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Penguins hope to shoot better
By JON MOFFETT
Youngstown
Macey Nortey couldn’t have explained it any better.
The one thing, above all else, the Youngstown State women’s basketball team has to do in order to be successful in 2010-11.
“We have to put the ball in the basket,” Nortey, a junior guard, said with a big grin. “That’s pretty much what it all comes down to.”
Putting the ball in the basket was something the team struggled with last year.
That’s why first-year coach Bob Boldon has put an emphasis on shooting during the summer. And with practice officially underway, it’s the most important facet.
“I think we’re shooting the ball better, but I don’t think we’re anywhere where we need to be offensively,” Boldon said. “But we are shooting the ball better. That was something that we targeted very early; something we needed to address.”
The Penguins finished last season with an 0-30 record that prompted former coach Cindy Martin to resign after two losing seasons.
The team was last in every major statistical category except for two in the Horizon League. The Penguins averaged only 49 points per game while giving up 74. It was the worst point differential in the conference.
YSU had a conference-low 30.6 field goal percentage. The next highest school, Valparaiso, had 37.3 percent.
That figure was even worse from deep range. The Penguins shot 26.3 percent — also last in the conference — from beyond the arc. And free-throw shooting came in at a Horizon League-worst 63 percent.
“We have to see an improvement in shooting, and that’s probably where it ends at the moment,” Boldon said.
The team returns four of its five starters from a year ago, including sophomore Brandi Brown.
Brown led the team with 44 percent from the field. Behind her was center Rachael Manuel, who graduated, with 34 percent.
Boldon said the offense he brings in is garnered more to 3-point shooting and quick shots off the ball.
“It’s more of a little bit faster pace than what they played last year with fewer set plays,” he said. “It’s a little bit more of what you would call a ‘motion offense.’”
Boldon said his squad has an “above average” basketball IQ and many of the players have been able to catch on quickly.
“I would say, for the most part, there is a pretty good understanding of what we are trying to accomplish,” he said. “It’s been very vanilla; we haven’t put a lot of stuff in or gotten really complicated yet.”
Brown said she is excited to learn all the new concepts and schemes Boldon brings with him.
“I really value the fact that [the coaching staff] is focusing on teaching us the game instead of just going out there and playing,” she said. “They’ll stop practice because they want us to know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”
Nortey said she hopes the new offense can play into her hands a little bit. As the team’s point guard, she handles the ball and sets up the offense on possessions.
She said she feels the duty to help lead the team as it goes through a transition period with a new coaching staff.
“Now that I’m a junior, I feel like I have inherited that leadership role, and as a point guard, too,” she said. “So I just have to keep going with it like I’ve been saying. We have to get it done. It’s time. It’s our time.”
Brown said the team is using a “practice by practice” approach before the season begins Nov. 12 at Pittsburgh.
“Every time we step into the gym, we are focused on getting better,” she said.