Kent State recruits Dionna Gray, Tatiana Thomas, Corynne Hauser.
Coach Todd Starkey has recruited three 2022 guards that could make a championship backcourt in the next five years.
The Kent State women’s basketball recruiting class, announced this week, includes the top point guard in West Virginia, one of the best all-around guards in Pennsylvania, and a “rebounding machine” wing from Illinois.
The class looks comparable to the Flashes’ current juniors and seniors. Both of those groups produced two members of the MAC all-freshman team. Three players signed in 2019 have started multiple games (a fourth – Asiah Dingle – led KSU in scoring before she transferred after her sophomore year). Three 2020 recruits started at least 15 games in their first two seasons.
In an interview about the 2020 class three years ago, coach Todd Starkey called its three players – forward Nila Blackford and guards Katie Shumate and Clare Kelly — “can’t miss” prospects.
Asked this week if he’d describe the new class the same way, the coach replied: “I really do. We feel very fortunate to get all three of them.”
The new Flashes are:
DIONNA GRAY, 5-4 point guard from Huntington High School in West Virginia. MaxPreps, a recruiting service, named her West Virginia player of the year last season. Prep Hoop Girls has her as the No. 2 recruit in the state in the class of 2022. She averaged 17.2 points 6.2 assists, 5.3 steals and 4.2 rebounds as a junior.
Starkey on Gray: “A super-quick point guard, excellent verbal leader and relentless competitor with the ability to be a disruptor on the defensive end. Has the ability to score on all three levels”
West Virginia Thunder coach Scott Johnson: “She plays as hard as anyone I’ve ever coached.” The Thunder is one of the best AAU programs in the country. Johnson has coached dozens of Division I players.
Feature on Gray from her hometown Huntington paper and her video highlights.
CORYNNE HAUSER, a 5-7 guard from Rochester High School, which is about 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. She was a first-team all-state selection last season, when she averaged 19.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 3.4 steals.
Starkey on Hauser: “One of the most dynamic playmakers we’ve recruited during my time at Kent State. Has the ability to score on all three levels and will be very difficult to defend. A very unselfish player who, to be honest, probably doesn’t shoot the ball enough.”
Hometown feature and video highlights.
TATIANA THOMAS, a 5-10 wing from Bolingbrook High school, which is about 30 miles west of Chicago. She averaged 10 points, 8.5 rebounds and three assists last season despite not being the top scoring option on her team. She still was her high school conference player of the year.
Starkey on Thomas: “Has the ability to be a lockdown defender and will really add a great level of athleticism to our team. A big guard wing player who is great at attacking the basket in the open court, and a really good rebounder (“the ‘rebounding machine,’ according to her high school coach), has a nose for the ball.”
Hometown feature and video of her stealing the ball seven times in a game last season
All three new Flashes were highly recruited. Hauser had more than 20 Division I offers, Gray more than seven, Thomas more than five. Gray and Thomas committed to Kent State fairly early in last summer’s AAU season, cutting off other possible offers.
“They’re all really good players,” Starkey said. “The three of these players would form a formidable backcourt.
“All three make players around them better. They have an understanding of how to play with others and share the basketball. All three are three positive and encouragers and competitors. Not every player has the ability to do that, especially really talented ones.”
The three also could change the way KSU plays defense.
“They bring different elements,” Starkey said. “We’ve been a little bit close to the vest — bend but don’t break defensively. That’s fine in some aspects, but it’s nice to turn people over and have some more easy baskets on offense. With these three, we’ll be able to play a little differently next year.”
The Flashes have four seniors on the roster — forward Lindsey Thall, wing Annie Pavlansky and guards Hannah Young and Mariah Modkins — who could graduate next spring. But any of them could get another year in Kent. Because of COVID-19, the NCAA isn’t counting last season as a year of eligibility. Starkey said, however, he didn’t see any difficulty in keeping the roster to its 15-scholarship limit.
Even in the age of a transfer portal that allows new players to be immediately eligible, Starkey says Kent State plans to build through four-year recruits.
“Our goal is to bring in players out of high school that we really feel good about and develop them and hopefully retain them,” he said. “We’re selective with transfers, but we’ll take some. We got a really good one this year (junior Abby Ogle, a 2020 junior college all-American who played at West Virginia last season).”