Campus
Jaylin & Jalen
KENT STATE’S BACKCOURT DUO SHARE MORE THAN A NAME
The Kent State men’s basketball team will once again lean on senior stars Jaylin Walker and Jalen Avery WORDS BY
Henry Palattella & Cameron Hoover PHOTO BY
Nate Manley / The Kent Stater
C
hances are that if the Kent State men’s basketball team has any success this year, it’ll be because of the senior duo: Jaylin Walker and Jalen Avery. Avery is the Flashes’ point guard who captains the team both on and off the floor. Walker is the team’s shooting guard who has never seen a shot he doesn’t like. Both serve as the Flashes’ heartbeat. They’ve been through numerous peaks and valleys during their college career, but no matter what, they both keep fighting to be the best. The Burr’s writers Henry Palattella and Cameron Hoover sit down with Jaylin and Jalen to discuss their upcoming season, as well as their past accomplishments with the Flashes.
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HENRY PALATTELLA: How do you feel so far through practices? JALEN AVERY: I feel like we’re a
CAMERON HOOVER: What have you both been doing individually this? JA: [The coaches] have really been paying
different team from last year. This new team, we’re not as big. Our bigs aren’t as dominant as Adonis [De La Rosa] was. We’re going to be a more scrappy team and push the ball more on offense as opposed to playing out of the post. JAYLIN WALKER: We’re going to be more athletic as well, more fast-paced. There’s going to be a lot more ball screens for guards. It’s going to open up a lot more.
attention to our body fat this year, so they’ve been wanting us to work on cutting down our body fat as much as we can. We’re trying to finetune every part of our game, especially shooting and driving. Losing [Kevin] Zabo will hurt. He was the guy on our team who got to the rack to get baskets or got fouled. That’s things we’ll have to pick up on.
Then-sophomore guards Jalen Avery and Jaylin Walker celebrate after tying the game against Central Michigan University with under a second to go in regulation at the M.A.C. Center on Jan. 28, 2017. Kent State lost 105-98 in overtime.
