Kent State Sports

Dave, I’m certain the Massey incident was in 1998, not 1997. Massey was a freshman, and the team’s leading scorer. It happened when they upset Akron at Akron in the MAC tournament. Kent State lost the following game to Miami. It was fairly close.

It was 1998, I had it in a quote from Laing a few years ago as 1997 when I pulled it out of my files. It was the 1997-98 season, but obviously in 1998.
I’ll make the change.
Thanks

I checked the records, Dave. Massey played 1997/98 through 2001/01. It was 1998, and they only lost to Miami 64-59 without Massey, who I’m almost positive was their leading scorer that season. It was a courageous call by the AD and coach, as the officials didn’t see the incident.

Kent76,

I agree with you.

It’s just frustrating that if Singletary is suspended, it’s against a cupcake team like last time. I’m not sure if he will learn anything from the incident.

Dave
If you find a link of the punch, could you post it? I haven’t seen it yet.

Link to the punch, and it was clearly a punch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeMGdn_6-2A

I feel he should be suspended for the incident. Even if the refs felt that this particular incident didn’t warrant a suspension the school should take it into consideration when coupled with his past transgressions. Between his DUI, fighting with cops, and violiating team rules more than once you have to draw a line somewhere. It looks terrible for the school, the conference and the NCAA in general to allow this kind of behavior with nothing more then a slap on the wrist.

Thanks for posting that BigTripp,

That was good for me to see, too.

I asked Fox Sports Net to make the replay available for me after the game, and they were very helpful. They showed me the baseline view four or five times, though, because it was the cleanest and closest view of the incident.

After seeing the other angles, I agree now with someone who posted on another site that it wasn’t a huge, vicious blow. My guess, and it’s not always a good idea to judge intent, was that it was a small shot that Chris thought he could get away with. I think it’s also probable that Linhart made it look worse than it really was.

As someone with a lot more padding in that area than Linhart, a serious punch would have put me down for the count. Chris is a big, strong guy.

All of that said, and even after admitting the baseline angle probably made the impact look a little worse than it was, I still think they should suspend him for one game. To me, appearance matters. It looked like Chris punched him. It’s pretty clear.

In football, I thought Akron should have suspended one of its players for intentionally twisting the ankle of Eugene Jarvis two years ago. I think it would be incredibly hypocritical of me to not think the same thing here with Chris.

I would have liked to have been able to see the whole thing live.
We are just so far away in our current press situation we didn’t know anything had happened until Dambrot was on the floor, and we don’t have any access to replay during the game.

I didn’t see the play until probably 15 minutes after the final buzzer, and now here at almost 2 a.m. I’ve finally seen every angle.

Anyway, I guess I shouldn’t have assumed that everyone had seen the video of the incident.

One more quick comment…

Based on a phone call with a friend, who is a reporter and a KSU grad and fan, my thought that Chris could benefit from sitting down and learning a lesson hasn’t been understood by some people….

Here’s what I mean.

If in fact that was not an intentional blow, Chris needs to learn not to play with clenched fists to avoid the image from that Akron game.

I’ve been told by people close to the situation who I respect that there wouldn’t have been a flagrant foul called had Chris made contact with Lainhart with an open hand. There probably wouldn’t have even been a foul called.

In this case, taking Chris at his word that he didn’t intend to punch Linhart, his style of play ended up leading to his being ejected from an important rivalry game. Keep playing in that style, there is there is a greater chance of his getting thrown out of an even bigger game here in the postseason, or again next year while KSU is in the middle of a championship run.

Now that the officials have seen it, you can bet they’ll be looking for it again.

If it was unintentional, then Chris needs to learn to avoid situations where he becomes a lightning rod. If it was unintentional and he is forced to sit for a tournament game, I’d be willing to bet he doesn’t clench a fist again on a basketball court. That’s to his benefit and KSU’s benefit.

If it was intentional, he should be suspended for the act.

I clicked on the above site, and YouTube said that the video was removed by the user! Anyway, Dave, you must have been typing your response to my first post at the same time I was typing my second post. If I had seen your response (about it being 1998), I obviously wouldn’t have posted my second comment, which is obviously redundant.

Interesting how the Chris Singletary’s PR man comes to the rescue with another one game suspension. Like he learned from anything at all from the one game suspension for the DUI, or the one game suspensions for violating team rules. I guess it’s going to be different this time though, huh Dave?

What is more distrubing is the blame Nate Linhart undertones to a lot of this post. So a punch like that from an admittedly strong guy like Chris Singletary would be enough to put you down for the count, but yet Nate Linhart “made it look worse than it really was.” Nate was in the air, in a completely defenseless position with no ability to brace himself when Chris wound up and laid his fist right into the kids ribcage. I’ll tell you what, let’s go find Chris and all of you guys who want to blame Nate Linhart for this thing can jump up in the air and have him punch you in the ribcage. We’ll see how you handle it.

Kent 76,

He put a shorter video that had sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLfAPuP2OQw

Here’s the longer with sound as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bMGXC1AcWA

I’m not blaming Linhart for the incident. I think he did the right thing.

What I meant in my post was that from the above-the-court angles (which I hadn’t been able to see until around 2 am), it didn’t look like much of an impact. Several people I’ve talked to about the incident who were close to where it happened said they thought Linhart flopped. I have no idea, just as I have no idea about Singletary’s intent. My guess is that Singletary intended to punch Linhart in a way where he thought he’d get away with it … which should be punished. My guess is also that Linhart acted a little… which is common. And, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. You do what you have to do to alert the officials to what you want them to see to get a call.

I don’t blame Linhart at all for that.

If it were an Akron player who punched a KSU player, I’m sure the KSU player would have done everything in his power to make it look as bad as he could to alert the referees. That’s the smart thing to do. There wasn’t a whistle. If you just shake it off, the officials don’t review the play. You go down like you’ve been shot, and they’ll review it. I’m saying Linhart was smart.

As for the one-game suspension. I think that’s what is warranted.

I agree Singletary should be suspended for at least a game. My question is look at Rashad Woods. He got ‘indefintely suspended’ for violating team rules once. Singletary has gotten arrested twice, violated team rules multiple times and now punched an opposing player. What because Woods wasn’t the star – he deserves punishment but Singletary can get a slap on the wrist?! Come on Kent – step up. Show that this isn’t the kind of program you are trying to create. I don’t care if it was against your rival. It has no place in college basketball.

Here’s the link. Don’t know if it’s a new one, but it used to not have sound .. so maybe the guy fixed the sound and re-uploaded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bMGXC1AcWA

Now’s when Geno can show he’s in control of this program.

I was impressed with the way Geno handled the situation on the court by not yelling at the refs…… let’s hope he does the same off the court.

I just watched the video of the incident, and he DEFINITELY threw an intended punch. You have to wonder what was going on in his mind at that time. He had to realize the severity of the situation. If the roles were reversed, I know I would have been madder than you-know-what at the Akron player! As an alumnus, and avid KSU sports fan, I definitely feel a suspension is in order. For the sake of the program’s reputation, they must do the right thing here.

Hey Dave,

I am sixty-five years old. I want one shot at your sternum with my right handed jab (the proper name for the punch). I am betting that you do not get to your feet under your own power for at least five minutes, ten or fifteen more likely. I admit that I fought in the Golden Gloves as a teenager. Singletary is a dirt-bag thug who deserves being dismissed from the team. Wont happen with weak kneed Gennie Ford and the sorry AD at Kent. Oh, by the way … just for the record … I am left handed.

RatFink,

I don’t understand the hostility. I haven’t been critical of Linhart at all in this post. If you think I have, then either I haven’t been clear or you are misunderstanding what I’ve written.

There has been some debate about the severity of the blow. That’s just a matter of fact. And as far as I’m concerned, the debate is pretty much irrelevant. Singletary punched Linhart, and no matter how hard he did it, he deserves to be punished.

And if it is true that Linhart flopped a bit or acted or made it look worse than the punch actually was, I have no problem with it. You have to do what you have to do to get the referees attention. There was no whistle on the play. To get the officials to review the play, he needed to roll on the ground and say “he punched me,” just as he clearly said as the official walked by on the replay. I would have done exactly the same thing. The punch was out of line, no matter how hard it was.

What I did say was that from the above-the-court angle, the punch didn’t look anywhere near as bad as what it looked like from the baseline angle. I don’t know anyone who has watched those angles who hasn’t said the same thing.

I absolutely guarantee you are right that at age 65, if you hit me with a right-handed or a left-handed jab at full force, I probably wouldn’t get up, and it would be for more like a half hour. I have no idea how to take a punch. I played rugby for years, but I’ve never been in a fight … never been punched … never punched anyone. On top of that, my health isn’t what it once was.

But with your challenge to punch me in the sternum, to accurately try to re-create the incident, you wouldn’t be able to hit me at full force with the punch. If you watch the video, Singletary pretty clearly pulled his punch. As a former boxer, you know that by definition that means he didn’t put his full force into it. Watching the above-the court angle, that’s pretty clear. Even from the sideline angle, you can see that he pulled his fist back at impact. As someone said to me today, if Chris had put everything into it, it would have taken Nate a lot longer to get up.

So, if you promise to pull your punch, come to a game. We can talk face-to-face about what happened. After that, punch me if you like, but you have to agree to buy me a beer afterward. Life is a lot easier if you can have friendly disagreements than it is when you get all worked up and angry.

The reality is, we probably don’t see the incident as differently as you may think. It’s possible that what I wrote in this blog wasn’t clear enough. It is true that I don’t think Singletary should be kicked off the team, as you do. But I do agree Sunday’s ejection was not punishment enough, which is a harder line than the MAC and even Keith Dambrot took. Keith, who I respect a great deal, said in his post-game press conference that he didn’t think Singletary should be suspended.

hey dave,

i dont wanna punch you but i will buy you a beer at Flannerys before the championship game( as long as we’re playing in it) Keep up the great work with the coverage, thanks!

Thanks flashgrad03,

much easier way to earn a beer!