Freeman cold, playing poor defense, needs to sit for a bit.

10-23 3s for KSU. Too hot

Freeman now has 5 turnovers. Not good

Adams shooting an air ball wide opened from the 3???

Game over. Was a winnable game. 

Game was definitely winnable.  So many unforced errors and bad decision making on the Court.  Otherwise, Kent State did not look like the superior team.

There were plenty of mental mistakes and blown defensive assignments, but ultimately that may be a game where we can say our lack of three point shooting made the difference.  Stats were pretty even, except they shot 10-23 for on three and we shot 6-20.

Really starting to enjoy reading these game threads instead of watching the actual games.
Educational and strangely habit forming.

I thought that might make more sense,but announcer said 5th place.
He was better than most,considering he may have been an unpaid intern and did it all by himself.

(Thanks FQ! Great scouting on the Kent St team this year so far. Some of the content I write is from the offseason so at times teams are prone to changing a bit of their style from what I write. Seems like some injuries down low for Kent State changed things.)

The main positive is the team did not quit despite going down double digits several times during the game. The team is looking better than they did during the California trip.

Unfortunately, it's pretty much a broken record when it comes to the team this year:

1) Streaky shooting. Kent State has multiple guards that can shoot somewhat reliably from distance. There is no one on our team that can hit threes reliably. This is especially a problem when we are trying to mount a comeback after getting down in the game early. There is no apparent fix for this, which is unfortunate.

Is Brendan Adams just Maceo Jack with better defense and worse shooting? Maybe it is something about his shooting motion that made me think of that comparison. His threes whether open or contested are not even close to going in many times. Some airballs and a lot of shots that hit the side rim. Adams tends to overshoot his threes. He did lead the team in rebounding in the contest.

2) Lack of passing. The team seemed to hit the panic button for a good part of the second half. Absolutely no passing in the halfcourt after haltime. Thankfully, our guards were able to get downhill and were a step faster than some of their guys. This was yet another game where the opposition displayed how a team should pass on offense. All their guys moving during their sets, and consistently finding the open man late in the shot clock. Their team made us guard for long periods of the shot clock. Offensively, we seemed to slow things down, but it hasn't improved our shot quality in any way. Unless we are able to get good looks late in the shot clock, this team is better served playing a bit faster.

3) Bench production. Outside of Brayon/Hunter, pretty much nothing from others. Need to find ways to get Amir and Qwanzi going. The two have played 24 minutes combined in the two games in Naples. Their combined statlines in those two games: 0 points, 0 attempts from the field, 2 rebounds, and 3 fouls.

Defense was very poor today. Thankfully, Kent State missed their bigs down low a few times because they were wide open on some plays but weren't able to pass to them properly. We lost Santiago and Carry on threes constantly all game. The most frustrating thing was the fact that we went under their screens at the top of the key leaving either guard (usually Carry) wide open from distance. It happened several times and we got burned multiple times. Also made me wish we set some screens for our guards to at least get them better looks.

The constant switching on defense did not work late in the game. Noel was forced to guard Carry multiple times which is a matchup I think we'd lose more often than not.

Rebounding (and fouling) have improved, but we lost out on a couple of possessions where we were unable to secure the ball underneath and it slipped out of our hands. Would have loved to have those back. I think a shot clock violation saved an additional possible lost ball out of bounds.

Bishop has played well in Florida, and Hunter has shown great energy since coming back from injury. It looks like Brayon is a player too despite a few freshman-like turnovers where he tried to do too much in traffic.

Bamisile was seen signing a basketball for a kid after the game. That was a cool moment.

Don't think Ricky played after halftime. Hope he's okay. I thought he was key to us moving the ball well in the Wright State game.