Kent Preview--Flashing better done at home

Back in the saddle...an actual business trip prevented me from doing more than just seeing the Akron score alerts from ESPN during a long dinner meeting out-of-town.  Sounds like we had a very good shot at starting 2-0 in the MAC and couldn't close the deal and the Akron whammy continues.

Anyway, now on to Kent.  The Flashes are 11-4 overall (RPI 112) and 1-1 in the MAC.  This is the model program in the MAC.  They are good every year, through graduations and new coaches, they have not skipped a beat in many years.  If you wanted to see where your program should end up, this would be it.

They didn't play a brutal non-conference schedule.  They did get a big win @WVU, lost an opportunity for a big win against Cleveland State, but beyond that, their wins are solid and consistent, but not over great competition.

They lost @Buffalo by 1 to open the MAC season and then beat Miami at home to even things up.

Their local paper reports that MAC POY Justin Greene will play, despite having a boot on his foot as a "precautionary measure."  Eric Gaines, however, will not play (he's a reserve who does figure in their rotation).

Kent is very, very difficult to beat on their home floor.  They are 64-7 over the past 9 seasons in MAC home games.  Three of those wins belong to BG, for whatever it is worth.  BG won @Kent in '05, '06 and '10.  Last year, Kent swept the series with BG.

Statistically speaking, on offense, BG and Kent are very comparable.  The Flashes are better at getting to the line, but the other numbers are very similar, and at least according to the RPI, BG has played a tougher schedule this year.

NCAA Basketball

It is on defense where things might start to diverge a little.  Kent has played very good defense, allowing only 61 points a game, compared to BG's.  That's 55th in the country.  Their points per possession, at .91, is 38th in D1.  They are a good defense team because they force turnovers on 25% of their possessions, which is in the top 20 in the MAC (on other other hand, OU was #2) and when you do get a shot off, they are strong there, too, ranked #76 in EFG Defense.  They are not strong on the boards, but they do keep teams off the line--#76 in the country.

Player wise, this is an experienced team.  They are in the top 10% of the country in playing time ranked by class.  Their marquee player is Justin Greene, who is scoring 12.4 points per game and 6.5 rebounds on 49% shooting.  He was last year's MAC POY.  Randall Holt is scoring 11.9 points and Carlton Guyton has 10.4 and 3.5 assists.  Michael Porrini is scoring 8 points, getting 5 rebounds and 4 assists per game.

They do play deep.  They have 9 guys who are averaging 10 minutes a game or more and no player averaging more than 31.

I have felt for a while this is the best team in the MAC.  They are experienced, play strong defense, protect home court, and are stone-cold when it comes to winning games.  This will obviously be a tough assignment for a Falcon team that has yet to play well on the road.  On the other hand, perhaps the OU game showed the Falcons what they could do and the Akron game pissed them off a little, and they can bring something we believe is in there but we haven't seen yet.

Hard as it would be, a win here would be huge.  It is like gaining a game on virtually every team that plays at Kent this year.