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YSU men’s team is road tested
Preseason trip built confidence, but tough tests await this week
By Steve wilaj
YOUNgstown
Saturday’s 79-70 loss at Kent State was the Youngstown State men’s basketball team’s first game of the season — sort of.
See, the ‘sort of’ stems from the Penguins’ three-game foreign tour in the Bahamas in mid-August. And, as forward Matt Donlan can tell, the benefits of that trip to Paradise Island already showed in YSU’s encouraging performance against the Golden Flashes.
“I think we have really, really good chemistry on this team and we’ve come together well,” Donlan said at Monday’s media conference. “I think the foreign tour really helped us in that respect.
“The young guys don’t feel so young any more. This was their fourth game, so they have some playing experience under their belt. This really didn’t feel like a first game with us — it was just continuing the journey.”
That progress and unity will surely be tested in the coming days — starting with Wednesday’s 7 p.m. home opener against Toledo (1-0) at Beeghly Center. As head coach Jerry Slocum realizes, YSU’s next three games are no trip to Paradise Island.
“The road doesn’t get any easier,” said Slocum, whose team travels to Fort Myers, Fla., from Saturday-Monday for the Florida Gulf Coast University Tournament. “But the positive side of it is our guys are gonna grow up in a hurry.”
Slocum — still sitting on career-win no. 699 — saw his new group grow a bit on Saturday at KSU.
Led by senior Bobby Hain’s 20 points and seven rebounds and Donlan’s 15 points, the Penguins gave the Flashes all they could handle as they cut the deficit to as little as three with 2:22 remaining.
With seven newcomers seeing their first regular-season action for YSU, it was a positive first contest.
“I think we showed some character and showed some heart,” Slocum said. “I think our young guys performed pretty well for it being their first college game. That was the positives.
“The negatives, we didn’t execute like I hoped we’d do down the stretch,” Slocum said. “We clearly had three possessions — one we were down by two, one we were down by three and one we were down by five — where we were not getting shots up. So this is a work in progress with these guys. I think there were signs we did some positive things, but we couldn’t overcome our negatives.”
While Kent State was a tough first test, the Penguins host a Toledo program that went 20-13 last season and enters 2015-16 riding a streak of four-consecutive winning seasons. The Rockets are led by senior center Nathan Boothe and guards Stuckey Mosley and Jonathan Williams, as well as freshman Jaelan Sanford, who made 6 of 8 3-pointers in Toledo’s opener.
“[Boothe’s]’s a lot like Bobby — good from mid-range and really good with his back to the basket,” Slocum said. “Their two guards are really good, then they have a freshman who just shoot’s the heck out of it. So this is a good basketball team. We’re gonna have to play extremely well to be in the basketball game.”
The same likely goes for YSU’s following two games on Saturday against FGCU (22-11 last season) and Sunday against Bowling Green (21-12 last season). The Penguins then end the FGCU Tournament on Monday against North Dakota (8-22 last season).
“I think this group has a chance, when the metaphorical light comes on — know what I mean?” Slocum said. “The lights are on in the house, but they’re not bright lights right now. But I think as this group gets more experience ... and again, the schedule is not easy.”