Kent State men’s basketball coach Rob Senderoff is backing his player who mistakenly made a costly foul in a 62-61 loss to Akron on Saturday night.
Kent State went up 61-60 in the MAC Tournament championship game after center Cli’Ron Hornbeak made a dunk with five seconds remaining. Akron inbounded the ball and Kent State guard Julius Rollins immediately fouled Akron guard Greg Tribble in the backcourt with 4.8 seconds left.
Senderoff and other Kent State players appeared to be in disbelief after the foul.
‘He probably thought we were down one, instead of up one,’ Senderoff explained after the game.
The Golden Flashes didn’t have a foul to give and sent Tribble to the free throw line, where he knocked down both free throws to take the lead 62-61. Kent State guard Jalen Sullinger got a shot off with one second remaining, but missed what would have been the game winner.
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If Kent State would have held onto the lead and won, it would have secured back-to-back MAC Tournament championships and an earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Senderoff, however, said one play does not make or break a game and he took responsibility.
“As I told the team, I should have called a timeout there. I do not blame Julius,’ he said. ‘There’s 100 plays in the game and that was just one of them.”
Senderoff said Rollins is devastated over the costly mistake – ‘Right now it’s probably the worst thing that’s ever happened to him’ – but added that it is just a basketball game at the end of the day.
‘This is the thing I told him, I didn’t tell the whole team, I told him if this is the worst thing that’s happened to you when you’re 50 years old like I am, then you’ve lived a pretty charmed life,’ Senderoff said. ‘Tomorrow the sun will come up, it will be a little cloudy for me and for our guys, but the sun will come up tomorrow.’
