Flashes Travel to Southern Utah for Basketball Classic
3/14/2022 3:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball
KENT, Ohio – The Kent State men's basketball team (23-10) will travel to Southern Utah (20-11) on Wednesday to battle for the Willis Reed Trophy as part of the Basketball Classic presented by Eracism.
The Willis Reed Game is one of five games to be participated in the first round of The Basketball Classic presented by Eracism, with the winner receiving a trophy and advancing to the second round of the tournament. The Basketball Classic is a 32-team tournament open to deserving teams not selected to participate in the NCAA tournament or NIT, will debut this March, creating another bracket to follow and giving student-athletes across the country an opportunity to participate in the postseason and compete for a championship.
Formerly known as the CIT, Kent State will make its fifth appearance in the tournament under Head Coach Rob Senderoff. The Flashes are 3-4 in the tournament under Senderoff and made the quarterfinals in 2015.
The Golden Flashes, winners of 14 of their last 15 games, will look to extend their season against the Thunderbirds. Led by the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year, Sincere Carry, and Senderoff, the MAC Coach of the Year, the Golden Flashes rattled off an impressive 14-game win streak and fell just short of the NCAA Tournament. The winning streak is the second-longest in school history and second-longest in the conference since 1960.
Kent State saw numerous records broken this season with Carry recording 10 three-pointers and a career-high 42 points against Ball State. Malique Jacobs recorded the first triple-double in program history in the same game. The duo is just the third pair of teammates in the last 25 years to have a triple-double and score 40+ points in the same game. Coach Senderoff also recorded his seventh 20-win season, moving into first in program history. He also moved in to seventh place in the MAC in total wins (219).
Scouting Southern Utah
Southern Utah finished second in the Big Sky regular season standings but were upset by No. 7 seed Portland State in the opening round of the Big Sky Tournament. The Thunderbirds have back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in program history.
The Thunderbirds are led by all-Big Sky First Team member John Knight III, who averages 14.5 points and 4.1 assists per game for SUU. Knight III also leads the team with 65 steals and shoots 52 percent from the field. The team's leading scorer, Tevian Jones, averages 14.6 points per contest and leads the team with 55 made three-pointers.
Southern Utah was 14-6 in the regular season and used a win over Weber State in the final regular season game to snag the No. 2 seed in the Big Sky Tournament. The Thunderbirds are one win away from their second-highest single season win total in program history.
Follow the Flashes
The Flashes and Thunderbirds can be streamed on ESPN+ with additional radio coverage on the GoFlashes App and Varsity Network.
For all information on the men's basketball team, follow Kent State Men's Basketball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and visit kentstatesports.com for additional updates.
