http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/651613/State-of-the-YSU-basketball-programs.html?nav=5414Nice article John:
By JOHN VARGO - Tribune Chronicle
YOUNGSTOWN - For the second straight year, the Youngstown State University women's basketball team is out to a magnificent start.
YSU won its first 10 games last season and is out to a 9-1 start this campaign.
John Barnes, who is in his third season with the Penguins team, has helped bring this young team around to a point not many people, including yours truly, thought they'd be this season.
YSU has been to the Horizon League conference semifinals two out of the last three seasons, coinciding with two WNIT appearances and 20-plus win campaigns.
YSU Executive Director of Athletics Ron Strollo said the Penguins have been fun to watch - a team which was ranked as high as seventh in the RPI rankings prior to the team's first loss at Penn State. It was a game in which YSU shot 4-of-23 from 3-point range. The Penguins shoot better from long distance, it's a much different game against a Big Team team struggling to reach .500.
The Penguins have won three straight since then and have at least 15 3-pointers in two of their last three games.
"It's fun to see those type of things. They've been lights out," Strollo said.
Barnes is 45-28 in his third season at YSU, but if the Penguins make another run to the league semifinals or beyond, some Mid-American Conference or higher-level teams might court Barnes to come coach their programs.
Ohio coach and former YSU mentor, Bob Boldon, took a Penguins team which went 0-30 in the 2009-10 season and transformed it into a 23-10 team by the 2012-13 season and guided YSU to the second-round of the WNIT.
Having successful coaches leave for other coaching positions is a sign of a good mid-major program like YSU. I'm not saying Barnes is leaving. I have a strong feeling he'd like to see this team win a Horizon League championship and get back to the NCAA Tournament before he moves on to another position. It's said a coach wants to leave a program in better shape than he found it. I'm sure Barnes will follow that protocol.
"It says a lot of what the coaches before them have done," Strollo said. "That's something we know we'll have to deal with at some point. At the end of the day, we want to do what's best for our student-athletes and for this university."
The Penguins men's team is coming off an 11-21 season in which they went 2-14 in the Horizon League. YSU started this season 0-4 but is now 5-6.
"Obviously, we've had some really close games in Florida Gulf Coast, Bowling Green," Strollo said. "And the American game we felt should've been ours on the men's side. It would've made a difference in our record."
That American game was atrocious to say the least. No way you squander a 10-point halftime lead to a one-win team. It's a game even YSU men's coach Jerry Slocum brought up after last week's win against Geneva, a contest that still bothers the Penguins mentor. As well it should.
YSU has had success a couple of seasons ago with guard Kendrick Perry - winning at least 15 games his sophomore through senior seasons, including an 18-16 season when YSU went to the second round of the CIT Tournament also paced by former Warren G. Harding standout Damian Eargle.
The stretch when YSU went 15-17, 18-16 and 16-15 was the first time the Penguins had three straight 15-win seasons since 1982-85 under former coach Mike Rice Sr., a current color analyst for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Last season Perry graduated and YSU lost its second leading scorer Ryan Weber when he transferred to Ball State, closer to his Indianapolis home. Those two losses, especially the Weber transfer, decimated the Penguins last season.
"Unfortunately we took a step backward, but the three previous years we've had 15 (or more) wins three straight years," Strollo said. "We took a step back because we lost Kendrick Perry and had another kid transfer that really hurt us. We feel the nucleus (Slocum) brought in this year is going to be a strong nucleus for us in the future."
Offensively, this year's team is talented. Not as much as the 18-16 season, but it's getting there. The amount of 3-point shooters have been the most I've seen for a Slocum-coached team, which does open up the inside game. The thing the Penguins have to do is capitalize on their chances in the paint, or teams will snuff our their outside shooters and dare them to throw inside. YSU needs to be a dual threat going forward.
As for the team's defense, it's getting better, something I wouldn't dare to say at the beginning of the season. Granted it was against a Division III team like Geneva, but YSU showed some trapping pressure defense, which was refreshing to see. Hopefully, we'll see more of that style of play in the Horizon League.
As for Slocum, his contract ends after this season. However, the university can exercise a one-year option on the contract for the 2016-17 season. According to the wording in the contract, "The option to extend the contract for an addition year will be determined by the University President (Jim Tressel) after consultation with the Executive Director of Athletics (Strollo)."
Strollo said he would not address the situation at this time.
However, he would talk about how the Penguins men's program is able to effectively use its basketball budget. According to bbstate.com, YSU's budget ranked 279th out of 349 in the country in 2014 and was ranked last in the Horizon League. League's budgets in 2014: Detroit $2,566,349, Milwaukee $2,264,818, Cleveland State $2,315,514, Wright State $2,308,740, Valparaiso $2,116,074, Illinois-Chicago $1,858,722, Oakland $1,856,790, Green Bay $1,692,496, Northern Kentucky $1,289,118, and YSU $1,229,401.
"You feel really good about some of the teams we're playing and what they're spending and see what kind of job our coaches are doing and our student-athletes are doing and feel what we're doing makes a lot of financial sense, but our kids are having great experiences," Strollo said.
He's pleased about the makeup of both programs. Strollo is enjoying how both teams are blending together considering a good portion of both teams are freshmen and sophomores.
But there's something more to these teams that intrigues Strollo.
"The best part of it, what the fans don't see, is what great kids on both sides - both the boys and the girls are wonderful kids and a lot of fun to be around when they're not the court," he said.
It also helps both teams are having success, in varying degrees, on the court as well.
