Watching Kennesaw State’s Kendrick Ray drive to the basket, it’s easy to forget that before this season he hadn’t played competitively for more than 18 months.
Coach Al Skinner forgot in the season-opening game after watching Ray miss two layups in a loss to Alabama. And then he remembered that Ray hadn’t played since 2013-14 when he was at Quinnipiac.
“It will take him a while to get his game legs and his game head together,” Skinner remembers thinking. “Luckily, we left him on the floor, and he continued to work at it.”
Ray hasn’t missed too many layups since. He has averaged 18.6 points per game to become the heir apparent to leading scorer Yonel Brown, who will play his final regular-season game Thursday when the Owls (10-19, 6-7 Atlantic Sun) take on Lipscomb in Nashville, Tenn.
Ray also is one of the front-runners to win the Atlantic Sun Conference newcomer of the year after three times this season winning the conference’s weekly award of the same name.
“It’s been a long summer, a long journey of working hard in the gym,” Ray said.
Ray’s skill was honed playing pickup games against an older brother and sister, who never let him win. Allan Ray was a standout at Villanova who signed with the Celtics. Brittany Ray was a member of the Rutgers team that played for the national title in 2007.
Kendrick Ray doesn’t play either of them anymore.
He signed with Quinnipiac and played well as a freshman, averaging 3.0 points and 1.4 assists in 11 minutes per game. But he didn’t crack the rotation as a sophomore and transferred after the first semester.
Ray learned of Kennesaw State through a trainer in New Jersey who was friends with Owls Athletic Director Vaughn Williams. Ray worked out for previous coach Jimmy Lallathin, signed and sat out a season per NCAA transfer rules.
He wasn’t sure what people expected when he became eligible to play for the Owls. As well as he played as a freshman, there still wasn’t a lot from which to build predictions.
“Another guard to come in and be there to help Yonel Brown,” he said. “He needed another guy that he can go to when he’s not scoring.”
Ray started slowly under Skinner, scoring a lot of points but needing to take a lot of shots to do so. He missed 12 of 16 shots at Alabama but scored 17, missed 10 of 17 against LSU but scored 25 and missed 7 of 9 against Arizona State but scored 7. As he found his “game legs and game head,” and learned Skinner’s system, his shooting improved. As poor as his shooting was, his shooting average has increased to 48.5 percent, not bad for a 6-foot-1 guard.
Skinner said Ray’s shooting improved because he began to play within the offense, taking shots from consistent spots on the floor.
“He always had the ability,” Skinner said. “It didn’t show up. He’s put in a lot of time to get to this point.”
Ray said he will take jumpers if he is open, but prefers to drive into the free-throw lane where he can shoot or find a teammate.
As the team has gotten deeper into the conference season, Ray said opponents have changed their defensive tactics and are now trying to deny him the baseline.
Expectations have changed.
“It’s just fortunate that I’m able to average 18 with the way our system is and the way Skinner likes to play,” Ray said. “It doesn’t matter if I score 2 or 18, I just have to come out and play hard and hope we get a win.”
