On Thursday evening in Kennesaw, Georgia, Liberty and Kennesaw State will meet in the biggest game in the ASUN this season. The Flames and Owls are currently tied at 12-2 in conference play, and Thursday’s game will go a long way in determining who wins the ASUN regular season title.
Due to the unbalanced ASUN conference schedule with 14 teams in the league, this game also marks the only scheduled contest between the two teams in the regular season this year. With the regular season champion earning home court throughout the ASUN Tournament and also securing an automatic bid to the NIT should that team falter in the conference tournament, the stakes for Thursday’s game could not be higher as there are just two weeks left in the regular season.
“Kennesaw is a very good team,” said Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay. “I think the better competition you have to play in your league prepares you for postseason, I’ve just been around it enough to know that, it’s hard. Monte Williams says it best, ‘On the other side of hard is usually what you want.’ I think it’s good for us to be challenged. We were challenged certainly last week, so I feel like we grew a little.”
The Flames were challenged in Saturday’s game against Eastern Kentucky but still won the game by 10 points. All 21 of Liberty’s wins this season have come by at least 10 points. Most expect Thursday’s game to be decided by a much smaller margin between the two top teams in the conference. In games decided by single digits, Liberty is 0-3.
The Owls have been growing into a championship contender each of the past four seasons under head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim. He took over a program prior that had never sported a winning record in any of their first 14 seasons at the Division I level. In his first year guiding KSU, Abdur-Rahim and the Owls were just 1-28 overall and 0-16 in the ASUN.
In his first full signing class, Abdur-Rahim signed a top 70 recruiting class in the Class of 2020. It included the three highest rated recruits in school history in Chris Youngblood, Brandon Stroud, and Kasen Jennings. That talented group of freshmen was added to a team that included Spencer Rodgers, Terrell Burden, Alex Peterson. All of those names continue to be fixtures in the Kennesaw State lineup.
“I think Amir and his staff have done an unbelievable job,” said McKay. “If you look at their team three years ago, that whole core group has stayed. They got to play when they were young and didn’t know, maybe, what it took on a championship level, but you could tell this program has been getting better since we’ve been competing with them. I’m not surprised.”
Abdur-Rahim and his squad have been slowly building each of the past three seasons towards this team that is competing for a championship. When the recruiting class that included Youngblood, Stroud, and Jennings were freshmen, they were 5-19 overall and 2-13 in conference play. Last year, they improved to 13-18 overall and 7-9 in the ASUN, even winning their first postseason game in school history at the Division I level, winning their quarterfinal ASUN Tournament game.
This year, Kennesaw has ramped up their game and have already secured their first 20-win season as a Division I program. Currently 20-7 on the season, the Owls have won 10 of their past 11 games and are playing as good as any team in the conference with Liberty being arguably the only exception.
“Amir is a terrific individual and a really good coach,” McKay stated. “They run great stuff. They are really sound defensively. This will be a great challenge for us. Excited that we’re afforded an opportunity to play in a game that is significant.”
Like the other teams Liberty has lost to on the road – Alabama, Oral Roberts, Eastern Kentucky, Lipscomb – Kennesaw State is really good on their home floor. The Owls are 11-0 this season when playing at the KSU Convocation Center.
“We know it’s going to be difficult,” said McKay of Thursday’s challenge. “Nobody has beaten them there at home and I’m sure they will have a raucous crowd.”
5’10” point guard Terrell Burden is the engine that gets the Owls going. He’s second on the team in scoring at 13.0 points per game and leads the team with 109 assists this season.
“He’s an all-conference player, “McKay said of Burden. “They have really good players. He is a tough guard. He is physically tough. He’s got an extreme amount of confidence. They believe in him. He puts a lot of pressure on your defense. What makes him really special, he’s got a lot of really good players around him because they can stretch you. Then, they can throw it in the post and get interior points. It will challenge our defense.”
Chris Youngblood leads the Owls in scoring at 14.5 points per game. He, Brandon Stroud, Kasen Jennings, and Spencer Rodgers all have the ability to shoot the ball from three. Demond Robinson is one of the best big men in the conference. He’s currently averaging 10.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per contest.
McKay says he doesn’t take for granted that his team is in the conference championship race entering the end of the regular season. Thursday’s game will likely determine who wins the ASUN regular season title, something the Flames are hoping to do for a fourth time in five seasons.
“To have a chance to compete for a championship and be in the race with two weeks to go, that’s what you want and I’m really grateful for.”
