������

California Dreaming!  The Kent State Men’s Basketball team arrived in Sacramento Wednesday motivated for its first NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament appearance in nine years.

The Golden Flashes had a short sendoff at the Kent Campus before busing to the Akron-Canton Airport for the four-hour flight.  Mother Nature delayed the flight for a few hours, but the team arrived in California mid-afternoon, and after a short stop at their hotel, team members were off to a local high school gymnasium for practice.

Staff members at the team hotel greeted the MAC Tournament Champions with blue and gold poms poms and a recording of the Kent State fight song.

Head Coach Rob Senderoff said his team is ready to go.

“They got off the bus, and they know they’re in March Madness,” Senderoff said. “We will have a real practice here tonight, what we call a ‘Kent State’ practice of an hour-and-a-half of live, physical practice.  We’ll do a scouting report, and we’ll have an open practice at the arena tomorrow and then a media session. Friday we’ll shoot again and play Friday night.”

The #14 seed Golden Flashes meet #3 see UCLA Friday in the First Round of the tournament. Tip-off is set for 9:57 p.m. EST on CBS.

Photo caption: The Kent State Mens Basketball team is greeted Wednesday by hotel staff members waving blue and gold pom poms and playing the university fight song shortly after arriving in Sacramento, California.