MEET THE PENGUINS
By Pete Mollica
Men’s team has depth, character
Coach Jerry Slocum expects to have a solid defensive club.
YOUNGSTOWN — A year ago Youngstown State basketball coach Jerry Slocum was getting ready to start the season with eight new faces on his roster.
Slocum felt at the time that these newcomers, plus his returning players, would mold the Penguins into one of the finest groups he’d had since he’s been at YSU.
It took longer than Slocum hoped, but by last February the Penguins were a pretty good basketball team.
After a slow start YSU finished the year with an 11-19 record, including a 7-11 record in the Horizon League.
This year the Penguins return all but two players and Slocum is excited.
“This is the deepest team we’ve had since I’ve been here and because of that it is probably the most talented team I’ve had here and I like where we are today,” Slocum said.
With five seniors and four juniors on the roster the Penguins have both experience and depth for the first time since Slocum has been the coach.
Now in his fifth season at YSU, Slocum is one of just 17 active head coaches with over 600 career victories. He’s 48-78 over his four previous seasons at YSU and his career mark is 621-403.
“This group was a very good basketball team last February, and now we’ve got that in the tank for this year,” he said. “I thought it would quicker last year, but for most of the season we were wondering who our leaders were going to be.
“We’ve got to find ourselves early on, and I believe we paid the price to be where we are now.
“I believe our experience will show at the defensive end of the floor this year,” he added. “Our junior and seniors are taking the role of leaders and they want to make this a special season.”
In contrast to the past two years when the Penguins had to replace their top two scorers, they return 86.6 percent of their scoring, 84.3 percent of their rebounding and 99.4 percent of their 3-point scoring, while welcoming back their top four scorers.
Leading the returnees is 6-foot-4 senior guard Kelvin Bright (11.4 points per game), along with 6-2 senior guard DeAndre Mays (10.7), 6-7 junior guard Vytas Sulskis (10.3) and 6-7 senior Sirlester Martin (9.6). Martin was also the team’s leading rebounder a year ago, averaging 7.3 per game.
“I think the strength of our overall program is our depth throughout,” Slocum said. “From position to position we have some depth. The strength of our team is two-fold. One, we have everybody back and two is our experience.”
Slocum also emphasized that players who make the correct play can make a big impact.
“Every team needs what I call ‘fill in the blank’ kind of guys,” he said. “Guys who are going to go out and work hard and do the little things that can make all the difference in a close game.”
One of those players is 6-6 senior Zach Rebillot, who came to the Penguins as a walk-on and last season came into his own off the bench to play a key role in the team’s stretch run.
Slocum has added three new faces to the roster, all of them local products. His top recruit was 6-0 freshman Sheldon Brogdon of Warren Harding, but the standout guard suffered a severe knee injury his senior season with the Raiders and will probably be redshirted this year.
One of Brogdon’s teammates at Harding, 6-7 sophomore Damian Eargle, transferred to YSU from UNC-Greensboro this season and will also sit out the year according to NCAA transfer rules.
The other new face is 6-3 sophomore Andy Timko of McDonald, who was a manager for Slocum last year. He transferred to YSU from Westminster.
The Penguins will open the season on Nov. 13 at Xavier and play their home opener on Nov. 15 against Hiram at Beeghly Center in a 4:05 p.m. tip off.
Slocum feels the Horizon League will be very strong again this season.
“The league is very good. We don’t get any respect from the league, but then again you have to earn respect,” he said. “I still feel that we are in the top half of the league this season.”