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Penguins hit books after long road trip
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
After playing five games over an eight-day stretch — missing a week’s worth of classes in the process — Youngstown State men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum had a simple homework assignment for his players on Monday: Do your homework.
“We had a rule — [you’re] not [allowed] in this gym and not in this building,” Slocum said at Monday’s press conference at Beeghly Center. “I think [last week] was an overload and I think because of that, I think we matured and we came together.”
The Penguins (3-3) played three straight games from Friday through Sunday, falling to Eastern Michigan and beating Longwood and UNC-Greensboro to finish second at the Eastern Michigan Showcase Tournament. At one point, the cramped schedule forced Slocum to have a walk-through in an adjacent ballroom, using tape to mimic different parts of a court.
“Maybe we ought to do that more,” he joked. “They retained some things that we wanted to do and we tweaked some offenses there in the little amount of time together and our kids deserve a lot of credit for how they played as the week went on.
“When you’re going through it, you don’t feel great about it. You say, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But at the end of the day, I think we learned a lot about the team.”
Sophomore Marcus Keene, who had a strong start to last season before tailing off in Horizon League play, made the all-tournament team after scoring a career-high 28 points (including six 3-pointers) in the win over UNCG. He’s averaging 15.7 points per game, tied with junior forward Bobby Hain for the team lead.
“He was the best player in the gym [Sunday],” Slocum said.
Today, the Penguins play host to the University Missouri-Kansas City (2-3), which defeated YSU 88-80 last December.
The Kangaroos are on a two-game losing streak, falling to Arkansas-Little Rock and Samford, but they won at Missouri and “should have” defeated Kansas State, Slocum said.
“They try to mess with the tempo of the game,” Slocum said. “They’re very, very, very aggressive with the ball, driving it and getting people into foul trouble. You don’t see this kind of style very often.”