3/10/2004

Connecting the pieces

Women have found a way to put their season-long puzzle together

Matt Peters
Daily Kent Stater

At the beginning of the Kent State women’s basketball season, the focus was on one unusual set of statistics.

The talk was not about a returning 20-point scorer or even a starting lineup averaging double figures. It was quite the opposite.

The set of statistics that was the focus read like a laundry list of inexperience. The composition of the 2003-2004 Flashes goes like this:

n Three players who had not played a game in 19 months.

n Five players who had never played against a Division I team.

n Four freshman.

n Three sophomores with limited experience from the previous season.

n One returning starter.

Sophomore forward Lindsay Shearer was the Flashes’ only returning starter from a senior-led squad in 2003. Gone were graduating seniors Katalin Kollat, Morgan O’Hara, Jamie Rubis and Valerie Zona and their collective average of nearly 47 points per game.

It didn’t exactly sound like a recipe for success, but Kent State eventually found a way to put it together by season’s end. The Flashes finished the season on an eight-game winning streak and defeated the Mid-American Conference’s top team, Miami, in their regular season finale.

“Do I think it is normal (for a team to come together with so many new players)?” associate head coach Lori Bodnar said. “No. Do I think they did a good job at coming together? Yes. They knew how good they could be.”

“We knew that it was in us,” junior center Andrea Csaszar said. Csaszar was redshirted last season because of an ACL tear. “We just had to find a way to put it together and show it. We are in a better situation in a way that we didn’t play as well at the beginning of the season, but now we are playing so much better. This is the important time. This is tournament time, and this is when you want to play your best basketball.”

Adjustments

With so many different components to the team, making adjustments was key as the season went on.

“I thought we were going to be good. I just think we were a young team,” sophomore guard Malika Willoughby said. Willoughby sat out last season because of transfer regulations. “I’m new coming onto the team playing, Melissa (DeGrate) is new coming onto the team and Heather (Harris) is new. I just think we needed to get that vibe and start playing with each other. That’s it.”

Because the team included five players who had never attended Kent State before fall semester, new players also had an adjustment to make when getting used to Kent.

“It’s just like going anywhere,” said Harris, who came to Kent State in 2002 after playing two years at Youngstown State. Harris also sat out last season because of transfer regulations.

“You have to learn your way around. You have to learn how to handle time management. You have to do what’s best, and you are representing your university.”

Chemistry did not come easily for the Flashes. Kent State coach Bob Lindsay said a large part of chemistry is a team’s ability to trust each other, something the Flashes would develop as the season went on.

“I think it took them a while to trust each other as players,” Lindsay said. “Any successful team trusts each other. They look at each other in the locker room and know one’s going to play as hard they can and the other one is going to play as hard as they can. They are going to do what they can do to help you win games.”

To go along with the chemistry the Flashes formed during the course of the season, Lindsay said they developed into an unselfish team.

“I think they want to win the tournament championship,” Lindsay said. “I think that’s important to them. I don’t think they care about the individual stuff anywhere close to as much as winning and being successful.”

The turnaround

While the Flashes emerged from a tough non-conference schedule with a 7-4 record, they still had issues with inconsistency. On many nights, the Flashes were dependent on one or two players to carry their scoring load.

Kent State struggled through parts of its first eight conference games with a 4-4 record. Each of the Flashes’ four losses came on the road against Marshall, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan.

One of the Flashes’ lower points came at a 56-55 loss to Northern Illinois Jan. 24. Despite entering the second half with a 13-point lead, the Flashes found a way to lose in the final seconds of the game. After the game, DeGrate questioned the intensity of her teammates.

“Sometimes I don’t know where this team is at,” DeGrate said in January. “In the first half we had the intensity to go out on defense and work hard. In the second half our minds were saying, ‘Let’s go,’ but our bodies were saying, ‘Don’t go.’

“I don’t think our team right now has any consistency,” she said. “I don’t think we are a team that is comfortable playing together. A lot of it is mental. Most of the time we do play, it is one half or the other.”

Then a series of coaching interventions by Lindsay seemed to change the Flashes’ fortunes for the rest of the season.

With nine games left in the season, Lindsay posed a challenge to his team. He said the Flashes had to win seven of their final nine games in order to earn a higher seed and possibly a bye in the conference tournament.

“When you say nine games left, you forget everything else,” senior forward Christi Shibata said. “OK, this is our goal for these nine games. This is what we can do something about. Forget about the other ones that we’ve got and go from there.”

The Flashes were one game into what would become their season-ending eight-game winning streak when Lindsay wrote the number 29 on a board in the locker room and circled it during a team meeting Feb. 9. Lindsay asked the team what the significance of the number was. Eventually he told the Flashes 29 was the number of points that separated them from their then record of 12-8 and being 18-2.

Bodnar said it was a turning point in the season because the Flashes realized how close they were to being a successful team.

“They were tired of losing games like that,” Bodnar said. “They got it together, and they refused to lose. Now they will do anything it takes to win a ball game.”

The moves seemed to pay off because at the same time the Flashes began dominating teams with their defense and winning on the road. The Flashes earned their first conference road win against Buffalo 85-66 Feb. 11. Sophomore guard Tiffany Kelly said the win was another turning point for the team.

“We always try hard,” Kelly said. “We’re always playing hard and everything, but sometimes I think it’s in the back of our minds that we haven’t won on the road yet. Just by getting that win, it helped us.”

Multifaceted contributions

By the time Kent State embarked on its season-ending eight-game winning streak the Flashes were getting contributions from throughout the roster. Previously they were often led by one or two players, but in six of the final seven games, the Flashes had four or more players score in double figures. Players who weren’t scoring were helping out by grabbing loose balls, getting assists or giving the Flashes a spark off the bench.

DeGrate said once the Flashes realized everyone had something special to contribute, they became a better team.

“Honestly, I knew we were good and I knew we had the talent. I just never knew when it was going to come,” DeGrate said. “We weren’t clicking at the beginning, but now I think it’s all coming, and we all realize what each other can do. Everybody has something special about them that they can do well. I think we are finally coming around and seeing what that special something is.”

Final Act

During the final month of the season, Kent State evolved into a dominate force in the MAC. The Flashes went from a collection of pieces to a team during their season-ending eight-game winning streak.

The Flashes’ next challenge will come against Marshall at 7:30 p.m. at Cleveland’s Gund Arena in a quarterfinal matchup.

“I told someone earlier that I really like this team,” Lindsay said. “When we were losing some games early everyone was (questioning), ‘Was he just saying what he was saying?’ I like this team, and I’ve liked them from the start. We find ways to win, we found ways to get better, and we play through some adversity. These kids have a lot to be proud of. How many teams in this league have returned one starter and won (19) games? Which team in this league returned one starter and won (19) games right now? Just name which one that is.”

E-mail: mpeters@kent.edu