Kent State Announces 2003-04 Men's Basketball Schedule
9/4/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Golden Flashes, who won their third consecutive Mid-American Conference East Division title and advanced to a national postseason tournament for the fifth straight time last year, follow the season opener with three consecutive road games, at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) Nov. 25 and Southwest Missouri State University Nov. 29 before opening the Mid-American Conference schedule Dec. 2 at Eastern Michigan University. Kent State then returns to the M.A.C. Center for back-to-back home games against Rhode Island Dec. 14 and Cleveland State University Dec. 17, before playing at Boston College Dec. 20. The Golden Flashes take part in the Rock-N-Roll Shootout at Gund Arena against St. Bonaventure University Dec. 27, before playing Dec. 30 at the University of Detroit.
Kent State's final regular-season non-conference game will be Feb. 21 when it hosts a game in ESPN's Bracket Buster Saturday for the second straight season. The opponent for that game will be announced a few weeks prior to the game. Last season in the Bracket Buster Kent State lost a one-point game to the University of Hawai'i 79-78 before a sellout M.A.C. Center crowd of 6,327 and a national television audience on ESPN2.
The Flashes start the home conference schedule Jan. 3 against Ball State University. Kent State plays the MAC East teams and West Division opponent Bowling Green State University twice. Local-rival University of Akron visits the M.A.C. Center Jan. 31, while the Golden Flashes travel to J.A.R. Arena Feb. 29. The Flashes take on defending MAC champion Central Michigan University Feb. 7 and will close the regular season March 6 at Ohio University.
"We believe we have put together another solid non-conference schedule with top-quality opponents home and away," said Christian. "We have a number of postseason teams on the schedule and we want to continue to play a strong schedule to prepare us for the demanding MAC schedule."
For the fourth consecutive year, the MAC Tournament will be held at Gund Arena in Cleveland. All 13 teams are included in the tournament, with first round games March 8 at campus sites. The quarterfinals through the championship game will be March 11-13 at Gund Arena.
The Golden Flashes have three starters and eight letterwinners back from last year's team that was 22-9 overall and 12-6 in conference play. KSU is searching for a MAC-record sixth straight 20-win season, a sixth consecutive postseason tournament berth and is looking to extend its own conference record with a fourth straight MAC East Division crown.
Click here to view the entire 2003-04 schedule
