Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff from Phog Allen Fieldhouse in Kansas

The Golden Flashes head coach previews the Dec. 30 game with the No. 13 Kansas Jayhawks with a video blog during Kent State's morning shootaround from historic Phog Allen Fieldhouse.

The game will tip-off at 8 p.m. EST and can be head live on WHLO 640 AM and the WHLO iHeart Radio channel. 

Live video will be available on ESPN3.

You can also follow along online with the Kent State Athletics Live Blog.




Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on defense, an OT win at Little Rock, and upcoming three games in four days

The head coach of the Golden Flashes talks defense and the team's overtime victory at Arkansas-Little Rock before looking ahead to a stretch that will see them play three games in four days – home vs. North Carolina A&T on Friday, then against North Dakota State and either UTEP or Alcorn State in El Paso, Tex. for the Sun Bowl Tournament.



We hope to see you at the M.A.C. Center on Friday for the game with North Carolina A&T. Tickets are available now by calling 330-672-2244, or you can order online by clicking the image below:


Saturday, December 13, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff from CLE Airport before flight to Little Rock, AR

From Cleveland Hopkins Airport just before the Golden Flashes boarded their flight to Little Rock, head coach Rob Senderoff discussed the team's week of practice and offered a preview of tomorrow's game at Arkansas-Little Rock.

Sunday's game takes place at 3 p.m. Eastern and 2 p.m. local and can be heard as always on WHLO 640 AM and on iHeart Radio.


Monday, December 8, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on the win at Kennesaw State and heading into finals

Head coach Rob Senderoff takes a look back at the defensive effort vs. Kennesaw State on Saturday before looking ahead to finals week and offering an update on injured point guard Kellon Thomas


Friday, December 5, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on tomorrow's game at Kennesaw State and the injury to Kellon Thomas

The head coach of the Golden Flashes discusses the team's upcoming game at Kennesaw State at noon on Dec. 6 and how the team is handling an injury to Kellon Thomas that could force the point guard to miss an extended period of time.


Monday, December 1, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on a disappointing loss to Loyola and going on the road

Golden Flashes head coach Rob Senderoff discuses how his team will learn from a disappointing home loss to Loyola Chicago as it prepares to go on the road during the next two weeks.


Monday, November 24, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on last week's tournament and the week ahead

Head coach Rob Senderoff reviews a 2-1 weekend in the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic and discusses what is ahead for his Golden Flashes.


Friday, November 21, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on the Men Against Breast Cancer Classic and a look back at Tuesday's home opener vs. Malone

Recorded on Thursday, Golden Flashes Head Coach Rob Senderoff looks ahead to this weekend's Men Against Breast Cancer Classic at the M.A.C. Center vs. Southern Illinois (Friday), Illinois-Chicago (Saturday) and Yale (Sunday), and he discusses the home opener vs. Malone.




Monday, November 17, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on win over Youngstown State and this week's 4-game homestand

Golden Flashes head coach Rob Senderoff reviews the season-opening win at Youngstown State and looks ahead to a four-game home stand this week (Tuesday vs. Malone, Friday vs. Southern Illinois, Saturday vs. Illinois-Chicago, and Sunday vs. Yale.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on game week and preparation for Youngstown State on Saturday

The head coach of the Golden Flashes discusses this week's preparations for the season opener at Youngstown State on Saturday and looks back at the team's open practice on Sunday.


After Saturday's opener, the Golden Flashes begin the home portion of their schedule as part of a doubleheader with Kent State Women's Basketball on Tuesday, November 18.

The women's game with Youngstown State will begin at 5:30 p.m. with the men's game vs. Malone following at 8 p.m.

In addition to our "1 day, 2 games, $6" promotion, Nov. 18 will be "Disney Day" at the M.A.C. Center with one lucky fan being selected to shoot a half-court shot for a chance to win a trip to either Disney World or Disneyland.


Monday, November 3, 2014

Video Blog: Rob Senderoff on Saturday's Scrimmage at St. Bonaventure

The Golden Flashes head coach discusses a weekend of work that included a closed scrimmage at St. Bonaventure.


Monday, October 27, 2014

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Practice continues as Marquiez Lawrence is defensive player of the day 3 days in a row

By Rob Senderoff
Head Coach

We will be practicing today, Tuesday and Wednesday and then we’ll be off on Thursday. It will be the first time we have gone three straight days.

We gave the guys the weekend off, and we are looking forward to getting three straight days in as we get closer to our first game one month from tomorrow on Nov. 15.

I’ve been really pleased so far by the improvement of a lot of our guys. It is amazing the growth we are seeing in our returning players, especially from the guys who are going from their freshman to their sophomore years. 

At the end of every day, all of our coaches watch the film of practice and vote for the defensive player of the day. We have a board up in the locker room to announce who that person is. We’ve had six practices now, and it had been somebody different each of the first three days. But over the last three days, Marquiez Lawrence has won it three straight times. He is leading our team in deflections, rebounding and rebounding percentage, in terms of how often he is going.

I look back at where Marquiez was a year ago and where he is now, and it really makes me realize how much growth guys make in between that freshman and sophomore year. With also see that with junior college players between their junior and senior years. We saw that with Chris Evans a few years back.

We are very excited about the week ahead. We’ll bring in officials on Wednesday when we do some scrimmaging. We are putting some new things in, so our pace is moving a little quicker. We are putting in our out-of-bounds plays, press break, a new series of offensive plays that is something we have done before but new for this year. There is a lot of work to do layering your offense and defense, trying to improve upon A and B before you get to C, but knowing at some point you have to get to C.

Our seniors have done a nice job in practice and everyone else has followed their lead.  I think we have been getting better on a daily basis. There is still a long way to go, though.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

A different look and a different feel to this 2014-15 team

By Bobby Steinburg
Assistant Coach

The first few practices of the 2014-15 season are in the books for the Flashes and as a staff we have been pleased with the team’s competitive effort and willingness to learn.  

While we now have access to our team during the summer, those workouts are limited to 2 hours per week and are primarily individual skill development.  October is the time where much of the focus is with defensive philosophies and putting in our offense.  That being said, mistakes are expected and it can look chaotic at times.  

For the most part, our guys seem to be picking up the concepts quickly.  One thing I really enjoy about this particular team is that through the learning process, even when they make mistakes, they mess up going 110%.  As coaches, that’s all we can ask of them.

This year’s team has a nice blend of veterans and newcomers.  Returning seniors, Kris Brewer, Derek Jackson, and Dev Manley are taking ownership and have been more vocal with their teammates than in the past.  

Khaliq Spicer has made some huge strides and has put on 12-to-15 pounds since last season.  He is stronger, more confident, and playing more physically.  

Kellon Thomas was out with an injury for the last eight weeks, but you wouldn’t know it judging by the first few days of practice.  He looks like he hasn’t missed a beat!  I love the fact that after spending the first 2 years here with his mouth shut, Kellon has become a vocal leader.  

Two newcomers who were not here this summer, Marvin Jones and Craig Brown, made their presence known right away.  Marvin is a lean 6-foot-10 and an explosive athlete who has shown the ability to knock down shots on the perimeter over the first few practices.  Craig Brown, a 6-5 wing transfer from Rutgers, comes to us with a lot of experience.  It looks as though he is going to really help us by providing that strong rugged wing who can get to the basket and finish through contact – a quality we were missing last season but have had in years past with guys like Chris Evans and Chris Singletary.  

All 15 guys have been competing hard and trying to improve, but those guys above are a few of the names that come to mind after the first weekend. 

It’s early but these guys seem to like each other … on and off the floor.  They respect one another and are pushing each other to get better.  

This year's team has a different look and a different feel about it.  In addition to the obvious upgrades in depth, size, and athleticism, there is a sense of pride and positivity with this group that has been the cornerstone to the great Kent State teams of the past.  We have a lot of work to do before we open up at Youngstown State, but we seem to be headed in the right direction. 

Monday, October 6, 2014

Great effort during first weekend of practice, working on defensive fundamentals and transition offense

By Rob Senderoff
Head Coach

Since the last time I blogged we have had two great practices, one Saturday and one Sunday.

On Saturday, we spent a lot of time working on defensive fundamentals and on our transition offense after made baskets and missed baskets. The thing I liked the most about it was the competitiveness of the practice. Obviously, everyone was excited with that being the first day of practice.

The excitement didn’t let up after Saturday. When we came back on Sunday, we brought in some MAC officials and we worked about 90-percent of our time on our transition game, both offense and defense. Having officials allowed us to clean up some fouls, and it also allowed us to play in more game-like conditions.

We will be off today, but we will come back on Tuesday, watching film in the morning and lifting weights prior to practice. We will spend the rest of this week not only working on defense and transition game, but we’ll be able to break things down more this week because we will finally have the M.A.C. Center set up for practice conditions. With the volleyball game on Saturday we only had two baskets available, so this week we’ll get to do much more breakdown stuff throughout the week.

I have been very pleased so far with the work of a lot of our guys. I thought Kris Brewer did a very nice job this weekend of leading the team. It was also great to have Kellon Thomas back in practice. He looked good and more importantly he felt pain free.

I think some of our new guys are trying to pick up the pace of what we do, but certainly we had some guys show some flashes this weekend. To single out a couple of guys, Jimmy Hall and Marvin Jones showed some nice flashes during the two days.

The guy I’m most proud of now in terms of his development is Khaliq Spicer. He looked like a different player. He is much more confident and much more sure of himself, and he is playing that way.

Khaliq Spicer throws down a dunk during a drill on Saturday as Kent State Men's Basketball opened practice 

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Staple drills in today's first day of practice, then refs come in on Sunday

By Rob Senderoff
Head coach

For a number of reasons this weekend is a really exciting time for college basketball coaches and players.

As opposed to having a Midnight Madness-type day of Oct. 15 being the first day of practice, under new NCAA rules coaches are now allowed to practice 30 days out of 42 prior to their first games. With our first game being Nov. 15 at Youngstown State, that allows us to start practicing today. Some teams were allowed to start practicing on Friday because their first game was Nov. 14, which will be the first day of college basketball this year.

We have really been looking forward to today’s practice. Our kids have been excited. Thursday was our last conditioning day. For our five seniors it was their last conditioning day of their college careers, so I know they were very excited about that. With today’s practice, we are looking forward to getting an even better feel for what is in store for our team. We are especially looking forward to seeing how we build as a group.

We are also very excited to have Kellon Thomas rejoining us. He was cleared to do some things this week, including a workout for the first time all year on Thursday. He should be good to go for at least part of today’s practice. That’s a good step for him coming back from injury. We’ll take our time with him getting back. We plan on having a full practice today. We met as a staff on Friday to go over responsibilities in practice for the year. 

For a coach or a player, this is just the best time of the year. This is my 20th year as a coach and my fourth as a head coach, but you still always get excited about the first day. During our meeting with the team this morning at 11:30 a.m., we will talk about what we will accomplish on the floor from 12 to about 2:30 p.m.

Our focus for the most part on Saturday will be a few of our staple drills. We have a 1-on-1 approach drill that we call block-to-elbow. It’s blue vs. gold trying to get the most stops in a three-minute period. Sometimes there are mismatches with a guard matched up with a forward. Sometimes you have a forward trying to guard a center. It’s a competitive drill and it ramps up the intensity level.

We’ll do that drill daily. If you watch us practice 100 times you will see us do block-to-elbow probably 80 times. 

Another drill that is a staple for us is our O-D-O, meaning offense-defense-offense in three trips. You get to work on transition defense, half-court execution, and sometimes you get to work on special situations.

On Sunday, we will have Mid-American Conference officials in for practice. I think it is important to practice with officials so that you eliminate fouls and you reinforce early on what you can and can’t do defensively.

The officials like to come in, too, because it is their preseason as well and it is good for them to get in those reps.


Again, we can’t wait to get started this weekend and then get into full swing next week.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A visit to Cleveland Cavaliers practice, and an emphasis on defending the three in 2014-15

By Rob Senderoff
Head Coach

Yesterday, the whole staff had a chance to go up to Cleveland and watch the Cavaliers practice as they are going through their training camp.

The biggest difference that you see between the Cavs and us is how quickly they have their systems put in offensively and defensively. They already have probably 30 plays or wrinkles to plays. It takes us much longer to get that many wrinkles in. I think it’s due to the amount of basketball these guys play. It’s all they do. It’s their living.

Defensively, the terminology they use and how they guard actions is put in very quickly. They had 17 or 18 guys in practice, and every single guy understands how they are trying to defend things and what their principles are. I’m sure as they continue to get reps and as they practice and play games, they will do a lot of teaching on the fly through game film and through practice. It’s just very impressive how quickly those guys pick everything up.

When you leave there, you see why they are professionals. They study film. They are in there early getting shots. They are in there early working on some offensive things and breakdowns. They are in there early working on some defensive things and breakdowns. They work overtime on the concepts they have. 

We go to watch the Cavaliers practice every year. This year the practice was just a little bit different than what I’ve seen in the past. On the whole, practice is practice at that level. Guys are competing. It is great to see the best players in the profession get to compete like that and to see the best coaches in the profession get to coach.

The biggest difference with Coach Blatt in terms of learning is they do a bunch of dummy drills back to live drills. That’s different than how I’ve seen the other NBA coaches that I’ve watched do things. Sitting their with our assistant coach, DeAndre Haynes, who played overseas, he said that is the way they do it in Europe.

They will start out 5-on-0 dummy, and then go back to 5-on-5 or 3-on-2. It was interesting to see it done like that.

A view of the Cleveland Clinic Courts from the
official website of the Cleveland Cavaliers
There is so much value in the little things you can learn whenever you go to watch a practice like that, go to a clinic or watch a coaching DVD. You may pick up a wrinkle to a drill. You may pick up a concept that might fight your personnel well. You may pick up a side out-of-bounds play. Sometimes it is terminology. 

Two years ago I spent a few days with the defensive coach of the Boston Celtics, Mike Longabardi, who is now with the Phoenix Suns. There is always a thing or two you take from every opportunity like that. I go on our off days to watch other schools practice, whether it is Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Cincinnati or Xavier, just to see what they are doing. We have a good idea of what we are doing, but you may find a small emphasis, a word or a term that helps better describe some you are already doing. 

You always learn something, that’s why you go out like this. There is always a chance to see something you haven’t seen before or something that may help you do a better job of teaching what you already doing.

I spent a lot of time this summer watching film and talking with a former assistant at Weber State who is now in the NBA, Phil Beckner. Weber State has been the best in the country at limiting other teams from shooting threes. That is going to be a big emphasis for us this year when we are playing man-to-man defense, eliminating the other team’s opportunity to shoot threes. If you see us do a good job with that, you will say it is because of some of things we worked on this summer. 

In our locker room, we have changed a couple of our goal charts regarding defending threes. There is a small wrinkle we have added to what we are doing defensively to try to make sure our guys do a good job of limiting opponent’s threes. When you look at the NCAA Tournament, the biggest factor in the “mid-majors” beating the high majors is when the mid-majors get hot from three. 

You can even think back to 2002 when Kent State lost to Indiana, it was because of the number of threes Indiana made in that game. But as a general rule, limiting the other team’s three-point attempts is something that we are going to emphasize this year. With our length inside, we should be able to contest shots on the perimeter a little differently. We have more length this year throughout our roster. 


I have spent a lot of time this offseason studying teams who have guarded the three effectively. 

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Reflecting back on the Hall of Fame Career DeAndre Haynes


By Ty Linder
"Voice of the Golden Flashes"

Hall of Fame Weekend is one of my favorite times of the year at Kent State. Not only is the event usually surrounded by a bevy of great home sporting contests, but it’s always been a pleasure to see former Flashes greats from all different eras back on campus.

I consider myself to be exceptionally fortunate to have the job I do. And I am equally thankful to have had the chance to hone my craft at a pretty young age. When I was an undergraduate at KSU, I had the chance to announce several Golden Flashes men and women’s basketball games on the main radio network. 

When you are in this business, you remember some players and coaches better than others for whatever reason. It’s just the way it is. And I remember one player in particular has always held a special place in my KSU sports memory bank.

DeAndre Haynes had the impossible task of taking over a role vacated by Andrew Mitchell. That would be like someone saying, “We are going to redo ‘Gone With the Wind’ and we need some young unknown actor to take Clark Gable’s place.” And this is all after an Elite Eight run!

But the young sparkplug from the Motor City never disappointed, and despite some occasional growing pains evolved into one of the best all-around players this prestigious program has ever had. And most of the time he did it with his trademark wide smile and fox-like grin he still exhibits today while on the KSU bench.

As a player, Haynes was perhaps the most unselfish teammate I have ever seen. He left KSU as its assists leader, minutes leader and had the honor of becoming the school’s first Mid-American Conference Player of the Year when he helped lead the Flashes to the 2006 MAC title and NCAA Tournament – in his hometown of Detroit. 

My hat – err, headset is off to DeAndre Haynes on his induction into the Varsity K Hall of Fame. It is richly deserved.

Friday, August 1, 2014

8-week summer training comes to an end

Note: Kellon Thomas is a junior on the Kent State men's basketball team and isworked for the Athletics Communication department during the Summer to fulfill a requirement of his Practicum I in Sport Administration course. As part of this course, Kellon wrote a weekly blog to give fans an inside look at how the Golden Flashes are preparing for the 2014-15 season. This is his final entry prior to heading home until the beginning of fall classes at the end of the month.
We completed our eight-week summer program this morning. Coach Bob did a great job with us the entire summer to help everyone become faster, stronger and in playing shape. We started the week by doing 185 on the bench press. We also had done this at the beginning of the summer so they we could see how we progressed over the eight weeks. Everyone got more reps than they did in the beginning of the summer and I feel that we did a really good job in the weight room this summer, which will help us during the season.

We had our final two team practices of the summer on Thursday and Friday morning. Still trying to improve on our offense and defensive strategies, we worked a lot on our basic principles. We are getting much better at it, and will continue to work on it when we come back in the fall. Overall, I think we did a good job with learning and bringing some of the newcomers up to speed on what we want to do.

I think we had a very good summer. We worked hard on our individual goals and areas we wanted to improve, and also got better as a team. I think everyone would agree that we enjoy being around each other and we have a strong bong together on and off the court. As long as we continue to work hard, push each other and all work towards the common goal, then we will have a very successful year.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Weight room yields camaraderie and broken records

Note: Kellon Thomas is a junior on the Kent State men's basketball team and is working for the Athletics Communication department during the Summer to fulfill a requirement of his Practicum I in Sport Administration course. As part of this course, Kellon will be doing a weekly blog to give fans an inside look at how the Golden Flashes are preparing for the 2014-15 season.

Kellon Thomas broke Mike
McKee's power clean record for
Kent State guards this past week.
Our team has now completed seven weeks of summer training, with just one more left. We did testing and maxing out in the weight room this past week, which is different than our usual weight training. Coach Bob spent all summer training to us to get strong, faster and more explosive, and then tested us this week to see our progress.

On Tuesday we did our power clean test, and I broke the program record for guards at 274 pounds. Our director of ops, Mike McKee, was the previous record holder at 270 pounds back in 2009. All of my teammates, Coach Bob, and even Coach McKee, were cheering and motivating me throughout the lift. It was a great feeling after I had completed the lift, and everyone was going crazy and celebrating .Khaliq Spicer, my roommate and probably the teammate I am closest with, lifted me up as if we had won a championship.

It felt good to break the record, but it felt even better that I had the support of my teammates. I like how unselfish we are as a team, and one person’s success excites us all. We have learned to push each other, compete, and be great teammates all in what seems like a short 7 weeks looking back.

Even though it was testing week in the weight room, we still had our two 30-minute individuals and our one-hour team practice. We continued working on some basic concepts we put in to help us for our upcoming year, such as our base offenses, defensive strategies, and ball screen offense and defense.

We worked a lot on post entries and playing out of the post, which I think this will be a bigger emphasis this year. We have great guard play, but we will also have a great presence down low this upcoming season with the addition of guys like Jimmy Hall, Raasean Davis, Blake Vedder and Marvin Jones. I feel like our returning bigs—Khaliq, Chris Ortiz and Marquiez Lawrence— have all shown improvement throughout the summer as well.

The intensity last practice was very good and we were all competing. We have to continue to push ourselves and try to get better each time so that we can be one of the top teams in our league. 

Monday, July 21, 2014

Special guest provides motivation to work harder

Note: Kellon Thomas is a junior on the Kent State men's basketball team and is working for the Athletics Communication department during the Summer to fulfill a requirement of his Practicum I in Sport Administration course. As part of this course, Kellon will be doing a weekly blog to give fans an inside look at how the Golden Flashes are preparing for the 2014-15 season
We finished off week six with some on-court conditioning with Coach Bob. Each week, we do conditioning on Friday and I feel like we get stronger each week as a team. Another one of the new players on our team, Xavier Pollard, got to campus this week for the beginning of a new summer school session. Xavier, who will be redshirting and sitting out this season, participated in this week’s workouts and also played open gym with us this week also. Xavier is a smooth guard that can score and will really help out this team.

Earlier in the week Coach Sendy asked one of his former players and good friends, D.J. White, to come in and speak with our team. D.J. graduated from Indiana and was drafted 29th in the first round back in 2008. He spoke to our team about what it really takes to make it to the NBA and overseas, and also how to apply yourself to get ready.

In between his junior and senior year of college, D.J. went from a second round draft pick or maybe not being drafted at all to a first round draft pick, which guaranteed him about $5.6 million for his rookie contract, along with his Nike contract. D.J. said he lost about twenty pounds during this time, did strength and agility work about three times a week, and basketball workouts twice a day.

Hearing his story first-hand, really lit up the eyes on some of the guys on our team, including myself. We all have aspirations of playing at the next level, so actually hearing what it takes and what we need to change really lit a fire under us.

Coach Sendy challenged our team by getting at least 10,000 shots up on the gun or by ourselves for that entire week by Sunday night. We finished the week with 11,360. I feel that D.J. coming in really helped our team focus more and work harder. I also feel this will continue to help our team work even harder as we try to reach our team goals and individual goals.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Continued emphasis on defense and coming together as a team

Note: Kellon Thomas is a junior on the Kent State men's basketball team and is working for the Athletics Communication department during the Summer to fulfill a requirement of his Practicum I in Sport Administration course. As part of this course, Kellon will be doing a weekly blog to give fans an inside look at how the Golden Flashes are preparing for the 2014-15 season.

 
This week marks week 5 of our 8-week summer program. We started off this week on Monday with an hour team practice. Defense was the main focus for this week, doing some basic shell drill and defensive drills. We also played more in the half court, which let us focus on better executing our offense in the amount of time that was on the shot clock. This team practice was very productive in the sense of everyone is learning and progressing.

Coach Haynes talked to me about coming off ball screens and changing pace and also being able to know my next move. It is always good to talk to Coach Haynes because he really knows the game from the point guard position and he has been a big part of my growth here at Kent State.

All of our on-court skill workouts we done in the beginning of the week because our coaches are currently on the road recruiting at AAU tournaments. We still had our 4 days of lifting this week and then conditioning on Friday. Deputy Athletic Director Devin Crosby joined us in running the hill, which was pretty cool to see him in an environment different than what we’re used to.

I can see our team developing and becoming more of a team just by the way we all bond with each other. We have showed our new guys the Kent State tradition and we have all brought them aboard to trying to reach our goal of winning a championship.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

New month marks halfway point of summer training

Note: Kellon Thomas is a junior on the Kent State men's basketball team and is working for the Athletics Communication department during the Summer to fulfill a requirement of his Practicum I in Sport Administration course. As part of this course, Kellon will be doing a weekly blog to give fans an inside look at how the Golden Flashes are preparing for the 2014-15 season.

This past week marked the halfway point of our eight-week training program. We had our elite camp for high school players Monday night, which went on from about 5-9:20. During this time, some of our guys demonstrated a short 20-minute workout for the campers to see the type of drills and work ethic it takes to play at Kent State.

It was a shortened week with the holiday, but we still had our scheduled individual workouts Tuesday and Thursday, and another one-hour team practice on Wednesday. During this hour, we continued to work on some of our offense and things we need for the season. One of the things we worked on more this week was ballscreens and how we want to defend them. Coach Sendy had us run a drill where you earn points for getting defensive stops, not offensive scores. I like when he does this because it puts our mindset towards getting defensive stops and not worried about offense. One area we have to improve from last year is playing better on defense. We have plenty of scorers and playmakers but playing in a league such as the MAC, you have to win games on the defensive end.

On Thursday, we did another team-building and conditioning event. We had a mini track meet of seven events. Although I do not like conditioning, I like being with my team getting better and knowing that we are all chasing the same goal. Our freshman, Raasean Davis was on my team for the track meet. He is new to this type of work ethic and some might have been questioning him because of his size but he really surprised me how well he ran. He finished every sprint and timed event in the time he was supposed to. We will need him and his size to be successful this season. 

Monday, June 30, 2014

2014 Camp Photos

Chris Evans, Carlton Guyton and Justin Manns were
among the alums who helped out throughout the week.

Justin Greene officiates a game.
Marquiez Lawrence discusses strategy with a camper. 
Kellon Thomas instructs his team to get back on
defense after scoring a basket.
Head coach Rob Senderoff instruct campers.
Kellon Thomas and Jon Fleming coach opposing teams.
Justin Greene officiates a game.

Raasean Davis, Justin Greene and Chris Ortiz
converse between camp sessions.
Darren Goodson stopped by after finishing a workout in
the weight room with the football team. 
Director of Operations Mike McKee demonstrates a ballhandling drill. 
Raasean Davis instructs a camper during a game.
Chris Ortiz shares a laugh with a camper.
Raasean Davis high fives a camper after scoring a basket. 
Gary Akbar watches his team compete in a game.