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What are they putting in the water @ Kent State?

What are they putting in the water at Kent State? Seriously, this is getting ridiculous guys. Every now and then a school needs a year to rebuild. A school needs a year to retool. Have you heard of a rebuilding year, or what?

It’s becoming obvious that, no, Jim Christian and the Golden Flashes have not heard of a rebuilding year. And what’s more, neither had Stan Heath before him, nor had Gary Waters before him. Last year everybody kind of thought it was a fluke that Kent hit 20 wins for the seventh straight season. Well, maybe not a fluke but Kent State, the closest thing to a dynasty that the parity-to-a-fault Mid-American-Conference has seen in recent years, looked like they were finally on the downswing of their conference domination.

Kent still got to 20 wins, but they had to scramble to do it. The Golden Flashed gained the 5-seed in the MAC Tournament and summarily were knocked out by the eventual tournament champion, Ohio University, in the quarterfinals. The off-season only made the critics louder. Losing Jason Edwin (graduation) was bad enough. Losing Scott Cutley, regarded by many as the heart and soul of the team, really hurt.

Apparently, while Cutley and Edwin were good players, the sum is larger than the parts for the Golden Flashes. It surely hasn’t mattered when coaches leave, or All-MAC performers graduate out, and this season Kent State is just reaffirming what we should have already known. They’re still good!

Sure, Jim Christian tricked us for a while. The Flashes played a lot of players trying to settle on a rotation during out-of-conference play. As a result they lost to some mediocre teams like Delaware State and St. Mary’s. But guess what! The Flashes settled on a pretty solid 9-man rotation and by taking their lumps in out of conference play and learning from them. Kent has since run off 6 wins in a row, putting them at 6-0 atop the MAC Standings along with the Akron Zips.

Don’t look now, but Kent has another group of seniors who are playing excellently in some cases, and at least solidly across the board. Jay Youngblood has come on, taking advantage of his chance to start, to score a team-leading 15.5 points per game. DeAndre Haynes has looked rejuvenated, adding a much needed scoring threat and recording nearly 4 assists per game. Kevin Warzynski has experienced a few more rough spots than anticipated but is still contributing a little over 9 points and 5 boards per game. Most of all Nate Gerwig is still healthy, and he’s been able to play 20 minutes a game for the first time in a long time.

Kent State’s seniors have this program rocking and rolling once again. The Flashes have 12 wins. They have 12 regular season games remaining, not including any MAC Tournament games that they might play. Would anyone bet against Jim Christian’s chances of leading Kent State to another 20-win season? I know a town full of basketball fans in Northeastern Ohio who’d take that bet.

What’s more, even if the Golden Flashes do rack off another 20-win season, after this season Kent State is going to graduate out four players who are arguably the best four players on the team. Next November, a bunch of schmucks like me are going to rank Kent State about fourth or fifth in the East and tab them as a team in need of a classic rebuilding year… again.

Don’t believe the hype. Don’t believe your gut. Don’t believe the prognosticators. Kent State may not win 20 this season, they may not do it again next season, but they’re going to be much better than people think. Maybe it’s Laing Kennedy, maybe it’s the KSU program, maybe it’s that ridiculous chain. I don’t know what it is, but I think my question is as good as any.

What are they putting in the water at Kent State?

By Dan Whitmyer, VanDelaySports.com Head Basketball Writer

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