Women's Basketball

Lindsay drives team to play hard

Lance Lysowski
December 8, 2009

Lindsay

Credit: DKS Editors

His peers describe him as a perfectionist.

With 377 career wins, Kent State coach Bob Lindsay has certainly lived up to the billing.

Since taking over in 1989, Lindsay has made the women’s basketball program synonymous with winning by orchestrating 11 20-win seasons and leading the Flashes to the NCAA Tournament four times.

On Dec. 5, Lindsay etched his name into the history books with a 71-56 win over Cleveland State, becoming the MAC’s all-time winningest coach in either men’s or women’s basketball.

Associate coach Lori Bodnar, who has worked with Lindsay for 20 years, said the two have become close over the years, and the 377 wins Lindsay has earned are well-deserved.

“It’s fantastic,” she said. “To build the program and to get what he wants out of kids – he gets everything out of players to get them to gel as a team.”

Bodnar said Lindsay coaches each player like she wants to be a first team all-conference player. In his tenure at Kent State, Lindsay has helped his players achieve that accomplishment 16 times.

Lindsay, who can often be seen pacing the hardwood floor of the M.A.C. Center during games, has used intelligence and determination to succeed at the Division I level.

Bodnar recalled one example of Lindsay’s knowledge of the game.

Against Florida Atlantic on Nov. 24, Lindsay called a timeout. He told his players if they held the ball for one second longer, they would have an open lane for a layup.

At the conclusion of the speech, the players did just that. And it worked again and again – to the tune of 60 percent shooting from the interior.

Despite having to deal with injuries on his teams and plenty of adversity, Lindsay has been named MAC Coach of the Year twice (1996, 1998) and has gained the program national recognition by receiving votes in the national weekly top-25 polls in seven of the last 12 seasons.

When discussing the milestone he has reached, Lindsay credits all of the people he has worked with during the 20 years, the administration, assistant coaches and the players.

“Everybody has had a hand in all of that,” Lindsay said. “If you didn’t have an administration that supported your program, you wouldn’t be able to run your program the right way. If you didn’t have assistant coaches and people in your program that were confident and did a great job, then your team would never be good enough to get that number of wins.”

Junior guard Jamilah Humes said the coach’s honors and accolades speak loudly of his ability to drive his players to play to their potential.

“It just shows how accomplished he is as a coach, and what he was able to do with players in all different types of backgrounds and athleticisms,” Humes said. “How he’s able to bring that inner drive inside to play hard.”

When describing his time at Kent State, Lindsay said he is most proud of the young women the program has generated, which the coaching staff keeps in touch with to this day.

“I think I pride myself most in the type of women we have had in the program,” Lindsay said. “We’ve had some great players, but more importantly we’ve had great people, and those kids have graduated and are tremendous people.”

Contact sports reporter Lance Lysowski at [email protected]