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Penguins go to chemistry class
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
In an effort to whip his young team into shape — and build the type of chemistry that only shared misery can bring — YSU men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum put the Penguins through a five-day “boot camp” in the preseason.
During one Monday-Friday stretch, every player had to get up for 6 a.m. workouts that focused on non-traditional, military-style training techniques such as lifting tractor tires or pushing towels across the gym floor. At the beginning, Slocum told the team that if one player was late, the workouts would carry over to the following week.
Consequently, the hour-long workouts built up both their bodies’ core and the team’s core.
“I believe it made us tougher and it made us bond better as a team because we had to look out for each other and make sure everyone woke up,” said senior forward Vytas Sulskis.
So was anyone late?
“No,” he said. “We made sure no one was late.”
Sulskis is one of just three returning players from last year’s 8-22 team, which finished a disappointing last in the Horizon League. The Penguins lost five seniors to graduation, then saw five more quit the team.
So Slocum spent the offseason bringing in fresh talent that could mesh with newcomers such as sophomore forward Damian Eargle (who sat out last season after transferring from UNC-Greensboro) and freshman guard Sheldon Brogdon (who redshirted with a knee injury).
His main focus has been on defense and intensity, stressing that the Horizon League doesn’t allow you to take possessions off.
“You’ve gotta be able to play offense for 35 seconds and you’ve gotta be able to guard for 35 seconds,” Slocum said. “That kind of consistency of play is something that is very, very foreign to these guys.
“The young people just coming out of either junior college or high school basketball don’t understand how hard you have to play all the time.”
They also need to learn to play defense, something many of them didn’t have to do at their previous stops. Slocum has emphasized communicating on defense, forcing his players to run sprints whenever they didn’t talk to each other.
“Trust me, we ran a lot of sprints,” said Sulskis.
But, Sulskis said, that experience has paid off.
“We still have a lot to do but I feel pretty confident that we’re getting better every time we practice and all the guys are committed to defending the ball,” he said.