When Fortune 500 companies begin to have problems, they have meetings. In those meetings, they decide to go in one of two directions. They can go the sleazy, piece-of-you-know-what Enron route and hide million-dollar losses but give false hope to their thousands of employees and, in the end, ruin little Bobby’s college fund.

Or they can take the Martha Stewart angle and make even more money in their time of hardship and become champions of the business world all with a big smile on their faces.

The Kent State men’s basketball team had one of those meetings. I’m assuming they discussed where their stock was going and how they can improve themselves so they can go for the big payoff. That payoff is the Mid-American Conference championship and a tournament run. Forget the 20 wins — the players did — it’s the championship that will allow players to throw a company party (of course 20 wins is amazing).

Leading this meeting was senior Mike Scott. He admitted to his teammates that he wasn’t playing well. He admitted to the media after the Toledo disaster that he needed to improve his play. The team had to refocus, and it had to happen soon because the pesky Ball State team, who had just three wins, was coming to the M.A.C. Center. No offense to the Cardinals, but that is a game Kent State wins 100 out of a 100 times while wearing kilts and playing “Thriller” on the bagpipes.

Thus, during that Ball State game this past Wednesday, I felt like a person with millions of dollars in Burger King stock that reads a headline on CNN that goes like this:

“Man eats lead-based Whopper then slips on ketchup packet, breaking hip and burns face on open-flame broiler”

The point is, the Ball State game would have left this team in tatters.

But then they won in overtime.

Sophomore Chris Singletary had an amazing game (and I think he is playing as well as anyone right now), and the team clinched the game with great free-throw shooting.

And now, after watching the 40-minute 3-point shoot-out Saturday during the 82-67 win against Northern Illinois, I’ll be the first one to say the Flashes are that team that slaughtered St. Louis and flew by George Mason in December. They went through a rough stretch, but it looks as if the meeting the Flashes had has stopped the bleeding.

Whether the Flashes revert to the sloppy play that has been littered in their games the past month is yet to be seen, but something tells me that won’t happen.

The reason why the Flashes are turning their stock around: Singletary.

It isn’t just the way he’s playing; it’s the way he’s leading. Singletary has always seemed like a pretty emotional person, but the first player to leap off the bench Saturday when Brandon Parks dunked the ball in that poor sap’s face was Singletary. This is a very good sign because the CEO of this team is Scott, and he’s receiving his gold watch at the end of the season, and people are wondering who will lead next year.

The Kent State men’s basketball team shoots for 20 wins this week on Tuesday. I’ll bet that day won’t be remembered as a Black Tuesday for this Fortune 500 team.

Contact assistant sports editor Joe Harrington if you are not a business major, because I’m sure they’ll tell me how terrible this column is, at [email protected].