A Golden Opportunity

Kent State University is to the Mid-American Conference what Duke is to the ACC, what Kansas is to the BIG 12, and what Kentucky has been to the SEC.

In essence, the Golden Flashes are to MAC basketball what Marshall had been to MAC football, the big fish in the mid-major pond.

On Saturday, as part of the ESPN Bracket Buster, the Golden Flashes (20-3, 13-1 MAC) defeated previously top-25 ranked Creighton University in convincing fashion, 70-55, capturing their MAC-record sixth 20-win season and bringing their overall record since 1998-99 to 142-43.

UB (12-11, 7-7 MAC), is coming off of their own impressive win in the Bracket Buster against Indiana State and will host KSU tonight at 7 p.m. in Alumni Arena in what is hyped to be the most exciting game since Buffalo's affiliation with the MAC.

It was just two weeks ago that the Bulls lost at Kent by a mere four points, (a team whose average margin of victory exceeds 13) proving to be one of the Flashes' more obstinate opponents.

"We went there and lost by four and should have won," said sophomore forward Mario Jordan, who tallied a team high 19 points against Indiana State. "But it was at their place, and any road game in the MAC is pretty difficult, so we have a lot of confidence coming into this (home) game."

For the Golden Flashes, that Feb. 11 victory over UB was just one of 11 they have rolled off since Jan. 14, including 10 straight against conference opponents before Saturday's victory. However, KSU head coach Jim Christian remembers the gutsy performance put forth by UB on KSU's always-boisterous home court.

"They are a team that plays extremely hard and has excellent size," said Christian. "They are a tremendous rebounding team with exceptional shooters. I think Coach Witherspoon and his staff has done an outstanding job."

Nothing short of another outstanding performance will be requisite for a Bulls' upset tonight. The Flashes rank among the top 50 in eight of the 13 statistical categories the NCAA composites, including assists/game (18.0), scoring (76.0), and three-point shooting percentage (40.2).

"They do a good job of playing team basketball," said Turner Battle, Buffalo's junior point guard. "They score a lot of their points off transition, which means they find the open man in transition and off of offensive rebounds that get tipped out. And then they swing it to the open man, and that is how they beat a lot of people...They are great at making that extra pass to find a usually uncontested high percentage shot."

Leading the way for Kent State is seven foot senior center John Edwards, averaging 13.4 points per game. More impressive is his 64 blocked shots on the year, placing him 17th nationally.

In the backcourt is sophomore DeAndre Haynes, the MAC leader in assists per game with 5.6, and his 2.2 steals per game is good for second in the conference, with UB's Battle close behind, ranked fourth with 1.8 a game.

"They are very balanced, and they really play well together," said Witherspoon. "Obviously they are a very unselfish team, but beyond that, they understand each other's strengths and weaknesses and they put each other in positions to be successful. They really do a very good job helping each other be good."

If the season were to end today, UB would be the fifth seed in the MAC and therefore would host 12th-seeded Northern Illinois on March 8. The top three of the 13 teams in the conference would receive first round byes (as of today-Kent State, Western Michigan, Miami of Ohio), and the next five would host the bottom five with four hosting 13, five (Buffalo) hosting 12 (Northern Illinois), and so on.

However, with three conference games remaining after tonight, Witherspoon knows that while a home playoff game would be advantageous, his players still need to follow the age-old sports adage "one game at a time."

"Every time you get a win, the next game is bigger," said Witherspoon. "I think it (a home game) would be important, but our mindset has got to be about Wednesday than on Monday, March eighth. We got to take every game one game at a time, and certainly Kent State is a game we won't have to be concerned at all about looking past because of the success that they've had."

Fans aren't looking past it either, but instead looking forward to it. Never have the Bulls been over .500 this late in the season since joining the MAC conference, and never have they had a home MAC playoff game.

It also could be a fair assessment that tonight's game, and every game hereafter, will be the biggest of Witherspoon's young UB career, because of the talent and potential this team appears to have.

The "Sea of Blue" should be in full force for tonight's 7 p.m. tip off, with a season-high for attendance being a distinct possibility.

"Seeing the 'Sea of Blue' would really mean a lot to us," said freshman center Yassin Idbihi. "It would give us extra adrenaline and extra power. All I can promise to everyone that comes is that it is going to be a real good game."