They joined the Mid-American Conference in 1951 and have played in the East division since the MAC went to the divisional format in 1997.

Home games are held at the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, which opened in 1950 and is one of the oldest arenas in college basketball.

The Flashes gained national attention in the late 1990s and early 2000s after earning their first bid to the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in 1999.

During the following season, Kent State played its first intercollegiate game, a 56–6 loss to Otterbein College, on January 22, 1915.

[6] During their first years of existence, a variety of different venues were used for home games including on-campus facilities at what is now Cartwright Hall and the old heating plant, as well as off-campus facilities at the local Congregational Church gymnasium and Theodore Roosevelt High School, until Wills Gymnasium opened in 1925.

[6] In 1996, Gary Waters was hired as head coach and began to build what would become the longest run of success in Mid-American Conference history.

The following season, the Flashes again won over 20 games and finished second in the MAC East, but failed to win the conference tournament and received their first NIT invitation since 1990.

The Flashes hosted the first-round game against Rutgers and recorded their first-ever post-season win, a 73–62 victory.

The experience in the NIT proved to be valuable as Kent State scored their first win, a 77–73 [11] upset over the fourth-seeded Indiana Hoosiers, before falling to the Cincinnati Bearcats in the second round in San Diego.

Kent State enjoyed its best season in 2001–02, led by seniors Trevor Huffman, Andrew Mitchell, Demetric Shaw, and Eric Thomas and junior transfer Antonio Gates.

[13] After scoring a mild upset of the seventh-seeded Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Flashes gained national attention by defeating second-seeded SEC champion Alabama 71–58 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

[17] The Flashes finished the season at 30–6 and were ranked 12th in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll released after the tournament.

In both 2003 and 2004, Kent State lost in the MAC tournament championship game and received bids to the NIT.

The streak is currently at ten as the 2007–2008 team won their 20th game on February 12, 2008 at Central Michigan University.

[21] On February 24, the Flashes scored their first-ever win against a ranked team in the regular season, defeating the Saint Mary's Gaels 65–57 in Moraga, California.

[24] Following their fifth conference tournament title, Kent State earned the highest seed in school history,[25] a ninth seed in the Midwestern region of the 2008 NCAA tournament, where they fell to the UNLV Runnin' Rebels in the opening round.

[27] Christian was replaced by his top assistant coach Geno Ford, who officially took over the program on April 2.

It was the first time a team had won successive MAC regular season championships since Miami in 1991 and 1992 and the first time a team had won two consecutive outright titles since Ball State in 1989 and 1990.

Ford left the team to take the head coaching job at Bradley University on March 27, 2011.

Following the Kelvin Sampson recruiting controversy, Senderoff was issued a three-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA and forced to resign at Indiana.

[34] During Senderoff's tenure, the Flashes became the first Division I program in any team sport to sign a recruit diagnosed with autism to a National Letter of Intent.

Kalin Bennett, a center from Little Rock, Arkansas, was signed in November 2018[35] and arrived on campus in August 2019, making his debut in the last minutes of the Flashes' 2019–20 season opener.

The series dates back to February 19, 1916, when the two teams played in Kent in the basement of the old heating plant, won by Akron 37–16.

The second meeting in 2010, played at James A. Rhodes Arena and broadcast nationally on ESPN, featured both teams atop the conference standings at 12–3.

The following season, the Flashes clinched their second-consecutive MAC title with a 79–68 win over the Zips at the MAC Center in a nationally televised game on the regular season's final day, repeating the feat in 2015 with a 79–77 win over the Zips on ESPN2 to claim the regular-season and East division co-championship.

In the MAC championship game, played in Cleveland at the venue now known as Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, the Zips have taken three of the five meetings.