Boldon wants better mindset

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Bob Boldon

Photo by: William D. Lewis

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YSU's Brandi Brown and IPFW's Stephanie Rosado go for the ball during Saturday action at YSU.

By Joe Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Before his team can learn how to win — something that hasn’t happened in YSU’s last 34 games — Penguins women’s basketball coach Bob Boldon said his team needs to learn how to compete.

The Penguins showed glimpses of that in the opener against Pitt, didn’t show much of anything in a lopsided loss to Bowling Green, then put forth their best effort of the season on Saturday, erasing a 16-point deficit against IPFW before falling 73-61.

“Part of growing and maturing is learning how to compete and play in tough games,” said Boldon, who is 0-3 in his first year with YSU. “I thought our biggest deficiency with BG was we just didn’t compete with them.

“That’s what separates those top teams, the ability to compete game in and game out, possession after possession and I don’t think we’re at that level.”

Wednesday, the Penguins get their best chance to win so far this season when they host Bucknell (1-2), a team coming off a 72-53 loss to Buffalo.

YSU is 3-1 all-time against Bucknell, although the last meeting was in 1992. The Bison scored a season-high 53against Buffalo and are shooting just 34 percent from the field. They’ve attempted just 14 3-pointers — YSU has shot 92 — and rely heavily on freshman Shelby Romine, who is averaging 15.7 points.

Like YSU, the Bison don’t shoot particularly well from the outside, but they move well and attack the rim, Boldon said.

“I guess they’re a little wiser than us,” said Boldon, referring to YSU’s over-reliance on outside shots. “Our ability to flow to the ball and contain penetration will be vitally important to our success.”

Sophomore forward Brandi Brown, who is coming off a career-best 29-point effort, said the team is worrying more about itself than its opponents.

“We’re just competing within ourselves and then trying to carry that on the floor when we have games,” she said. “The energy, the momentum and all that we played with in second half [against IPFW], we have to continue to build off of that.”

Although Boldon has changed the team’s strategy in many areas — the Penguins run a motion offense rather than a lot of set plays, for instance — he said the biggest change he’s trying to make is with the team’s mindset.

“That’s more important to fix than it is to fix plays or anything else,” he said. “If we don’t have a mindset to compete, we’re not going to win basketball games.

“I thought we showed improvement against IPFW. We got into a bad situation and worked our way out of it. We obviously didn’t finish it very well, but we showed heart and character and I was happy with that.”