Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Kinsey returns to Marshall to make next giant leap as a player
4/2/2021 9:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Word on the Herd
Herd star says school, program offers everything he needs
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Taevion Kinsey could have found a reason to depart for the bright lights and riches of the NBA.
Perhaps he could have justified it by seeing the two remaining starters from the 2018 NCAA tournament team bid adieu to the Marshall University men's basketball program in recent weeks. Maybe he read the numerous NBA draft projections, some of which happened to hype the 6-foot-5 junior from Columbus, Ohio, as a lottery pick. Kinsey could have determined he had little else to prove.
After all, he averaged 19.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in 2020-21. Know how many others did it in Division I men's college basketball? Five: Ayo Dosunmu (Illinois), Isaiah Miller (UNC Greensboro), Cade Cunningham (Oklahoma State), Davion Warren (Hampton) and Isiaih Mosley (Missouri State). All of those players, like Kinsey, were first team all-conference selections. Miller was named the Southern Conference Player of the Year, and Cunningham was the Big 12 Player of the Year as a freshman. None of those players bested Kinsey's overall field goal percentage (53.2) or 3-point percentage (41.3).
Assistant coach Cornelius Jackson recalled the moment Kinsey told the Thundering Herd staff he planned to return.
"It's a credit to the whole Marshall community," Jackson said. "We were in a Zoom meeting … and Taevion looked at us and said, 'Coach, I want to be here. Marshall has everything that I need."
Marshall will benefit because Kinsey chose not to focus on the reasons to leave, but the reasons to stay. He knows there are questions about his jump shot. He knows he needs another offseason dedicated to strength and conditioning. He personally feels like he needs an extra edge on the floor, the confidence he needs to compete with the greatest hoops players on the planet.
"It's the best decision for me and my career," Kinsey said. "I have looked at myself and evaluated my game and there's a lot of things I still have to get better at before I try take a leap into that realm of basketball. Those are the best players in the world and I have no doubt in my mind that I could be one of the best players in the world, too, but right now I'm trying to be patience.
"I'm going to put in a lot of work this summer. I feel like we have some unfinished business; there's some things I still want to do with this team and for this university."
Kinsey joined a Herd program that finished the 2017-18 season with a 25-11 record, won its first Conference USA championship, advanced to the program's first NCAA tournament in three decades and then won its first NCAA tournament game ever. In Kinsey's three seasons, Marshall is 55-36 and won the 2019 CIT championship. As a sophomore, Kinsey saw his postseason end prematurely because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the Herd had the hot hand, winning six of seven games to conclude the regular season, but had an early exit in the conference tournament. That's not the note Kinsey wants at the end of his collegiate career.
So, after the season ended, Kinsey explored his NBA options. He, head coach Dan D'Antoni and Jackson listened to agents make their pitches and relay information from NBA brass. Kinsey could enter and take his chances and perhaps end up in the mid-teens of the first round, or he could tumble outside of the first round and miss out on a guaranteed contract.
"Kudos to Taevion," Jackson said. "It was a long, long process. Myself, Taevion and Coach D'Antoni met with several agents via Zoom and gathered a lot of information."
Kinsey is an explosive athlete with the tools to make it at the next level. He finished the 2020-21 season with 46 dunks, the ninth-most in Division I basketball and the most by any player 6 feet, 6 inches and shorter. In fact, Kinsey was the only player in the Top 25 in dunks shorter than 6-6.
He also made great strides in other areas from his sophomore to junior season. Kinsey improved his field goal percentage from 49.0 percent to 53.2. After shooting 26.4 percent from 3-point range as a sophomore, Kinsey shot 41.3 percent this season. He struggled from the free throw line in his first two seasons at Marshall, never cracking 70 percent. He shot 81.8 percent on foul shots this season.
Now, because Kinsey chose a place that offers everything he needs to develop into a bona fide star at the next level, he can do what he does best: make the next giant leap.
"With his work ethic, his athletic ability and his character," Jackson said, "there's no reason why he can't be an NBA lottery pick next year."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and a nine-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
