We’re witnessing a golden era for Kent State, Akron basketball | Along The Way

Wouldn’t you know it? Kent State, seeded No. 13, had to play No. 4 seeded Indiana in the NCAA tournament in Albany, New York, Friday evening.

That eliminated any advantage of surprise that might have helped Kent State because these two teams are no strangers.

Back in 2001, the Kent State Golden Flashes upset the Indiana Hoosiers early in the NCAA tournament. Indiana, the following year, exacted revenge by eliminating Kent State’s great 2002 team in an Elite Eight contest in the NCAA tournament.

Additionally, from 2006 to 2008, KSU Head Coach Rob Senderoff worked as an assistant coach for Indiana.

The deadline for these Sunday columns eliminates any possibility of reporting Friday night’s outcome in Albany, but it is heartening to remember the Flashes have been a Mid-American Conference basketball powerhouse ever since retired Athletic Director Laing Kennedy in 1996 hired the great Gary Waters as head basketball coach.

Waters coached the Flashes to the top of the conference in 1999 and for the first time ever into the coveted NCAA tournament.

Paralleling Kent State’s rise as a basketball power have been improvements with the Akron Zips.  It has been a golden era for both teams although their rivalry gets out of hand at times.

That is what occurred a year ago when the Golden Flashes riled up by the Zips' fans over-the-top hostility at Akron’s JAR Arena responded by posting an insulting video that went viral. Conference officials saying the video did not reflect values Kent State or Akron want to project suspended four KSU players for the MAC championship game with Akron. Facing a demoralized Kent State team, Akron easily won that contest and the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament.

This year, the situation improved, Akron winning at home and Kent State also winning at home in the rematch.  During the Friday night MAC tournament semi-finals in Cleveland, both teams maintained proper decorum. Then, Saturday night in the championship match between Kent and Toledo, the Toledo Rockets proved gracious in defeat.

For that game, we were seated with George and Jane Preston Rose in one of the back rows of the lower section, which affords easy court viewing.  Immediately in front of us were Kent State President Todd Diacon and his wife, Moema, and members of the Diacon administration and their spouses, all part of the crowd, enthusiastically cheering the team on. Diacon joined the Flashes on the court of Rocket Mortgage Arena for tournament trophy presentations.

Diacon and Provost Melody Tankersley regularly mix it up with the students and fans.  During the last game of the regular season, Kent was hosting Akron and it was seniors night. Diacon, costumed as Elvis Presley, worked as a mop boy at one end of the court. Tankersley played mop girl at the other end of the court.

Both put mops aside to congratulate the seniors, who were playing their final regular season college game, as well as their parents and loved ones who had been invited for the occasion.

A Hiram encore for General Clark

Having packed Hiram College’s Kennedy Center when he spoke last November about the war in Ukraine, retired General Wesley Clark has been invited to return.  The general will once more speak at Hiram’s Kennedy Center this Tuesday, March 21, at 5 p.m. Also speaking will be Andrew Card, who served as President George Bush’s chief of staff and as his Secretary of Transportation. The two men will debate issues facing the American people in the wake of the midterm elections.

A commentator for CNN, General Clark is a businessman, educator, and writer.  A brilliant man, Clark graduated first in his class at West Point and earned graduate degrees as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. As Supreme Allied Commander Europe, he led NATO forces to victory in Operation Allied Force, a 78-day air campaign, backed by ground invasion planning and a diplomatic process that saved 1.5 million Albanians from ethnic cleansing.  His awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star for leadership while severely wounded in Vietnam, the bronze star and the purple heart.

Card, educated as an engineer, served President George W. Bush as White House chief of staff for nearly six years making his term in that position the second longest in history. Card also served Franklin Pierce University as its president and was provost at Texas A & M University.

The event is free and open to the public.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: We’re witnessing a golden era for Kent State, Akron basketball