By Joe Scalzo
scalzo@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
Twice a week this summer, 10 Youngstown State basketball players drove 90 minutes each way to play in a month-long summer league in Pittsburgh.
They drove their own cars. They paid their own gas. The first game started at 7 p.m., the last at 9 and only two teammates were allowed on each team, yet they came early and stayed late. Even if that meant leaving Youngstown at 5 and getting back at midnight to play one hour of basketball.
“Gas isn’t cheap,” said YSU coach Jerry Slocum, who was allowed to watch from the stands but not interact with players.
“For those dudes to do that took a real commitment.”
The Pittsburgh Summer Pro-Am, now in its sixth year, featured players from Division I schools such as Pitt, West Virginia, Duquesne and Robert Morris.
When the Penguins weren’t playing, they were lifting four days a week, attending classes and playing pickup basketball on their own.
Led by sophomore guard Kendrick Perry — whose above-the-rim style drew raves in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette articles — the Penguins opened plenty of eyes.
“This is a tough league,” tournament director John Giammarco said. “Over the course of the summer, dozens of professional scouts from literally all over the world manage to stick their nose in there and watch.
“The kids from Youngstown came down and, you want to talk about some kids who took the concept of ‘No one ever drowns in sweat’ to the letter of the law, that was them.”
Senior guard DuShawn Brooks, who had an up-and-down season last winter after transferring from junior college, took a big step forward, averaging 15.5 points per game (ninth in the league) and 6.75 rebounds (12th).
“DuShawn had a great summer,” Slocum said.
“I think he was a guy who kind of had a tough time finding a role last year. He had a great spring, attitude-wise, and it showed in the summer.”
Perry scored 14 per game (13th in the league), dished out 2.25 assists (10th) and made 42 percent of his 3-pointers (third).
In fact, the Penguins had three of the top four 3-pointer shooters in junior Blake Allen (44 percent, to go with 11.3 points per game and 2.22 assists), Perry and Brooks (41 percent).
“I was pleased with the way Blake Allen carried over the momentum from the end of the school year,” Slocum said.
Freshman forward Fletcher Larson and freshman guard Shawn Amiker Jr. — both redshirts last winter — along with incoming recruits D.J. Cole and Cale Zuiker also looked impressive.
And as someone who runs dozens of summer leagues in western Pennsylvania, Giammarco said he took extra pleasure in watching Hempfield graduate Nate Perry, who averaged more than nine points per game.
“Youngstown State did very well for themselves,” Giammarco said. “They had a lot of reasons to stick their heads up.”
Although they lost four-year letterman Vytas Sulskis to graduation, the Penguins return four of their five starters in Perry, Allen, junior Damian Eargle (who was limited this summer by an ankle injury) and Ashen Ward (the lone senior).
This year’s schedule features 16 road games — compared to 13 home contests — but Slocum believes, in his seventh season, he’s finally got a foundation for sustained success.
“With Kendrick just a sophomore and Damien and Blake juniors and all the freshman on the roster, we finally have a good strong core,” said Slocum, who went 2-16 in the Horizon League last winter but was encouraged by a win over Butler and his team’s performance in several close losses.
“The kids have bought into what we’re doing and they’re doing well academically, too.”
Nine players earned at least a 3.0 grade point average in the spring semester and the team GPA is a 2.96.
Whether they can translate their success in the classroom to the court remains to be seen, but the Penguins will benefit from what looks to be a wide-open year in the league.
None of the first team all-conference honorees return — Valparaiso guard Brandon Wood, the lone non-senior, transferred to Michigan State in the offseason — and only two second-team honorees (Detroit’s Ray McCallum and Eli Holman) return.
“The league is tough but it lost some top-tier guys and I think we’ve gotten better,” Slocum said.
“We like the direction we’re headed in.”
http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/aug/18/ysu-players-hit-the-road/