Indiana heads into the NCAA Tournament against an upset-minded Kent State Golden Flashes team that has already been battle tested in the regular season. The game is Friday night at 9:55 pm ET on TBS in Albany, NY.
Rob Senderoff is in 12th season as the head coach for Kent State. He is both the winningest and longest-tenured coach in program history. He was previously an assistant coach under Kelvin Sampson at Indiana (2006-08) before joining Kent State as an assistant.
Kent State finished the regular season at 28-6 and won 10 of the last 11 games coming into the NCAA Tournament.Coming into the tournament, the Golden Flashes are a team that has been picked by many as an ‘upset favorite’ over Indiana.
Here are some key metrics, stats and trends about the Golden Flashes heading into Friday’s matchup.
Team Metrics:
Seed: 13
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 7
Overall record: 28-6 (15-3 in MAC)
Net Ranking: 59
Kenpom Ranking: 72
Q1 record: 0-3
Winning Streak: W5
Key Players:
G- Sincere Carry (6-1; 180): 17.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 4.9 apg
G- Malique Jacobs (6-4; 190): 13.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 3.6 apg
F- Miryne Thomas (6-8; 200): 10.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 35.3% 3pt
G- Jalen Sullinger (5-10; 170): 8.6 ppg, 42.9% 3pt
Key Stats & Trends:
Three games against NCAA Tournament teams have resulted in three losses, but just by a combined 15 points. Those came against 1-seed Houston, 3-seed Gonzaga and 12-seed Charleston. Kent State had leads late in all three games but was unable to close any of them out in large part due to long scoring droughts to close out the end of the games.
Free-throw shooting hasn’t been a positive stat for the Golden Flashes against the three NCAA Tournament teams it faced this season. Against Houston, Gonzaga and Charleston, those three opponents were a combined 49-of-76 from the line compared to just 21-of-28 for Kent State.
Kent State averages 8.9 steals per game, ranked No. 17 in the country and has a steal rate of 12.3 percent. They force a total of 16 turnovers per game this season. They have had 10+ steals in 13 games this season and forced 20+ turnovers in eight games. Houston had 23 turnovers and Charleston had 17 turnovers.
Kent State ranks 345th in the nation in size so this is a game that Indiana should look to utilize Trayce Jackson-Davis. Not only for his scoring, but his increased passing and playing ability. Look for the Golden Flashes to double-team Jackson-Davis on the touch and make Indiana’s perimeter players make shots. The positive is, if Indiana does in fact take those open 3s and misses, Kent State gives up a 30.2 offensive rebound rate to its opponents, ranked 261st in the country.
Three-point shooting is a major part of Kent State’s game plan. It has had 30 games with 20+ attempts this season and makes 7.9 3s per game. Despite shooting just 33.6 percent from three, the rate at which it attempts 3s makes up for a below average percentage.
Malique Jacobs has been coming on strong over the last nine games. Jacobs is averaging 15.4 points per game and shooting 48 percent from the floor and 42.1 percent from three over that span. He’s scored 18+ points in four different games and been in double-digits in all nine games.
Sincere Carry struggled shooting the ball against the trio of NCAA Tournament teams Kent State faced this year. He was a combined 16-of-60 from the field. 10 of those made field goals came against Charleston when he had 25 points. On the flip side, he was 2-of-22 against Houston.
Follow Hoosier Illustrated on Twitter @Indiana_FRN to stay up to date on all of the news, updates and coverage of University of Indiana athletics.
