Malique Jacobs among four Kent State players disciplined by MAC

The MAC Conference publicly addressed discipline to four Kent State players following a social media post that occurred on Friday night. DJ Johnson has been indefinitely suspended, while the other three players are not allowed to play in the first half of the MAC Tournament Championship game tonight. Malique Jacobs, Cli’Ron Hornbeak and Julius Rollins are the three players that will miss the first 20 minutes of game time.

Of the four, Jacobs will likely be the biggest miss as he is second on the team with 12.5 points per game and is their leading rebounder at 7.8 boards per game. Johnson, Hornbeak and Rollins are mainly depth pieces if they even touch the court. The Golden Flashes will have to rely on Sincere Carry to shoulder even more of the load before intermission.

For bettors the suspensions had big implications at DraftKings Sportsbook. The line opened with the Golden Flashes -1, but overnight they moved to being three-point favorites. Once the suspensions were announced, it dropped to a pick ‘em before leveling off at Kent State -1.

The Akron Zips vs. Kent State Golden Flashes for the MAC Championship will be at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, with the broadcast from ESPN2. This will be the third matchup between the two teams as they met twice in the regular season. The Golden Flashes came away with a 67-55 and a 66-64 win in those games.