General Avery
12/13/2018 12:05:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Fourth-year floor leader has Flashes firing at will
General Avery      Â
Fourth-year floor leader has Flashes firing at will
By Ty Linder
In all of NCAA Division I basketball, there are certainly faster, stronger and more athletic players than Kent State's Jalen Avery.
But no one works harder than the KSU senior.
As the veteran point guard of the red-hot Golden Flashes (Kent State is in the midst of an early-season six-game winning streak), Avery is preparing to lead his team into battle this weekend at 7-3 Louisville. U of L's downtown arena is within 100 miles of Avery's hometown of Covington, Ky., and the visiting team pass list reflects it.
"I have probably 40 people coming," he admits. A small army, in a way. And Avery credits many of the individuals in that army for shaping him into the well-spoken and eloquent young man he is today.
"My parents did an amazing job raising me," he says. "But it was everyone, my grandparents, my coaches, my brothers. There have been a bunch of people who have shaped me into the person I am today."
That person he is today is a fourth-year guard who makes up half of 8-1 Kent State's backcourt. A person who averages 15 points and better than four assists per game. A person who has a sparkling 38:8 assist-to-turnover ratio. And a person who, at the time of our meeting, was just as concerned with end-of-semester final exams as he was the Cardinals.
"He's just a great example of what hard work and commitment to yourself and your team can do," his head coach Rob Senderoff explains. "He is a self-made player."
A year ago, Avery earned an award from the NCAA – a statistical championship. His 121 assists to just 24 (!) turnovers worked out to an assist-to-turnover ratio of 5.04 – easily the best on the planet. He started each of Kent State's 34 games as the Flashes reached the conference tournament semi-finals. The year before, Avery and his roommate helped take KSU to the promised land.
A MAGICAL RUN WITH A ROOMMATE
Since the time Avery and fellow senior guard Jaylin Walker stepped on campus together, they've been roommates. Not just on campus but also on trips to one-tank destinations like DeKalb, Ypsilanti and Kalamazoo. And when you spend time in those places with someone, you get to know them pretty well.
"That's my brother. He plays with a different type of passion and different type of fire," Avery says of KSU's leading scorer. "I've never seen anyone play with that type of fire in them night in and night out – even in practice."
With the numbers Walker has put up in just four games this year (24.5 points per game and a smoking 51 percent from beyond the arc), it's no wonder Avery is constantly looking to get him the ball. And he'll likely be looking extra hard in the next two games – Walker is averaging 24 points a game in his last four match-ups against so-called "Power Five" opponents. Kent is 3-1 in those games.
"Regardless of what the score is or who we're playing against, I know when I look across the court I have a warrior next to me," Avery says.
And while former KSU big man Jimmy Hall receives most of the credit for Kent State's magical run to the 2017 Mid-American Conference title and NCAA Tournament, it was Avery and Walker who had huge hands in it as well. Avery found another gear at halftime of that post-season's opener, when Kent State trailed 11th-seeded Central Michigan 53-40.
"We believed we could still win," Avery recalls. "We were rolling at that point in the year so we still believed."
Avery's faith was put on full display in the second half and overtime against the Chips. He and Walker combined for 25 second-half points and then Avery ripped off three three-pointers in a row and added seven free throws for a total of 16 points in the five-minute OT. Kent State rallied from 17 down to win 116-106.
"That was a big confidence booster for me," he says. "That told me I could play well at the division one level. I showed I could lead the team."
The magic continued later in the week when Walker raced down the floor to beat OU at the horn in the tournament semi-finals. A day earlier, Kent State bounced Buffalo in the quarters, 68-65. And while Avery only had four points, his lockdown defense (he is constantly assigned the opponent's best player) was critical – he held UB's C.J. Massinburg to a 2-11 performance. Walker then capped the week by dropping 30 against rival Akron to send KSU to its first dance since 2008.
A COACH ON THE FLOOR
It's cliché, and every college basketball coach seems to say it if he has a veteran point guard, but Avery might truly be the closest thing to a player-coach as there is in the game.
In late November, Avery was having a rough game at Bob Calihan Hall in Detroit. He was in the middle of an 0-9 performance and the Flashes had surrendered a big lead to the young Titans. KSU eventually fell behind by eight, 70-62 with 96 seconds left. The win probability was as slim as mathematically possible.
Undeterred, Avery kept plugging away. He refused to let the off-shooting night affect the rest of his game. He continued to find hometown hero Jaylin Walker, who scorched the nets for 36 points in front of his local crowd. But it was a play call – a designed action drawn up during practice that morning that finally tipped the scales – and the arithmetic – in KSU's favor.
"We put something in during that morning's shoot-around just in case were down late," Senderoff says. "It's a similar play to what Villanova ran to win the national championship where you get a good look at a three off a missed free throw. JA told the group that's what we were running without me even calling it."
Kent State 76, Detroit 72. 11-0 run to end game. Win probability: 100 percent.
Avery's leadership qualities have always been present – not just now that he's a senior.
"I haven't taken on more of a leadership role because I've always considered myself a leader," he says. "I think it shows more now because I'm playing more but I've always been vocal, even when I wasn't playing as much."
And like every student-athlete making the transition from high school basketball to DI, there was adversity; there were growing pains.
"When you aren't playing or producing the way you think you should, there's a lot of people in your ear," Avery says. "But I don't run when things get bad. I was one of the top players in my area so I naturally thought I'd come right in and play. It was a shock to come in and play against better players. You just have to stay in the gym longer and put up more shots than those guys."
LOFTY GOALS
With conference and division foe Buffalo in the AP Top 25, Avery thinks cracking that same list is a goal worthy of his Flashes. Last year KSU and UB played three highly competitive games, and the Bulls could be going for their fifth straight MAC Tournament title if not for KSU two years ago. The two teams will meet Jan. 25 in Kent and a month later in New York.
"I've never won a MAC regular season championship," Avery notes, another goal in mind. "That's one of my main goals, along with a tournament championship."
The next two games will serve as a decent barometer for the surging Flashes, visiting UL on Saturday and then making a West Coast trip next week for the rubber match of a three-game series with Oregon State. With a 77-75 win over a P5 opponent in front of nearly 10,000 already on the resume, don't expect the road environment to get the best of the Golden Flashes.
Heck, with a pass list bursting at the seams with Avery supporters, maybe it won't even be much of a road game.
