The 2010–11

Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball The Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball team represents Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, United States. The Golden Flashes compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of the Mid-Ameri ...

team represented

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in As ...

in the college basketball season of 2010–11. The team was coached by

Geno Ford Gene A. "Geno" Ford (born October 11, 1974) is an American college basketball coach and former college and professional basketball player. He is currently the men's head coach for the Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball, Stony Brook Seawolves, ...

and played their home games at the

Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center The Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, often referred to as the MAC Center and the MACC, is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, United States. The building is primarily used as an athletic venue that ...

as members of the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

(MAC) East Division. On March 4, 2011, the team clinched their second-consecutive outright MAC regular season championship by defeating the Akron Zips 79–68 in Kent. It was the first back-to-back regular season titles in the MAC since Miami accomplished the feat in 1991 and 1992 and first back-to-back outright titles since Ball State in 1989 and 1990.

Before the season

Roster changes

Recruiting

Roster

Coaching staff

Schedule

, - !colspan=9, Exhibition , - !colspan=9,

Regular Season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

, - !colspan=9, Mid-American Conference tournament , - !colspan=9, 2011 NIT , - style="background:#f9f9f9;" , colspan=10 , *Non-Conference Game. ^#Rankings from

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

. All times are in

Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

After the season

Comments

Following their overtime loss to Akron in the MAC tournament championship game, the team was seeded 7th in the

2011 National Invitation Tournament The 2011 National Invitation Tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 32 NCAA Division I teams that were not selected to participate in the 2011 NCAA tournament. The 74th annual tournament began March 15 on campus sites ended on March ...

, which they automatically qualified for by winning the MAC regular season championship. They played in

Moraga, California Moraga is a town in Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town is named in honor of Joaquín Moraga, member of the famed Californio family. As of 2020, Moraga had a total population of 16,870 people. Moraga is ...

at 2nd-seeded St. Mary's, and defeated the Gaels 71–70. Kent State next traveled across the country to face 6th-seeded Fairfield, and defeated the Stags in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...

72–68. The win advanced Kent State to the NIT quarterfinals for the first time since

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. In the quarterfinals, they played top-seeded

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, and lost to the Buffaloes 81–74 in

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Color ...

to finish the season with an overall record of 25–12. On March 27,

Bradley University Bradley University is a private university in Peoria, Illinois. Founded in 1897, Bradley University enrolls 5,400 students who are pursuing degrees in more than 100 undergraduate programs and more than 30 graduate programs in five colleges. The ...

announced they had hired Geno Ford to become their next head coach.

Awards

On March 7, 2011, head coach

was named the Coach of the Year in the Mid-American Conference while Junior forward Justin Greene was named the conference Player of the Year. It was Ford's second consecutive Coach of the Year award and marks the eighth time a KSU coach has won the award (Jim McDonald, 1990;

Gary Waters Gary Steven Waters (born August 15, 1951) is an American college basketball coach and the men's basketball former head coach at Cleveland State University. Coaching career Kent State On April 3, 1996 Waters was named the 21st head coach at Kent S ...

, 1999 and 2000;

Stan Heath Stanley Heath III (born December 17, 1964) is an American basketball coach currently serving as the head coach for Eastern Michigan. Heath formerly served as head coach at the University of South Florida, the University of Arkansas and Kent State ...

, 2002; and

Jim Christian James Patrick Christian (born February 6, 1965), known professionally as Jim Christian, is an American college basketball coach (sport), coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Boston College Eagles men's basketball, Boston Colleg ...

, 2006 and 2008). Ford also became the fourth coach in MAC history to win back-to-back Coach of the Year awards and won the award by one vote over Miami's

Charlie Coles Charlie Coles (February 6, 1942 – June 7, 2013) was an American college basketball coach and the former men's basketball head coach at Miami University and Central Michigan University. He was born Charles Leroy Coles in Springfield, Ohio and ...

. Greene was the first KSU player since

Al Fisher Albert Fisher (born September 7, 1986) is an American retired professional basketball guard. He played in college for the Kent State Golden Flashes. He led the team to the 2008 NCAA tournament while averaging 14 points per game. The Mid-America ...

in 2008 to be named Player of the Year and the third Kent State player overall to win the award, joining DeAndre Haynes in 2006. Greene won the award by three votes over Julian Muvunga of Miami and

D. J. Cooper Donell "D. J." Cooper Jr. (born December 6, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for Ironi Ness Ziona of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. After a successful four years of college basketball at Ohio University, Cooper entered ...

of Ohio. On March 8, Kent State players Michael Porrini and Carlton Guyton were honored by the Mid-American Conference as Porrini was named MAC Defensive Player of the Year and Guyton was named MAC Sixth Man of the Year. Porrini was the fourth Kent State player to earn the award and marked the fifth Defensive Player of the Year award for Kent State (Demertic Shaw; 2001 and 2002; John Edwards, 2004; and Haminn Quaintance, 2008). Guyton was the third KSU player to win the Sixth Man award, after Anthony Simpson in 2010 and Kevin Warzynski in 2006.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:2010-11 Kent State Golden Flashes Men's Basketball Team Kent State Golden Flashes men's basketball seasons

Kent State Golden Flashes The Kent State Golden Flashes are the athletic teams that represent Kent State University. The university fields 19 varsity athletic teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level with football competing in ...

Kent State Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in Ash ...