KSU taps Ford to take over
Posted April 1st, 2008 by mrasor
Men’s basketball
Kent State will tap current assistant Geno Ford to become its next head coach, the Associated Press reports.
As a former diminutive shooting guard at Ohio University, Ford knows the MAC. He will have plenty of talent next season, which should alleviate the acclimation process.
The question for me is: Will Ford continue to bring in quality junior college players, or will he rebuild with high school athletes?
- A note…
Ohio State and UMass will face off in the NIT Finals on Thursday. The Minutemen’s march to the finals shows Akron faced a red-hot team on its own floor and still should have won.
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:26 am
Mike,
You and others continue to make inaccurate statements that make it appear as if most KSU players are JUCO’s and that is not the case. MOST of KSU’s BB players on the rosters under Jim Christian were recruited to Kent as 4 year players out of high school. Christian “supplemented” the roster with JUCO’s and transfers. Lets look at the last 4 years rosters as an example;
2004 -Matt Jakeway (transfer from Austin Peay) & Jason Edwin (transfer from St Louis). There were NO JUCO’s.
2005 - Kevin Warzynski (transfer from Charleston, SC), Jay Youngblood (JUCO) & Jason Edwin
2006 - Omni Smith (JUCO), Jay Youngblood & Kevin Warzynski
2007 - Hamin Quaintance (transfer from Jacksonvile) & Omni Smith
2008 - Al Fisher (JUCO one year but originally played at Sienna), Rashad Woods (JUCO one year but originally played at DePaul, Gabe Garcia (JUCO) & Hamin Quaintance.
Let’s recap. Out of a total of 52 players on KSU’s roster the past 4 seasons;
* True JUCO’s - total of only 3 traditional JUCO players …Jay Youngblood, Omni Smith & Gabe Garica
* JUCO / Transfers - total of only 2…Fisher & Woods
* Transfers - Total of 4…Jakeway, Edwin, Warzynski & Quaintance
That’s a total of only 9 players out of 36 (25%). What’s more, of the 6 players that have exhausted their eligibility, 6 have gradutated (only Edwin has not graduated to date. Quanitance will do so in May).
KSU is not to be confused with a former Cincinnatti program ran by Bob Huggins where about 50% of the players were true JUCO’s and where very few ever graduated. Even if you add KSU’s true JUCO’s with their JUCO / Transfers, this totals only 5 JUCO players over the past 4 seasons. Quite a bit different from the picture you often paint in your blog.
Look at the record: Christian has won big at KSU and has graduated the vast majority of his players. These are the facts.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:13 am
I may be in the minority given the state loyalties, but I’ll be rooting for UMass to win and by more than 5 points. That can only make the Zips program look a little better. I’d love for UMass to win the title and then when reflecting back on the tournament say that their toughest game was against Akron on their own home court.
If nothing else seeing UMass win, knowing you should have beaten them, can only serve as a confidence boost to the returning players for next season.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:26 am
Ford Fears The Roo!
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:29 am
GJGood,
I am tired of repeating this but here you go one more time:
When we’re in a state competition, and the state of ohio is playing the state of Massassuchets, i will have state loyalties and root for Ohio the state.
But as long as the team exclusively representing the ohio state university is playing the team exclusively representing the university of Massachussets, there is no state loyalty and my only loyalty goes toward my university.
So yeah, no one has to feel guilty rooting against tOSU
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:32 am
To Blain Kisling:
You remind me of a stand up comedian i saw the other day on Comedy central…
In his act he goes:” I don’t know why people don’t take me seriously and call me a liar, after all i only lie 20% of the times. So if you think about it, 80% of what i say is true.”
When we say JUCO, that includes transfers and every non traditional HS recruit. Having one or more of those in every class you bring is not a normal thing.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
So, what….you folks hold yourself on some sort of higher moral ground because your coach “refuses” (cough, cough) to go after JUCO’s? I’m sorry, Christian & Company seems to do what needs to be done to fill in the holes and get the job done, and it’s worked for quite a lot of years. What have you guys got to show for your higher moral ground? You beat Kent 3 times last year?? (We’ll call that the “blind squirrel” year.) PLEASE.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 pm
I’m most definitely pulling for UMass! It’s not the state of Ohio vs. the state of Massachusets. It is a university from Columbus vs. a university from Amherst. (In spite of what the marketing department from the university in Columbus wishes we would believe.) Our university - the university of AKRON - played the university in Amherst, so I’m going to be cheering for them. Besides, it’s increasingly aggravating that people from Akron cheer for the university in Columbus. And if you put it that way it truly does seem absurd. When the university in Columbus starts bringing money, jobs and economic development to the Akron area, then perhaps I’ll have some loyalty to them. Until then, screw the university in Columbus; go university in Amherst and go university of Akron!
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Hey Sami Says,
A JUCO (Junior College…think 2 year school you) has nothing to do with a student that TRANSFER from one 4 year University to another 4 year University.
Warzynski, Jakeway and Quaintance are TRANSFERS, not JUCO’s.
Only an uneducated fan would not know the clear difference.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
You can’t tell me Jim Christian wouldn’t have at least gotten an interview with Marquette. Plus, now that the Indiana job is fiilled, the chain reaction of openings begins.
He’d have done much better waiting a few weeks than just bolting for TCU right away.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
To Sami Says,
JUCO’s and transfer player are clearly not the same thing, no matter how you want to spin it…
A JUCO (Junior College) player goes to a 4 year school after having spent 1-2 years at the Junior College. Most JUCO kids don’t qualify academically to play at most 4 year schools when they graduate from HS. That’s why they typically go to a Junior College, to improve thier grades and hopefully meet the 4 year schools academic requirements. Smith & Youngblood were JUCO players for KSU.
Transfers are in fact “traditional” college students having started their careers at a 4 year school but for various reasons (coaching changes most often), decided to “transfer” to another 4 year school. Warzynski, Jakeway and Quaintance are all transfers.
If you don’t understand it by now, I can’t help you…
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Curtis Brown from the football team should try out for the basketball team he was real good in high school. (AKRON)
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
We understand the difference between JUCO and transfer. Thank you for so eloquently describing for us. The point, which was proven above by blain’s post, is that KSU had “only” 25% transfers (we’ll just call them transfers). It is a known tactic of a coach looking to win now and move up immediately because of either a lack of ability to develop quality HS Seniors or simply looking for a way out of town. This was further proven by coach Christian jumping on the TCU offer. Sure, say all you want that he doubled/tripled his salary. He left a traditionally strong mid-major program with an upside to go to struggling, marginally better conference affiliated mid-major with a poor past (1 winning season in last 5). Jim Christian was, and always wanted to be, a band aid. Kent was a stepping stone and he took the first bus out of town after talking openly about it for two years.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I know what a transfer student is and what JUCO is.
You said (adressing Mike Rasor):
“You and others continue to make inaccurate statements that make it appear as if most KSU players are JUCO’s…”
I am one of those “others” in your statement and i am trying to explain to you that “US”, the “others”, when we talk about the JUCOs at kent state, we’re talking about all non traditional HS players. I know that this is not technically 100% correct but that’s what we meant.
The normal way to build a program, a long term one, is to recruit HS kids to play 4 years. They may struggle in the first, get better in their second, you know… the learning process. However, when your main recruits are not HS kids, that means that you’re not willing to develop kids and you just want to win ASAP to pad your resume and move up.
That’s the whole story.
Now please feel free to make another 5-6 posts telling me how uneducated i am and explaining other things to me.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:08 pm
And how has all that recruiting of traditional Ohio high school players worked out for you guys? I think the point we’re trying to make is that the criticism is unwarranted given the results we’ve had over a long term.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:44 pm
That recruiting of traditional Ohio high school players is in fact working out great for us.
If you haven’t noticed, Dambrot took a team that has been sub .500 for as long as i can remember to a 20+ win team for 3 years in a row, and he just finished his 4th season as a Head Coach.
Christian on the other hand, took on an Elite midmajor team for (6 years?) and did not care to improve it because the only thing he cared about was getting a better contract ASAP.
Kent State is still an elite mid-major and they were the better team in the rivalry this year. No question. But saying that our recruiting strategy is not doing us any good tells me that you didn’t follow the MAC 5 years ago and don’t know what Dambrot did.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
To all the Zips fans who bash KSU and our team(s) “full of JUCO’s.” How about these Kent State “traditional HS” recruits over the last 10 years;
Ed Norvell
John Whorton
Kyrem Massey
Trevor Huffman
Andrew Mitchell
Demetric Shaw (oh sorry…this pre-med / bio science 3.9 GPA kid “transfered from Tulane once the coach that recruited him was fired)
Nate Gerwig
Eric Haut
Bryan Bedford (honor student)
John Edwards (honor student)
Deandre Haynes
Armon Gates
Mike Scott
Jordan Mincy
Chris Singleterry
Rod Sherman
Julian Sullinger
KSU’s record these past 10 years isn’t bad for a team stocked with so many JUCO’s that all the guys above had to be just “bit players” in all that winning…
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:11 am
Some of you people waste yopur time on the dumbest arguments. Who cares where the palyers come from, the bottom line is results. Last year Kent beat us 3 time. The year before we beat Kent 3 times. It is a good college rivalry and why not leave it at that.
As for THE OHIO STATE UNIVERVISITY
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:16 am
Some of you people waste your time on the dumbest arguments. Who cares where the palyers come from, the bottom line is results. Last year Kent beat us 3 times. The year before we beat Kent 3 times. It is a good college rivalry and why not leave it at that.
As for THE OHIO STATE UNIVERVSITY, I agree with Rob - screw them. Until they are THE UNIVERSITY IN AKRON I have no use for them or their unknowledgable, blindy loyal fans. GO UMASS!!!!!!
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:27 am
Sami,
I completely agree with your response to my comments. I was only pointing out that I believe I am in the minority. Of course, maybe my preception is skewed a little bit since I live in Licking County and work in downtown Columbus. Here everyone seems to think that OSU should come ahead of any school anywhere (like they are God’s gift to every college sports fan in Ohio) whether you went there or not, second should be other state and Big Ten schools, followed by the rest of the nation except Michigan. Michigan, of course, comes last.
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Kent JUCO’s Fear the Roo!
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Ya know, I’ve gotta finally say this. Maybe I’m showing my age here, but when you say “Fear the Roo” I get an image of Roo, the baby kangaroo in the “Winnie the Pooh” stories. As a Kent fan, I have a hard time working up a good “fear” in either case.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Old man FlashVB Fears the Roo!
April 5th, 2008 at 11:00 am
To RowdyZ, How many mid-major coaches when given the chance to “move up”, move up”? Thank You! Although it is debatable if TCU is moving up. To all the haters out there, the last time I checked it is still within the guidelines to recruit as many JUCO`s as you want,(even though it makes up 25% of your players.) As Akron well knows competing with the only university in Ohio that really matters is nearly impossible. You do what you need to do. By the way, I agree with all Zippyites, it is not a sin to root against OSU. There is nothing better than the Bucknuts getting beat, especially by another Ohio school that doesn`t matter.
April 5th, 2008 at 11:08 am
To Lee O, Beating Akron….. Great, Beating Ohio State……. THE BEST, listening to your only known vocabulary………………………… PRICELESS!!!!!!