KENT — The last thing the Kent State men’s basketball team needed was a loss. Especially one at home against a Mid-American conference opponent.
Early in the season, KSU was 7-2 and had the conference’s best record by three wins. The Golden Flashes had gone 4-2 — with one loss each in and out of the conference — since that start heading into a game Tuesday against Western Michigan at the M.A.C Center.
KSU then lost 94-83 on its home court to the 3-12 Broncos — the most points the team has allowed this season. The team did not even allow that many points to No. 1 Auburn and No. 4 Alabama earlier in the season.
The Flashes (11-5, 2-2) fell to fifth in the MAC, with both of its two MAC losses coming at home, heading into their game Saturday — also at home — against Miami.
“I am obviously disappointed in how we played tonight,” Flashes coach Rob Senderoff said. “I have to give Western Michigan a lot of credit. They competed at a high level, and we just, for whatever reason, did not guard the way we wanted to. Quite honestly, we did not compete at the level we needed to.”
What have the Flashes been doing wrong in some of these MAC games?
Looking at recent games, Kent State has not played to the identity it had established earlier in the season.
What is the Kent State men’s basketball team’s identity?
Kent State is priding itself on two things: owning the paint on both sides of the floor and rebounding physically.
Over the last five games, the Flashes were able to play to their strengths in the three wins but not in the two losses.
In the team’s first MAC loss of the season, a 75-67 defeat to Ball State, KSU did not defend at a high rate. Ball State shot over 50% on the road and scored 28 points in the paint.
Kent State had only 22 points but shot remarkably worse (35.8%) throughout the game. BSU also outrebounded Kent State by a large margin (39-26).
Simply put, Ball State beat Kent State at its own game.
More of the same happened against Western Michigan on Tuesday.
The Golden Flashes only accounted for 28 rebounds while WMU grabbed 37. An impressive 14 offensive boards from WMU resulted in 17 second-chance points, which was more than the difference in the final score.
“They offensively rebounded at multiple positions,” Senderoff said. “We fouled when guys drove the ball. We made some plays you just can’t make if you expect to win games in our conference.”
While Kent State scored a serviceable 38 points in the paint, KSU just could not keep the Broncos out of the paint, as WMU outscored the Golden Flashes with 46 paint points of its own.
“We did not protect the paint at all,” Senderoff said. “We did score in the paint, but we didn’t protect the paint. They drove the ball at will — multiple guys got in the paint whenever they wanted to and at multiple positions.”
In its conference wins, Kent State had the advantage in these categories.
Against Northern Illinois on Jan. 7, Kent State won 68-50 with 19 more rebounds than the Huskies and 46 paint points — almost the entirety of the Huskies’ offensive production.
In a 68-49 win over Buffalo on Jan. 10, the Flashes played a similar game, outrebounding Buffalo by 18 and serving up 42 paint points.
The identity and style of Kent State is to play a paint-oriented offense and be physical on the glass.
“If you had asked me after the last two games, I would have said, ‘Yeah, that is what we’re trying to establish,’” Senderoff said on the team’s identity. “We certainly took a major, major step backward tonight. We’re going to have to reestablish that here moving forward.”
What has the season proved about the Kent State men’s basketball team’s identity?
As conference play has suggested so far, Kent State needs to stick to and be efficient at its game plan in order to compete in the MAC.
As for the season as a whole, the story is written quite differently.
Kent State is the MAC’s best defensive team, allowing only 64.4 points per game. That is almost a full six points lower than the next-best team in the conference.
Before the WMU game, Kent State was ranked No. 15 in the nation in points allowed per game, but the loss to Broncos sent that tumbling to a tie for 29th.
KSU is also third in the MAC in total rebounds per game (36.9) while being the second-best offensive rebounding team. The Flashes allow the conference’s fourth-fewest rebounds, giving the team an extra 3.4 rebounds per game.
Although the offensive numbers are not great on paper for the Golden Flashes, the defense continues to excel, allowing the lowest opponent field goal percentage per game in the MAC.
KSU has scored less than 34 paint points only once in the last eight games.
What do these stats suggest? That Kent State is having a minor slide in an otherwise successful season. The defense is playing extremely efficiently, the rebounding is in the positives almost every game and KSU is getting into the paint and scoring reliably in most cases.
Although the early MAC losses may be sounding the alarms, Kent State has time to reestablish its successful identity before late conference games, the MAC Tournament and potentially a national tournament.
“There are some really good offensive teams in this league, and if we’re going to try to outscore all of those teams it is going to be tough for us,” Senderoff said. “We’re going to have to get back to that [identity]. Secondly, we need to draw a line in the sand as far as, ‘You can’t come into the building here and score 94 points.’ There has to be some level of pride among our group.
“The idea of us trying to outscore teams in this league is just not going to happen for us. We’ll look ourselves in the mirror and make the necessary adjustments that teams and players make in order to fix what happened tonight and get back to trying to create that type of identity.”
John Hilber is an Akron Beacon Journal correspondent. You can contact him at jhilber@kent.edu.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kent State men’s basketball team looks to rebound after MAC loss
