Go - I remember Division II YSU beating Pitt at Beeghley in the 70's. Think about how the basketball landscape has changed. Pitt playing AT a Division II school on a 3 game contract. We can't get Pitt to play at Division I YSU now.
At that time the OVC occupied a much higher place in the NCAA basketball hierarchy than they do now. There were lots of good teams and good players in the OVC back then - Stephen Kite at Tennessee Tech, Bob McCann at Morehead, Boyce and Jakubik at Akron, MTSU and EKU had lots of good player.
Here is what struck me about the guys you named:
Cherry, Robinson, Williams, Alexander were from Akron
Timko from McDonald
Keschock from Mayfield Heights with family in the Valley
Gilmore from Warren
Bevely from Campbell
Tunstall from Altoona
Martin from Farrell
McCullough - wasn't he from Mohawk?
Add Dave Klenovich from Aliquippa to the list.
Every single guy you named from the area that Tressel used to call the State of Youngstown. And it wasn't like YSU was getting all the guys. You just don't get that many Division I players out of that area these days - whether it is less students or other factors. For my money, those years were the Golden Years of high school basketball in the Mahoning Valley. YSU got Gilmore and Bevely. Wesson from Niles went to OSU, Blaney from Badger to WVU, Greg Jones from Rayen to YSU, Joe James from Rayen to Michigan, Adam Powell of Rayen to WVU. 5 guys to the Big 10 and Big East. We might go 20 years without one guy in the Valley at that level now.
The game has changed so much in 30 years. Today's guys are bigger, stronger, faster than the guys above that I was nostalgic over.
If only we could get every player to improve the way John Keshock improved from his junior to senior years. Bench warmer to first team all league. If Vaughn Luton hadn't called time out, Keshock's shot would still be talked about today.
