YSU had a roller coaster season

By Pete Mollica

YSU will have 11 of 13 players returning for next season.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown State men’s basketball team went on a roller coaster ride during the 2008-09 season.

The Penguins finished the season with an 11-19 record, including an 7-11 mark in the Horizon League, good for sixth place.

But coach Jerry Slocum knew that it could have been much better.

“We were kind of a disappointment early, but we did come back to finish well,” said Slocum, who completed his fourth season at YSU.

Slocum, who is 41-78 in his career with the Penguins, admitted that part of the early season disappointment was due to the fact that he expected much more from his team, despite having seven new faces on the roster.

“I really expected this team to jell a lot quicker than it did,” Slocum said.

Still, in the Penguins’ first five games, three of their losses were by less than six points and two of them came in the final seconds.

“We were in most of those games with the opportunity to win, but we just lacked that closing finish to put somebody away,” said Slocum.

Early in the season YSU blew a 25-point lead at Robert Morris and lost 74-72 on a last-second shot, then followed that with a 66-65 loss to St. Francis.

“We had a good chance to win at Wright State [a 60-59 loss] and we should have beaten Detroit at home [a 68-64 loss],” said Slocum. “When you look back at those and you can see where you might have finished at .500.”

But all that is behind the Penguins and Slocum said that he’s sees nothing but optimism for the future.

“We’ve got the bulk of our team returning and we already have two outstanding athletes committed to our program for next season,” he said.

The Penguins will return 11 of their 13 players from this season, including the top four scorers.

“I was pleased to see that all of the new faces that we brought into the program this year really contributed to the season and they are all back,” said Slocum.

Slocum singled out the play of junior Sirlester Martin, junior DeAndre Mays and sophomore Vytas Sulskis as all having very good season.

“DeAndre made the Horizon League’s All-Newcomer team which was a plus for him and the program, but I thought that Sirlester was probably the most consistent player we had all season long,” Slocum said.

“Vytas did a great job coming off the bench the second half of the season and I just have that feeling that his best basketball is ahead of him and next year could be his big season,” he added.

Slocum also pointed out the play of sophomore Tom Parks, junior Kelvin Bright and freshman Ashen Ward as all adding great play to the season.

Then there’s the case of senior Zack Rebillot, who will return to the program next season. Rebillot didn’t begin playing for the Penguins until his sophomore season as a walk-on and will still have one year of eligibility remaining.

Rebillot came on to play a key role in the Penguins’ success over the second half of the season with his all-around hustle and strength on the boards.

One of the things that really hurt the Penguins in that second half of the season was not having junior Dallas Blocker with the team.

Blocker missed the final three weeks of the season with an illness that required surgery and Slocum is very optimistic that he’ll be back with the Penguins next year.

“With Dallas we could have very easily won a few more games at the end of the year, because when Jack Liles got in foul trouble we really had nobody to fill that spot,” Slocum said. “Even early in the year he missed several games with an injury that really hurt our chances to win.”

Looking back on the year Slocum quickly pointed out the victory over Cleveland State at Beeghly Center on Jan. 23 as the highlight of the season.

“It just happened to be Cleveland State, but the biggest highlight was we won before a packed house on national television,” he said. “It could have been Green Bay or anyone, but it was just that moment that made the difference.”

Although Slocum can’t talk about next year’s recruits until they officially sign letters of intent, he has already received verbal commitments from Warren Harding’s Sheldon Brogdon and Bedford Chanel’s Lamar McKnight.

Brogdon suffered a season-ending knee injury about a month ago, but reports are that his surgery was successful and he’ll be as good as new. Whether he’ll be ready to start playing next season is still questionable, but worst case scenario would be that he would redshirt next season with four more to follow.