, who rarely deals with sports, simply had no information besides the fact practice was suspended.

Here’s my best guess on what’s going on. It’s based on zero inside information — just 35 years at the university, 30 years of following women’s basketball, and a lifetime of reading about college sports.

A player or players probably have the virus. On other KSU teams and at other schools, players quarantined by contact tracing simply don’t go to practice, and the team carries on as best as it can. A number of MAC coaches said Friday that they had had practices with fewer than 10 players.
The standard pause seems to be 14 days, which would knock out Kent State’s scheduled opener Nov. 29 at Northern Kentucky. Fourteen days from Thursday (my best guess on when the pause started) would be Thursday, Dec. 3.
It could well knock out games beyond that date. The team certainly would need some practice before it played a game. Wright State’s announced yesterday that it was canceling its first two women’s games because of COVID issues.

Kent State hasn’t announced its non-conference schedule. The date and opponent of the opening game had leaked 10 days ago.

A Dec. 9 home opener against DePaul

A notice from the Golden Flashes’ Club Friday said the home opener was scheduled to be on Wednesday, Dec. 9, against DePaul. If practice resumes Dec. 3, it’s likely that game would be played.

DePaul would be one of the best teams to visit the M.A.C. Center in recent years, though Kent State COVID policy means there won’t be any fans there to see them.

The Blue Demons won the Big East last season and ranked 15th in the final AP Poll with a 28-5 record. This year they are 19th in preseason rankings.

It’s unclear any games tentatively had been scheduled between Northern Kentucky and DePaul.

An extra player for the Flashes?

At the MAC Zoom conference, Starkey held out the possibility that Bexley Wallace, a 6-3 transfer from Penn State, could play this season.

Wallace was expected to sit out this season because of NCAA transfer rules. But many coaches have been advocating for all transfers to become eligible this season to make sure they had enough players if COVID hit teams.

The NCAA has been granting many waivers to allow immediate eligibility in the last two weeks.

In an October interview, Starkey said the team hadn’t pushed for a waiver for Wallace, giving her a year to get used to the team and the campus. KSU also didn’t really need here right away; the team has four other post players on the roster who are 6-2 or taller.

But the NCAA has since said that all winter sports athletes wouldn’t lose a year’s eligibility if they played this season. That would protect athletes if the season were cut short because of COVID.

So there’s nothing to lose by her playing this season.

Wallace was a Top 100 high school recruit out of Pickerington Central. She played sparingly at Penn State but is the kind of player who could do very well in the MAC.

Here’s link to story from KentWired’s Gina Butkovich with more details about what Starkey said at the MAC press conference.

Kent State women's basketball

COVID-19 issues shut down KSU women’s practices

By Carl Schierhorn on Thursday, November 19, 2020

The Kent State women’s basketball team has suspended practice because of COVID-19 related issues, the Record-Courier reported Thursday.

The story, by Kent State beat reporter Allen Moff, said university spokesman Eric Mansfield confirmed the pause in an email but provided few other details.

The report didn’t say whether any players had tested positive for COVID. Other campus teams have had to limit or suspend practice because contact tracing had shown players had been exposed to others who did test positive.

University and Mid-American Conference protocols require regular COVID testing of players, increasing in number per week as the season approaches.

It has been widely reported that Kent State was to open its season at Northern Kentucky on Sunday, Nov. 29, but the team hasn’t yet released its non-conference schedule.

A COVID “pause” in practice generally lasts two weeks, which puts the opener — or any game before Dec. 3 — in doubt.

Kent State coaches, including women’s coach Todd Starkey, have been told to refer all COVID-related questions to Mansfield.

Link to Record-Courier story.

Flashes picked sixth in MAC

Mid-American Conference women’s coaches have picked Kent State to finish sixth in the 12-team league this season.

The conference announced the rankings and preseason all-MAC teams Thursday.

Defending champion Central Michigan, which has all five starters back, was an overwhelming choice to win the league again. Here are the coaches’ selections, with number of first-place voices in parenthesis and overall totals. A team got 12 points for a first-place vote, 11 for second, etc.

Central Michigan (10) — 142 points.
Ohio — 128 points.
Ball State (1) — 119 points.
Buffalo (1) — 106 points.
Eastern Michigan — 94 points.
Kent State — 88 points.
Toledo — 71 votes.
Northern Illinois — 42 points.
Miami — 41 points.
Akron — 39 points.
Bowling Green — 38 points.
Western Michigan — 28 points.

CMU got six votes to win the MAC Tournament, Ohio three, and Buffalo, Ball State and Eastern Michigan one each.

The league is playing a 20-game schedule without divisions this season. The MAC had been the last Division I conference to have divisions, though they didn’t affect seeding to the league tournament.

The eight teams with the best records will advance to the MAC Tournament in March at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland. There will be no first-round games on campus sites.

Kent State had the third-best record in the league last season. When COVID ended the season after the MAC quarterfinals, the Flashes were the highest-seeded team remaining.

At that point, it looked as if the Flashes would be among the favorites in 2020-21 with four of their top five scorers returning. But leading scorer Asiah Dingle transferred to Stoney Brook, and second-leading scorer Katie Shumate will miss some or all of this season because of a knee injury.

No Kent State player was on the first or second all-MAC preseason teams. The teams are:

FIRST TEAM

Ball State senior forward Oshlyn Brown.
Buffalo sophomore guard Dyaisha Fair.
CMU senior guard Micaela Kelly.
Ohio junior forward Erica Johnson.
Ohio senior guard CeCe Hooks.

SECOND TEAM

Akron senior forward Jordyn Dawson.
Buffalo senior forward Summer Hemphill.
CMU sophomore guard Molly Davis.
CMU senior forward Kyra Bussell.
EMU senior guard Areanna Combs.

MAC coaches meet the press Friday

The 12 MAC head coaches will hold a joint Zoom news conference with reporters Friday. WbbFlashes will have a story by mid-afternoon.

No fans at the M.A.C.C. this season

Kent State announced Thursday that only players, coaches and staff would be allowed at home events this weekend. Fans and players’ friends and families won’t be allowed because of COVID-19 concerns.

The KSU band, cheerleaders and dance team members won’t be there, either. There will be an exception for senior players’ families on Senior Night, assuming COVID conditions allow.

Link to attendance announcement.

Kent State women's basketball

KSU’s class of 2021: Four recruits (3 guards) from 4 states

By Carl Schierhorn on Wednesday, November 11, 2020

(Top) Elena Maier of suburban Madison, Wisconsin; Bridget Dunn of suburban Indianapolis; Jenna Batsch of suburban Cincinnati, and Lexy Linton of Mt. Holly, New Jersey. (Photos for KSU Twitter feed.)

The Kent State women announced a four-person class of 2021 Wednesday, finishing what coach Todd Starkey called “the most challenging year in recruiting” in his 22-year career.

COVID-19 has disrupted recruiting since March. Coaches weren’t allowed to recruit off-campus, which mean they couldn’t attend spring and summer AAU games; they could not make home visits to players.

Players weren’t allowed formal on-campus visits. So much contact was by Zoom and other electronic means.

“It made our evaluating much more complicated,” he said. “I feel really bad for kids who couldn’t visit campuses. A lot of them had to make decisions without being able to see a place in-person or meet coaching staffs in person.”

Kent State coaches never saw signee Elena Maier, a guard from Wisconsin, play in person. Evaluation of her was done entirely from videos. To Starkey’s knowledge, Lexy Linton, a guard from New Jersey, has never visited the Kent campus. He’s never had a face-to-face conversation with her, though he did see her play in AAU competition in 2018 and earlier.

So coaches spent a great deal of time talking to recruits, their families and their coaches online.

“It’s thrilling for us to be able to put together such a solid class of really good students and athletics in the circumstances,” Starkey said.

All of the incoming players had previously announced their commitments on Twitter. What we learned today was Starkey’s thoughts on his new team members. Coaches aren’t allowed to discuss recruits until they’ve signed their national letters of intent.

The new Flashes are:

BRIDGET DUNN, a 6-3 all-state forward from Carmel High School in suburban Indianapolis.

Dunn averaged 12.3 points and 9.9 rebounds on a fairly low-scoring high school team last season. Prep Girls Hoops rated her the No. 6 prospect in Indiana. Matt VanTryon, who covers girls sports for the Indianapolis Star, has listed her among his top 10 candidates for Miss Basketball in the state.

Dunn had 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and three blocks when her high school beat the preseason No. 2 team in Indiana 66-32 Saturday. Carmel is now ranked No. 1 in Indiana Class 4A.

The Flashes had been recruiting Dunn for several years and offered her a scholarship in summer 2019. Starkey said she had attended several pre-pandemic games in Kent last season.

The coach said she could start to fit the role junior Lindsey Thall has played for the Flashes. Thall, a 6-2 junior forward, has ranked among Mid-American Conference leaders in 3-point shooting and is a strong defensive presence.

“She’s a very skilled stretch post player who’s got great range and can really shoot the ball,” Starkey said. “She’s probably not quite the shot blocker that Lindsay is at this point, but few people are. (Thall has led the MAC in blocks for two years.) As Bridget continues to develop, she is going to going to be a nice fit with what we do.”

Dunn’s highlight video.

LEXY LINTON, a 5-8 guard from southern New Jersey.

Linton scored 840 points in three years at Ranconas Valley High School, averaging 14.9 points per game her senior year. She was a member of NJ.com’s South Jersey “Fab 50.”

She will play her senior season at Jackson Memorial High. Jackson is about 30 miles from Trenton and 60 miles from Philadelphia.

“She is going to be a multi-dimensional perimeter player for us,” Starkey said. “She can defend the one through three, maybe even the one through four.”

(The “one” position is the point guard. “Four” is strong forward.)

Starkey said Linton’s style is similar to that of current assistant coach Alexa Golden, who anchored KSU’s defense as a four-year starter. She’s “a little bit better natural athlete,” the coach said.

Linton is a “vocal, emotional, tough player.” the coach said. On offense, Starkey said, she is “a slasher who, as she continues to develop her skills with a ball in her hands and ability to score on three levels, is going to be a problem for defenses.”

Linton’s highlight video.

JENNA BATSCH, 6-foot guard from Loveland High School in suburban Cincinnati.

Batsch last year averaged 10.9 points, three steals and just under one block a game for the best team in her school’s history. She shot 48% from the field and was honorable mention all-district.

“She’s another player who’s very versatile,” Starkey said. “She’s a big guard/wing player who could play two through four for us, depending on what we’re doing on offense.

“She has great finishing ability around the basket in transition and a nice face-up game and jump shot. Her best basketball is clearly ahead of her.”

Batsch was one of three Division I recruits on her high school team; the other two are freshmen at Cincinnati and Akron. She has a chance to see a big jump in her statistics this season.

Batsch’s highlight video.

ELENA MAIER, a 5-9 guard from Waunakee High School outside of Madison, Wisconsin.

Maier averaged 14.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals a game and made 52% of her shots last season. She made her all-conference team her sophomore and junior years.

“Elena is a player who’s kind of flown under the radar,” Starkey said. “She had an ACL injury this past year that set her recruiting back. We’ve had a lot of successful players who have come through here with ACLs in the past, so that doesn’t scare us off.

“We really liked her toughness. She’s a really quick combo guard (point and shooting) who can really shoot it. She’s a tough defender with good ball skills.”

Maier’s highlight video.

A class with less star power

The Flashes’ previous three classes have included a total of seven players who had made an all-state team by their junior year. Dunn is the only member of this year’s class to do that.

“This class may not rate out as high as some of other our classes,” Starkey said, “but I think people are going to be nicely surprised. Their upside for growth is pretty significant.”

The coach said the Flashes recruited based on need. The Flashes have five players on the current roster who are 6-2 or taller — hence the emphasis on guards in this class.

“We’ll be graduating some pretty significant pieces on the perimeter over the next year or two,” Starkey said. “So we wanted to be able to bring in some players who have the ability to come in and push those upperclassmen but also learn from them.”

The Flashes lose only senior forward Monique Smith and guard Margaux Eibel to graduation next spring. Neither are expected to be in the team’s main rotation this season.

But five juniors, including as many as four likely starters, will finish their fourth year of college next season: Thall, point guard Mariah Modkins, center Linsey Marchese, and guards Hannah Young and Annie Pavlansky.

But there’s a twist on that. The NCAA has said that because of COVID, players do not lose any eligibility this season. So any member of the current team can play an extra year, assuming they and their coaches want that.

“I don’t have an answer for you on what that looks like,” Starkey said. “I’m not sure; I don’t think anybody really is.”

National recruiting

The four recruits are from four different states. I can’t remember a previous KSU player from New Jersey or Indiana.

Starkey has recruited 17 players in his five years at Kent State. They have come from 10 different states: Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Virginia, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Indiana and New Jersey.

“That’s a lot of hard work and a tribute to our coaching staff,” Starkey said. “Some of our best players are from within two hours of here. But we’ve been invested in going after players that are best for us and not just staying regionally.”

Opening Day: Sunday, Nov. 29

The announcement of the team’s non-conference schedule is probably a week or more away, Starkey said.

But we do know the first game: at Northern Kentucky on Sunday, Nov. 29. NKU was 20-12 and fourth in the Horizon League last season. Its RPI was 184 of 349 Division I teams. Kent State was 19-11 in 2019-20) had a 97 RPI.

The 20-game MAC season starts Dec. 30 at Toledo.

Scheduling, of course, assumes no COVID interruptions.

Month: November 2020

Flashes to host Ohio Dec. 5 in what could be season opener

COVID-19 ‘pause’ for women’s basketball could last into December

COVID-19 issues shut down KSU women’s practices

KSU’s class of 2021: Four recruits (3 guards) from 4 states