Kent State men's basketball recruiting: Golden Flashes add 3 more signees for 2024-25

The Kent State men's basketball team added three players, including a former Brunswick High School star, from the NCAA transfer portal this month to its roster for the 2024-25 season.

The new additions to KSU are 6-foot-8 forward Anthony Morales, 6-0 guard Cian Medley and 6-4 guard Marquis Barnett. They join three others, including Hoban star Jonas Nichols, who previously committed to Kent State.

Barnett is a 2021 Brunswick graduate who has one year of eligibility remaining after spending three years at Presbyterian College.

Barnett, who lists Saginaw, Michigan, as his hometown, ranked seventh in the Big South Conference in scoring at 16.4 points in 15 league games last season. He played in 31 games last season, all starts, and averaged 14.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 30.7 minutes. He scored double figures in 24 games and led the Big South in steals per game (1.9) and tied for sixth in blocks (0.9). Barnett was named second-team All-Big South in 2024 after being a Big South All-Freshman team selection in 2022.

"Marquis is a really physical guard who has improved every year offensively," Kent State coach Rob Senderoff said in a statement released by KSU. "He comes with a defensive mindset that can guard multiple positions. Marquis will help us in every aspect of the game."

Barnett appeared in 92 games (77 starts) with Presbyterian from 2021-24 and totaled 906 points, 370 rebounds, 156 assists and 119 steals.

Barnett put together a big senior year at Brunswick in 2020-21, when he averaged 24.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.4 blocks and 1.9 steals en route to earning second-team All-Ohio in Division I.

Morales is a graduate student with one year of eligibility remaining. Morales is set to graduate from Boston University with an undergraduate degree in media science.

Morales, a Boston native, battled injuries during the 2023-24 season and played in 17 games with one start. He averaged a career-best 10.9 points to go with 4.3 rebounds in 22.8 minutes per game. Morales shot 44.5% from the field, 38.5% on 3-pointers and 89.2% from the foul line.

"We are really excited to add someone with Anthony's experience and versatility to our program," Senderoff said. "Anthony has proven to be a really good 3-point playmaker with tremendous versatility on both the offense and defense side of the floor."

Morales appeared in 78 games with Boston U from 2020-24 and totaled 423 points and 198 rebounds. He made the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll in 2022 and 2023 for earning a GPA of 3.2 or higher.

Medley will have three years of eligibility after spending his freshman season at Saint Louis. A Sicklerville, New Jersey, native, he played in 33 games with 19 starts and averaged 4.3 points and 3.9 assists in 22.7 minutes as a freshman.

Medley played for four years at Camden High School in New Jersey, where he was the starting point guard on Camden's 2022 Division II state championship team. Medley averaged 7.7 points and 6.6 assists during his senior year at Camden after he averaged 10.2 points and 4.0 assists as a junior.

"Medley is someone we recruited out of high school, and we are very pleased to have him attend Kent State upon transferring from Saint Louis," Senderoff said. "Cian had a very successful freshman year where he continued to improve throughout the season. He has a great work ethic and has been a winner and a leader everywhere he has played."

Hoban star Jonas Nichols also part of the incoming Kent State basketball additions

Morales, Medley and Barnett join 6-5 senior guard Morgan Safford and incoming freshmen Deandre Jones (6-9 forward) and Nichols (6-4 guard) as the newest Flashes.

Jones and Nichols are completing their senior years of high school at Garfield Heights and Hoban, respectively.

Nichols is Hoban's all-time leading scorer with 1,574 career points and led the Knights to a Division I state championship as a junior and to a regional semifinal appearance as a senior. He was first-team All-Ohio in Division I as a junior and senior.

Safford is a 2019 Columbus Hartley graduate who scored 1,214 points in high school and was first-team All-Ohio in Division II as a senior. He played two seasons at Wofford (410 points, 204 rebounds, 66 assists in 53 games) and one season at Miami of Ohio (417 points, 159 rebounds, 66 assists in 27 games).

Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kent State men's basketball adds from NCAA transfer portal for 2024-25