The return of Stan Heath
Look for Kent State to announce a new home-and-home deal that would bring former Flashes men’s basketball coach Stan Heath and his South Florida Bulls to the M.A.C. Center in 2010-11.
The contracts should be signed sometime Tuesday and an official announcement is expected to follow within the week.
KSU has done some maneuvering to this year’s schedule to allow for the first game in the series with South Florida to be played in Tampa this season.
The Flashes have moved their game with Rochester College (originally scheduled for Dec. 8 ) to Nov. 22. Rochester College has officially been added to the field of the Hispanic College Classic as a one-game entry, giving Kent State the fourth game allowed in the exempt tournament under NCAA rules.
The move allows KSU to add one game to the schedule – a Nov. 25 trip to South Florida.
The Flashes schedule just got a bit more interesting, with the Big East game at South Florida opening a four-game road trip that concludes with visits to three consecutive NCAA tournament teams from last season – Nov. 29 at Morehead State, Dec. 4 at Xavier and Dec. 12 at Pittsburgh.
After hosting Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Dec. 20, the Flashes play at another NCAA tournament qualifier (Robert Morris, Dec. 22) before traveling to Santa Clara for the Cable Car Classic between Christmas and New Years.
The return of Heath in 2010-11 will make for an interesting day at the M.A.C. Center. Heath was, of course, the Flashes head coach during the team’s 2002 run to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. After that one season in Kent, he left to become head coach at Arkansas. South Florida would become the first Big East team to visit the M.A.C. Center since KSU hosted West Virginia in the first round of the 2004 NIT.
Related posts:
- KSU releases football schedule…
- KSU men’s hoops schedule taking shape
- Henniger commits to Kent State
- Welcome to the Kent State Sports Blog
Category: General Discussions
wow….. interesting!
ksu’s pre-conference schedule now looking very strong.
way to go geno & laing!
mike
’86
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All good news! Thanks.
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i wonder how stan will be greeted when he returns to the macc in 2010??
he was a 1 & done coach. granted, the one year was the best year in men’s hoops history!
interesting…
i know coach waters will be greeted with cheers.. jim christian too.
my guess is that heath will be greeted with cheers too.
what do you think dave?
mike
’86
ps this pre-conference schedule is strong. like it a lot. would luv to beat south FL in their bldg!
tv game?? i would imagine yes 
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It’s a good question Mike,
I have to believe he’ll be greeted with cheers … maybe even a standing ovation.
That was a pretty special season. Any animosity there might have been for his leaving after one year should have been calmed by Jim Christian’s run. And really, who could blame Heath for taking the Arkansas job? He had to take that job.
It would be great if that was a TV game.
It looks like Kent State’s regular-season finale with Akron this season at the JAR is going to be broadcast nationally on ESPN2.
Dave,
I know that you will agree with me on this. This is exactly why it is important for KSU and Akron to both continue to be great in basketball.
5 years ago, KSU and Akron would never have been shown on ESPN2, but since Akron has really been doing well lately (especially last year), it is a game that carries a little more weight. That is why the game will be on ESPN2.
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ok, too bad justin manns not availble for pre-conference schedule
we’re gonna have our hands full!
we need holt to be strong at the point from the get go.
we will need parks & simpson to elevate their game from the get go.
GO Flashes!!
MIKE
’86
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Why won’t Justin Manns be available for the pre-conference part of the schedule?
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bill,
i don’t think he is eligible till spring semester. i would love to wrong!
mike
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pardon the typo..
would love to be wrong!
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I agree with you completely Marc.
I love what Keith Dambrot is doing in Akron. I love what Geno Ford is doing at Kent State.
I’m a firm believer that rivalries are their best when both teams are strong.
So much more interesting.
On Manns, I believe he’ll be eligible in time for the start of the season.
I think the hope is, however, that Avila is ready to take on the backup role and they can afford to redshirt Manns. There is some real potential in Manns, but he started playing basketball late in high school and he still has some learning to do. It’s ofte tough on junior college kids in their first year in DI anyway, so a year in the program watching and learning would help him to make a bigger impact in 20010-11 and 2011-12. It would give KSU two years of his size to match up with Zeke Marshall.
A Heath return is dependent on him still being there. I’m not a south florida bball expert but if he’s last in the Big East again the fans may get restless. Football is king and in their mind they probably think if football went from nowhere to near the top of the Big East than why does it take more time in hoops with a smaller team? Not saying its right but i’d say its probably 70/30 that he’s does make it back to Kent next year.
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ksu315,
That may very well be true
ksu315, wow……. didn’t tgink of that.
he should have stayed at ksu
then again, very glad everything worked-out the way it did.
dave, yes……. we have parks, simpson, greene & avila. more than anough talent to hold-down that 1 & 2 spot. manns time will come next year.
mike
’86
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It’s funnny how coaches who succeed in the MAC end up bouncing around. Maybe like a certain ex-Ball State coach, or a certain ex-Rutgers coach, he’ll be back in or near the MAC in the future. Maybe sooner than some would hope for. p.s.: Don’t look for Keith Dambrot to take that route.
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Zipinparadise,
It’s true. That does happen quite a bit.
I have a very good relationship with Jim Christian, so I’d love to see him buck the trend and turn TCU into a winner. I think he will.
I’d love to see Keith and Geno Ford make different choices, though, and stick around the MAC for a long time. Both are very good guys, very good coaches and very good recruiters.
If KSU and Akron can keep those two coaches in place and give them the resources they need to continue building their programs, the Flashes and Zips can be the class of this conference for a long time. Right now, Akron is doing a better job of giving Keith the tools he needs to succeed. KSU is having a harder time finding the money.
I think you are right, though, with Keith. He is in a great situation coaching in a home town and surrounded by people who love him and want to keep him there. It would probably take a very attractive offer for him to consider leaving.