YSU teams hoping to play better

The Youngstown State men’s and women’s basketball teams will close out the non-conference portion of their schedules this week, with the men playing host to Lock Haven tonight at Beeghly Center and the women playing at Toledo on Tuesday night.

Conference play for the men will resume Thursday with a road trip to Detroit, while the women will open Horizon League action Saturday at Valparaiso.

The men are already 0-2 in Horizon play after dropping two home contests to Valparaiso and Butler in early December. They are starting out at the bottom of the standings and have a way to go but up to get back into contention.

Although the women haven’t played a conference game, they have the worst non-conference record in the league. First-year coach Cindy Martin has been pointing toward this part of the season since practice began. She said she wanted to have the Penguins playing their best basketball by January.

Both teams are 2-8 — the men’s team also has the worst overall record in the Horizon League.

Although their records are identical, the men have probably played better than the women this season. Other than blowout losses at Maryland and at Charlotte, the Penguins have been in most games and have held second-half leads in several others before falling at the end.

Probably their worst effort in a game they should have won came at Robert Morris on Nov. 25, when the Penguins blew a 24-point second-half lead and lost to the Colonials on a last-second shot.

YSU coach Jerry Slocum, now in his fourth season, brought in a whole slew of new players this year, seven to be exact, and for the most part they have all played some key minutes.

Slocum is 32-67 with the Penguins, including 16-36 in Horizon League play. His best season was 2006-07 when he posted a 14-17 overall mark and was 7-9 in conference play.

The Horizon League men’s division is undoubtedly a lot more competitive than the women’s division and this season is no exception.

There are six men’s teams with winning records, led by Butler, Cleveland State and UIC, who appear to be the top three teams in the league, although UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay have jumped out to 2-0 conference marks.

Among the women are only three teams with winning records, and the top team, UW-Green Bay, although not as dominate as it once was, is at the top again. UIC and Loyola are the only other teams with winning marks, although Valparaiso is at .500.

Even with both teams sitting at the bottom of the standings, the YSU men have done a much better job competing in the conference statistics.

The men only rank last in two statistical team categories, field goal percentage on defense and 3-point percentage on defense. They also lead the conference in blocked shots and offensive rebounds, thanks to the efforts of senior Jack Liles and junior Sirlester Martin, who have also helped the team to a third-place ranking in total rebounds, while the Penguins also rank second in assists.

Martin is second in the conference in rebounding, averaging 7.7 per game, and leads the league in defensive rebounds at 5.4, while Liles is third in blocked shots and third in offensive rebounds. Junior Kelvin Bright is fifth in the league in scoring at 14.3.

The women, on the other hand, are last in almost everything.

Of the 13 team statistical categories kept by the league, the Penguins are last in nine of them. Their best is sixth place in rebounding defense and a tie for sixth in offensive rebounding.

Individually, seniors Nikita LaFleur and Tiara Scott are the only ones close to the top in any statistic. LaFleur is ranked second in rebounding (8.7) and second in field goal percentage (55.0), while Scott is third in field goal percentage (52.7).

Those last two stats really don’t say much for the rest of the Penguins, since YSU is ranked last in team field goal shooting (35.8 percent).

One thing is certain, and that is that beginning this week both teams have only one way to go in the league standings, hopefully it will be up.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.