Two struggling perennial Mid-American Conference powers are scheduled to collide Friday night at the M.A.C. Center when defending MAC Tournament champion Kent State hosts Ohio at 7 p.m. The contest will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
The Golden Flashes (7-9, 1-2 MAC) and Bobcats (8-7, 1-2), who have dominated the MAC for most of the past two-plus decades along with another scuffling juggernaut in Akron (7-8, 0-3), find themselves fighting to merely stay in the mix during the early stages of the 2017-18 league campaign.
"Ohio's in a little bit of the same boat as us. In a lot of ways our backs are both against the wall," said KSU coach Rob Senderoff. "They lost a home game in league to a good team (Ball State on Tuesday). It's an unforgiving league, and you've got to bring it every night and play well to win. I thought they played hard (against Ball State) and had their opportunities."
While the Bobcats were falling 75-68 at home to the Cardinals (11-5, 2-1) on Tuesday, the Flashes were attempting to dig themselves out of a crater in Oxford. Kent State trailed Miami (9-7, 2-1) by 29 in the first half, rallied to within seven in the closing minutes, but ultimately suffered an 80-69 setback.
"We obviously had a horrible start to the game, but we were down a ton (23) at halftime and our guys kept fighting and competing. That's all you're really asking for," said Senderoff. "I thought we really competed in the second half. I'm going to look at it from that perspective. Obviously you want to win, you want great execution, but most importantly you want to see some competitiveness. I thought in the second half we showed resiliency and competitiveness."
Kent State forged its comeback without junior guard Jaylin Walker, the team's leading scorer (17.3 points per game). Walker scored five points in the first half, but did not see action in the second half.
Senderoff would not directly address Walker's status heading into Friday night's contest.
"We just (had a shooting session on Wednesday), and we haven't practiced yet today," said Senderoff Thursday morning. "We're just going to go with the guys who are going to compete the hardest and lay it out there for their teammates."
When Kent State and Ohio last met, Walker hit a runner in the closing seconds to give the Flashes a 68-66 victory over the Bobcats in the MAC Tournament semifinals. Both squads have a long way to go to make the matchup possible once again this March.
Kent State is under .500 in January for the first time since 2009. The Flashes have not won more than two straight games since starting the season 3-0, while the Bobcats have not forged a winning streak of more than two games in 2017-18.
"We're playing a good team who is in a similar boat as us, and we'll need to compete at a high level to have a chance to win," said Senderoff. "Ohio will come in here hungry. They have a senior who is playing at an elite level in (6-foot-5 guard) Mike Laster, and they have one of the best freshmen in the league at the point guard spot (Teyvion Kirk). They have some other experienced players in (swingman Gavin) Block, (guard Jordan) Dartis and (forward Doug) Taylor, juniors who have been good players in this league for a number of years. They're going to come in with their backs against the wall just like ours are, and they're going to play hard. We're going to need to play hard and play well to have a chance to win."
Kent State has earned its most impressive wins of the season in its last two outings at home, defeating Oregon State (10-5) and Central Michigan (12-4). Meanwhile, Ohio has dropped all three true road games it has played this season.
"We played our last two games with a lot of energy here at home, and we'll need that (Friday) for sure," said Senderoff. "All league games are equally important, but you want to play well at home and you want to play well coming off a loss."