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Changes in attitude: YSU's Maymon focuses on scoring
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GAME TIME
Who: Toledo Rockets (0-5) vs. Youngstown State Penguins (2-1)
Where: Beeghly Center
Where: Wednesday, 7:35 p.m.
Maymon focuses on scoring
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
Devonte Maymon spent the last two seasons coming off the bench at John A. Logan College in Carterville, Ill., where he gained a reputation as a high-energy defensive stopper for one of the most talented junior college teams in the country.
When he came to YSU in the offseason, Penguins coach Jerry Slocum wanted him to become a starter with a scorer’s mentality. Obviously, there was an adjustment period.
“It took me awhile to get used to things,” Maymon admitted. “I was a totally different player [at Logan] and I wasn’t looked at to do most of the things I’m doing now.”
Maymon, a junior shooting guard, has started YSU’s first three games and is averaging 14.0 points — second best on the team.
By contrast, he averaged just 12 points per game as a senior at Memorial High in Madison, Wis., and six points per game last season at Logan, which started players such as point guard Lazeric Jones (now at UCLA) and small forward Jesse Perry (Arizona).
“It was a good team and I was in a totally different position than I am here,” said Maymon, whose older brother, Jeronne, signed with Marquette out of high school and now plays at Tennessee. “In junior college, I didn’t look to score. I mostly came in and added energy.
“Here, I’m playing a lot of minutes and looking to score a little more than what I was.”
Maymon chose YSU over Southern Utah, Tennessee-Martin, Texas Christian and Morehead State (Ky.) in part because he knew he’d get a chance to compete for a starting position. He’s one of two new starters — three if you count sophomore Damian Eargle, who sat out last season after transferring — and is one of the key players in what appears to be a talented recruiting class.
“When we recruited him, we saw he had that intangible of working hard, he’s quick afoot, he also has a good basketball IQ,” Slocum said of Maymon.
Freshman point guard Kendrick Perry has been equally impressive, giving the Penguins a solid backcourt tandem with plenty of depth off the bench.
“Kendrick is a special kind of a kid,” Slocum said. “There’s a kid that played 40 minutes [against Akron] and didn’t have a turnover.
“He’s a very, very bright young man and his basketball IQ is extremely high for a freshman.”
Because the Penguins don’t have a dominant scorer — senior forward Vytas Sulskis leads the team with 14.3 points per game — they rely on their depth and their unselfishness, two things that have impressed Slocum through three games.
“We share the ball well,” he said. “The ball finds the open man.”
That makes YSU more difficult to defend, Maymon said.
“It keeps opponents off balance,” he said. “Every night it can be a different guy.
“Everybody chips in and it keeps the team good and balanced and keeps everybody happy and doing good.”