Chippewa Men Prep For Kent State

CLEVELAND, Ohio – It's March, it's Cleveland. It's go time for the Central Michigan men's basketball team.

The Chippewas will take on Kent State on Thursday at approximately 2 p.m. in a Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinal game at Quicken Loans Arena. CMU (22-10) is the fifth seed, while the Golden Flashes (22-9) are seeded fourth.

The winner advances to a Friday (6:30 p.m.) semifinal against either top-seeded Buffalo or eighth-seeded Akron. The title game is set for Saturday night.

"We've been talking all year long about preparing for the postseason," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "We had regular-season goals, but most of them were to try to get ready to be playing our best basketball (now).

"It's nice to be able to get to Cleveland and see what we can do here."

The Chippewas opened the tournament at home on Monday with an 82-75 victory over rival Western Michigan. CMU has won six of its last eight games. Included in that stretch is an 84-74 home win over Kent State.

"I like our chances," Davis said. "I've liked our team all season long. They play so hard, both ends of the court. Great group of young guys that have played well at times, and at other times have struggled, but have always put forth such a great effort.

"I would expect nothing less down here in Cleveland and we know we have to have that kind of intensity and we also have to execute a little bit better to be able to survive and advance and see what we can accomplish."

Thursday's game features two of the MAC's highest-scoring backcourt tandems in CMU's Larry Austin Jr. and Shawn Roundtree Jr. and Kent State's Jaylin Walker and Jalen Avery.

Walker is the MAC's leading scorer at 21.9 points per game. He and Avery combine to average 32.9 per game, while Austin and Roundtree average a combined 33.8.

Austin (17.3) and Roundtree (16.5) rank fifth and seventh, respectively, in the league in scoring.

Austin flirted with the first triple-double in program history in Monday's victory over Western, finishing with 24 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists against just one turnover.

Davis said the Chippewas are sticking to the tried and true, a philosophy that has produced back-to-back 20-win seasons.

"We've tried to approach each game that we've played, whether we're playing a non-Division I opponent or we're playing Western Michigan or we're playing Buffalo," Davis said, "we need to play the same way, with the same type of preparation, with the same type of intensity and part of that is to help you prepare for the postseason so that now when there's a little bit more riding on it, you're not doing anything different.

"You're trying to be in that same mode that you've been all year. It's just another game, even though we know it isn't. There's a lot riding on it, but our preparation doesn't change."

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Players Mentioned

Larry Austin Jr.

Shawn Roundtree Jr.