Progress doesn’t show in standings

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YSU Men's Head Coach Jerry Slocum

By Joe Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

At the midpoint of the conference season, the Youngstown State men’s basketball team is in a familiar spot in the Horizon League standings — near the bottom.

The Penguins (7-12, 1-8 Horizon) have lost six straight league games, with their lone victory coming against winless UIC, 71-69, at home on Dec. 30. That puts them ninth in the 10-team conference.

“There’s nobody involved in our program — players, coaching staff — that’s happy where we are right now in terms of wins and losses,” YSU coach Jerry Slocum said Monday. “Would you like to have more wins? Absolutely you would like to. Are you happy with the outcomes? You’re not.

“Am I enjoying this group and seeing our young guys getting better and seeing them play better? Do I think we’re better than we were as a basketball team than when we were 4-1 early in the year playing non-conference people? There’s no doubt that we are.”

The Penguins were competitive on their recent Horizon League homestand — they lost three games by a combined 18 points — but Slocum admitted his team’s improvement hasn’t shown up in the standings.

“It hasn’t been good enough to win close games in this league,” he said. “It’s been a challenge and I think we have the guys here that can turn this corner in terms of getting where we want to go.”

The bigger question is, will Slocum be around when that happens?

Slocum is 56-112 in six seasons with YSU, including 26-69 (.273) in Horizon League games. That’s an improvement over his predecessor, John Robic, who went just 12-52 (.188) in four seasons in the Horizon. (YSU’s .239 winning percentage is the worst in Horizon League history. Oklahoma City, with a .360 mark in the league from 1979-85, has the second-worst winning percentage.)

Slocum’s teams have finished in the top half of the league just once, 2006-07, when the Penguins went 7-9 to finish in a three-way tie for fifth out of nine teams.

Although he has one year remaining on his contract, sources said next season is an option year, with YSU holding the option. Sources have also said it’s likely the school will pick up that option, although YSU officials will wait until after the season to make that decision.

When asked about his future, Slocum said he wants to stay.

“I love coaching; this is what I do,” said Slocum, who is 636-437 in 36 years as a head coach, with most of those wins coming at the NAIA or Division II level. “I love being here. Every job I’ve ever taken has been a rebuilding job. Not one has come to me where I inherited a program that was at the top.

“This [rebuilding at YSU] has taken longer than any of us would have liked.”

Counting tournament games, Slocum has lost 36 of his last 39 Horizon League games. He has also had six players leave his program in the last 12 months, including freshman guard Sheldon Brogdon, who left the team in late-November.

But Vytas Sulskis, the team’s lone senior, said he thinks the Penguins are closer to contending now than they were four years ago.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” he said. “I feel that our level of talent we have this year is way better than the years before. Guys have different attitudes, just working hard and doing whatever it takes to win the game and not worrying about their individual statistics.”

The Penguins returned just three players from last year’s team, which finished 2-16 in the Horizon League. That inexperience showed up in the first half of the league slate. But Slocum thinks there’s reason to be hopeful in the second half of the year — and beyond.

“I like our young guys,” he said. “I think we’re on the right track going where we want to go.”