Kent State men’s basketball officially introduced guard Morgan Safford this week with a video that was on their social media platforms. Safford transferred from Miami (OH) and sat out this past season, but was with the team throughout the year.
MAC fans know Safford. During the 2022-2023 season at Miami, Safford made his mark in the league and for Head Coach Travis Steele. He averaged 15.4 points per game in 27 games for the Redhawks, starting all of them. Safford shot 34.7% from 3 (41-118) and got to the line 4.5 times a game, shooting 79.3%. He also averaged 5.9 boards per game. As a solid defensive player, he often took the assignment on the opposing team’s top wing. At 6-5, 210 pounds, Safford is a physical, two way wing the Flashes covet and is a proven commodity in the league.
While at Miami, Travis Steele lauded Safford for his consistency, competitiveness and his ability to process information. “We have what we call the Black jersey,” Steele told The Miami Student newspaper in an article from March of 2023. “So basically it’s a player of the week in practice and we track missed shots, made shots, rebounds, charges, fouls, draws, turnovers and and this equation spits out basically who the player of the week was. Well, he’s won nine times this year, I have never had a guy win that many times in my career. But it just shows you he’s the same guy every day.”
“I just play hard, you know, playing with tenacity and competitiveness,” Safford said in the article. “It just carries me throughout the court. I think when players have that, they’re hard to guard, and definitely hard to scout. So, I think that’s probably my best attribute. I feel I’m a high IQ player.”
“Competitive is the first word that comes to mind when I hear Morgan Safford,” Steele said. “His ability to take information and apply it is incredible. He’s really hard on himself, which I love because it means he cares. He just loves to compete. In practice he will ask me, ‘Coach, who’s got the record in this drill?”
At Kent State he will graduate in August with a degree in Professional Studies and suit up as a graduate student next year for the Flashes.
“I came to Kent State for the winning culture, to hang banners and for my last year my goal is to win a MAC Championship,” Safford says in the video.
Safford started his career at Wofford, where he played for two seasons, while redshirting his freshman season. He made the All-Freshman Team in the Southern Conference during the 2020-2021 season.
In High School Safford starred at Bishop Hartley High School out of the Central Catholic League in Columbus.
For the Flashes, he brings the ability to post it from the guard position and create fouls, is a capable three point shooter, can handle the ball and can also rebound it well from the guard spot. Defensively he has the ability to guard big, physical wings. As mentioned, as a two way standout, Senderoff won’t have to sub him out late in games for deficiencies on one side of the ball.
Safford will join a senior class that will include Von Cameron Davis, Cli’Ron Hornbeak, Anthony Morales, Marquis Barnett and Mike Bekelja.
SCHEDULE NEWS: The blog D1 Docket went live this week. On its site, it lists Kent State playing their annual regional rivalry game at Cleveland State on Saturday, November 23.
We also know the Flashes will play at a Sun Belt team the week of November 4 and host an SBC team on February 8 as part of the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge.
Toledo recently released their entire non-conference schedule and it’s a solid one with the Rockets playing Houston and Purdue, among many other solid mid-majors.
Houston Head Coach and good friend of Senderoff Kelvin Sampson recently told The Toledo Blade: “I like to play really well-coached teams that are very disciplined and will challenge you. I don’t need to wait until you get into conference season to find out about the team. I like to find out [early],” Sampson said. “I’ve always had a ton of respect for the MAC. It’s always been a great league. And the reason why it’s always been a great league is because it’s always had outstanding coaches. [Kent State coach] Rob Senderoff, Tod, [Akron coach John] Groce, those guys can coach any team in America. They’re all that good.”
CONGRATS GRADS: Chris Payton and Mike Bekelja graduated this week and were seen on social media signing the graduation wall that all players get to sign once they get their degree. Bekelja will have one year remaining to play in 2024-2025.