43
A new season brings new hope for YSU women
Photo
YSU - PITT - (10) Maryum Jenkins and (5) Kenya Middlebrooks fight with (32) Selena Nwude for the ball during their game Wednesday night. - Special to The Vindicator/Nick Mays
Photo
Bob Boldon
Penguins have experience, but not at winning. New coach Bob Boldon expects to change that.
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
YSU women’s basketball coach Bob Boldon arrived at Monday’s press conference at Beeghly Center just minutes after speaking to the Curbstone Coaches.
“Good pasta,” he said of the Curbstone luncheon. “I haven’t been anywhere in this town where they haven’t served some sort of an Italian dish.
“Every function I go to there’s pasta and bread.”
Since being hired in mid-April, the Canton native has been introduced to both a new town and a new team. He’s hoping to bring a new attitude to both, infusing hope into a fan base — and a group of players — that are a little too used to losing.
“It’s a different year,” said Boldon, who inherited a team on a 31-game losing streak, including every game last season. “If we were 28-0 [last year], I wouldn’t bank on the fact that they won games last year so they’re going to win games this year.
“Each season is a new season.”
The Penguins, who open the season Friday at Pitt, have just one senior — guard Bojana Dimitrov — but there is a lot of experience returning. Sophomore forward Brandi Brown, who started all 30 games last season, was a second team All-Horizon League preseason honoree after averaging a double-double last winter. Dimitrov (19 starts last season) and guards Maryum Jenkins (seven starts) and Kenya Middlebrooks (29 starts) all played at least 23 games.
The only newcomer in the (projected) starting lineup is junior guard Tieara Jones, a Rayen High graduate who missed last season meeting academic requirements. But she has experience playing at both Buffalo and Foothill College (Calif.).
The experience is helpful, Boldon said, but with a new staff and a new system, everyone is a freshman right now.
“Some of them have college experience, which is good, and that will be valuable when it comes time to play games.,” Boldon said. “But they don’t have experience in our system, so there’s a limit to how valuable that really is.”
Boldon utilizes a motion offense, while former Coach Cindy Martin preferred to call set plays. Dimitrov prefers the new style, believing it will open up opportunities for all five players on the court.
“I think it’s much easier because when you run a set play, you expect one or two players to score and now it’s different,” she said. “We’ll have five players on the court who can score and who can pass the ball. If they double Brandi, Brandi will pass the ball and the other players will get open and have their chance to score.
“I think it will be much harder for other teams to stop that offense. They will be surprised because in practice, sometimes we don’t even know what our next move is, or what we’re going to do.”
Speaking of practices, one of the Penguins’ biggest advantages over last season is the ability to hold full practices. Due to injuries and other issues, YSU played just eight players last season and needed to use assistant coaches during practices.
Now YSU has 11 players — two more are inactive — which gives the Penguins enough depth to create competition for playing time and spell tired players. Three players averaged more than 32 minutes per game last winter.
The Penguins probably won’t win Friday’s opener — they’ve lost their last two games to Pitt by a combined score of 188-79 — but they should have several opportunities before they start their Horizon League schedule on Dec. 31.
The sooner the streak ends, the better.
“We’ve forgotten about it,” Dimitrov said. “Maybe forgotten but not forgiven? Is that the word? Yeah.
“Hopefully after this season we can talk about a more successful season so that the last one will be forgotten and forgiven.”