Video Blog: Geoff Lanier looks ahead to Wednesday vs. Arkansas State

Assistant coach Geoff Lanier reviews the team's week of practice during finals and looks ahead to the Golden Flashes return to action on Wednesday at 7 p.m. when Arkansas State visits the M.A.C. Center.

This will be the Flashes' first game in 10 days, and its against a difficult opponent that was 3-2 prior to losing back-to-back games at Ohio State (67-52) and Kansas (62-48).

There is some good news for Kent State as 6-foot forward McKenna Stephens is scheduled to play her first game in a Golden Flashes uniform. The transfer from Michigan State, where she played softball, fills a need at power forward as a stretch four. She could see big minutes off the bench right off the bat for Danielle O'Banion's team.

Kent State has also been pleased with the recent play of freshman forward Jordan Korinek, who is coming off of a 13-point game at Cleveland State that saw her shoot 6-of-7 from the field in 20 minutes. Korinek could see increased action after her best game of her young college career.

Video Blog: Geoff Lanier on improving, Sunday at Cleveland State, and heading into finals week

Assistant coach Geoff Lanier talks about improvements he is seeing within the team, players "only making a mistake once", renewing a regional rivalry on Sunday at Cleveland State, and heading into finals week.

Video Blog: Danielle O'Banion on this year's captains and tonight's exhibition with Ohio Christian

Head coach Danielle O'Banion discusses the selection of this year's team captains and explains the goals heading into tonight's exhibition game with Ohio Christian at 7 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center. Admission to the exhibition game is FREE!

Video Blog: Danielle O'Banion on the team's closed scrimmage and the preseason poll

Head coach Danielle O'Banion discusses the team's improvement during practice and a closed scrimmage, and talks about the Golden Flashes' ranking in the preseason poll.

Video Blog: Danielle O'Banion on week 3 of practice and scrimmaging live

In the first of our video blogs, head coach Danielle O'Banion discusses the third week of preseason practice and live scrimmages in preparation for 2014-15 season:

More improvement from young players as week two of practice continues

By Danielle O’Banion

Head Coach

Last week was very good for us because it is important with a younger team to get as many repetitions as possible. That daily contact and those daily repetitions are vital for this group.

During this second week we have started to talk about the importance of establishing consistency, whether that is individual consistency or team consistency. In this phase we are starting to look at particular combinations. 

One of the things we have done intentionally this preseason is spend more time playing five-on-five. That doesn’t mean we have gone away from teaching and breakdowns. But to truly integrate those five freshmen and eight total freshmen and sophomores, we are having more opportunities in a controlled setting to see what people do in the five-on-five venue. It has been a good start to the second week because we have seen our younger players continue to assert themselves in that setting.

Larissa Lurken was our lone outside shotmaker last year. Assistant coach Wyketha Harrell has been working very hard with Larissa and now Madison Ridout, who is one of our freshman, on being ready to shoot it when they catch the ball. That sounds simple, but it is not, especially for Madison, who is making the jump from high school to college. She is realizing that she has to not only hunt shots, meaning find a place on the floor where she can be available, but also catch the ball and be ready to release it. So much of that is footwork.

We are starting to see both Larissa and Madison take and make shots quicker, which is going to be vital as soon as the scouting report gets out. They are making better decisions about being dangerous, which is important. That gives us more balance, which is vital to any team’s success.

We are seeing some real growth in Naddiyah Cross. The hardest position to play as a freshman is point guard. She and senior Mikell Chinn are expected to run our team, and while Naddiyah has good instincts, she now has to try to manage four other people on the team. Some of those she has to manage are older, and Naddiyah is a very respectful young lady and respectful teammate. We are starting to see her take control of the team.

In her high school program, Naddiyah was not relied upon to score very often. It wasn’t what they needed her to do. Centerville had a number of Division I players, including a center who just committed to play at Stanford. Naddiyah’s role was always to distribute the basketball. What we are starting to see here is exactly what we thought during the recruiting process. She is a capable scorer. In the early part of this week, she is really starting to step up in that way. It’s fun to see that she will probably surprise some people by showing she does have three-point range and she does have an ability to hit a pull-up jumper. You just didn’t see it in that high-school setting that was pretty loaded.

There are lots of examples of young players improving. Tyra James keeps getting better and better. She is probably the most natural scorer of our five players because she has such an ability to get to the rim. She also has a great mid-range pull-up, and we are starting to see her take more of those shots. It’s exciting.

Excited to match high effort with high execution as practice gets underway

By Danielle O’Banion

Head Coach

It has been awesome to have our team together for eight quality weeks of training during summer school. That is the longest our team has trained together since we have been here.

We also had a very productive month of September with our players in the preseason. It has been exciting to see the continuity from the summer through the fall, and now in many ways we are ahead of schedule with regards to implementing our system and in particular our defensive system.

We are very excited to now be able to have daily workouts and not be limited to those two hours per week.

This team will have eight freshmen and sophomores. Our juniors and seniors are also still relatively young in the game. Their retention has been very good. Their enthusiasm is extremely high. The effort level is off the charts. Now as we transition into official practices, we are talking about consistently executing. The effort has been unquestionable, but now we need to have that high effort matched by high execution.

Taking a look at our roster, our returning players from the spring have all significantly improved, particularly with their footwork. We spent a good amount of time working with post players Montia Johnson and CiCi Shannon on solidifying their footwork, particularly when they are facing the basket, out on the perimeter, and even while managing double teams. Last season they were a major threat for our offense and they garnered a lot of attention from our opponents. They are much more composed now because they feel like they are in better control. When you crowd them now, they are much more aware of maintaining possession and also finding the best decision they can make.

Krista White and Larissa Lurkin have had tremendous springs and summers in the weight room with our director of strength and conditioning, Bob Lemieux. They look dramatically different from a physical standpoint.

Our newcomers have all had their days and sequences where they have really come on. Lately, you can see Madison Ridout become more and more comfortable. You can see Jordan Korinek and Tyra James really start to emerge. Naddiyah Cross as a little point guard has been a spark plug since day one. She and Mikell Chinn have done a great job of helping each other at getting better at point guard.

Because we have had the summer access and because we have intentionally done some more five-on-five, live drilling this fall, we have had a little sneak peek at some different combinations, and we have been watching our new players and how they are integrating in with our returners. As a coaching staff we are ecstatic, but I think most coaching staffs are ecstatic right now. We are all undefeated. 

It will be interesting to see how many different ways we can play this way based on personnel. That is probably the biggest difference between this team and the other two teams we have had since we have been here. First of all, we have more players, so we have more depth. But we also have a more diverse skill set on our roster, so we will be able to change the way we play. We have more options. We are multidimensional, and we haven’t been that in the past.

We are still going to be an uptempo team. None of that changes. We are starting to look like we intended to look when we first got here. We have enough bodies that are physically capable and have a high enough basketball IQ to maintain this tempo. I think people got a chance to see that later in the season last year. It is exciting now in year three to have a chance to sustain that for an extended period of time. 

Meet the Freshman: Naddiyah Cross

For the next few weeks, we will be giving our fans a look at our five freshman that will join us on the court for the 2014-15 season.  Check back every Wednesday to get to know a little more about each of our new student-athletes.

Naddiyah Cross

Guard - Centerville, Ohio

Why did you choose Kent State?

I chose Kent State because I really enjoy the atmosphere - it's large, I come from a really large high school so I know I didn't want a small school.  I enjoy being able to meet different types of people and there are a lot of different demographics here.  They also have my major, business.  I really love the coaches that we have.

What are you most looking forward to this season?

The idea of playing college basketball.  It's a whole new level so it's a whole different format.  It seems awesome.

What's the biggest strength you think you bring to the team?

Adaption.  I have a lot of leadership and we also have older girls that teach us better things to do and I think I can adapt really well to the different things we'll do on the basketball team.

If you could play one-on-one with anyone, who would it be and why?

Allen Iverson is my favorite player, so on the men's side that's who it would be.  On the girl's side, I'd go against Diana Taurasi, that would be awesome.  Or Jeanette Pohlen.

What is a little-known fact about you?

My favorite animal is a lemur.