Basketball Alum Make Return To Kent State Campus: Record Courier Feature
Basketball alum make return to KSU campus
Kent State's men's basketball alumni always seem to find their way back to their old campus in the summertime.
The chance to reunite with former teammates, work with their old coaches and lend some wisdom to the young Golden Flashes of today draws them like a magnet.
The tradition has continued this month with Rob Senderoff in his first summer as the Flashes' head coach.
It has been one of the benefits to KSU maintaining continuity within the program by promoting from within after former coach Geno Ford decided to take a job at Bradley University.
The return of 2004 KSU alum Eric Haut to the Flashes' coaching staff has only helped the family atmosphere. With Haut and Jordan Mincy as assistants and Mike McKee now officially on the job as the team's new director of basketball operations, Senderoff now has three former players on his staff.
They have welcomed fellow KSU alums Nate Gerwig, John Edwards, Omni Smith, Anthony Simpson and Haminn Quaintance back to the M.A.C. Center for workouts in recent weeks. All played professional basketball overseas last season.
"When I was an assistant at Texas Christian University the last few years, we didn't have the relationships with the former players there that we have here," said Haut. "Guys didn't come back there the way they do here, and a lot of that is because we didn't coach those former players, and we didn't recruit them. It's more than just wins and losses, it's the relationships.
"Just since I've been back at Kent State, I've heard from a lot of the guys I played with in 2002 and 2003, and they all plan to get back at some point this summer.
Guys like Andrew Mitchell, Demetric Shaw, Trevor Huffman, DeAndre Haynes and Mike Scott are all planning to come back because with the environment we have here, they feel comfortable coming back."
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Senderoff has also tapped into a few of the relationships he built while he was an assistant at the University of Indiana to help the Flashes' off-season work.
Last week, KSU's current players picked up some tips while watching former Indiana star D.J. White, who know plays for the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, work out with former Hoosiers men's basketball strength coach Jeff Watkinson.
Anthony Simpson and Omni Smith also participated in the workout.
Watkinson, who is currently the personal strength coach for Los Angeles Clippers star Eric Gordon, watched KSU's players workout and then met with Senderoff and KSU strength coach Bob Lemieux.
"He spent a lot of time talking to us about things we could do to help enhance our kids with their basketball strength training," said Senderoff. "He was very positive. And I think it helped for him to see Jeff workout those professional players and to find out that about 80 percent of the things he did with them are things we do already."
