WILAJ: Slocum deserves another contract

Jerry Slocum happy? Really?

For the moment — about an hour after he coached his young/inconsistent 2015-16 Youngstown State men’s basketball team to one of its few impressive wins of the season — the 64-year-old coach took on an unusual look: content.

On Jan. 9 around 10 p.m. inside an empty Beeghly Center, Slocum guided his grandson Aiden (a seventh-grader at Boardman) through shooting and dribbling drills, rebounding for the youngster while giving orders.

The Penguins — who finished with an 11-21 (6-12 Horizon League) record after losing to Detroit on Saturday in the first round of the conference tournament — had just defeated Green Bay by 10 points on this night.

It was YSU’s second strong win in three games and, in this instance, the stress that hung over the 11th-year Penguins coach all throughout his contract-season seemed to decimate.

Just for the moment, though.

You can go through the clips of Slocum’s media conferences from this season and there’s about a 95 percent chance you’ll hear this sentence at least once in each presser: “You know, this season has been really hard on me.”

No question, it was another rough season for Slocum — even in a campaign in which he notched his 700th career win on Nov. 23. Now, the million-dollar question (OK, more like thousand-dollar question, this isn’t YSU football we’re talking about) is: will Slocum’s contract be renewed?

There’s no official word, yet. Executive Director of Athletics Ron Strollo said last Thursday that the situation will be examined after season’s end and didn’t respond to a phone call on Monday.

However, word from those around the program is that, yes, Slocum will be back for another contract.

If true, it will be much to the disdain of Penguins fans. Slocum’s 129-210 record at YSU speaks for itself. In his 11 years, the program has had just two winning seasons (2011-12 and 2012-13).

But Coach also spoke for himself all season — and the way the circumstances aligned with the final year of his contract — he might just have a point.

Like I mentioned before, Slocum, since December, continually brought up his personal hardships of coaching this frustrating YSU team that could score 100 points on any given night, but often couldn’t guard its own shadow.

His two main gripes:

1. The Penguins lost senior forward Bobby Hain — their leader, best player and 1,000-point-scorer — to a broken foot in their final non-conference game (Dec. 21 at Notre Dame).

2. By season’s end, YSU featured an inexperienced nine-man rotation of three first-year juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen.

Sure, nobody wants to hear excuses. But, like it or not, it’s the reality of a situation that may have cut Slocum some slack.

And on top of that, even the grumpiest Penguins fan can’t deny that the young group showed real potential — well, at least opposing coaches acknowledged it.

“First off, Coach Slocum is so good,” Wright State coach Billy Donlon said after his Raiders beat YSU, 87-81, on Feb. 25. “If they had Bobby Hain, it’d be different. I think it’s important to say that.

“And every spring, we say, ‘Which Youngstown State player is going to develop kind of out of left field into an all-league player?’ It was Cameron Morse.”

Just a sophomore, Morse averaged 20.3 points per game on 47 percent shooting as he earned second-team all-conference honors (which sold Morse’s season short, by the way).

Actually, the Penguins have a handful of promising young back-court players, including freshman starting shooting guard Jordan Andrews (selected to the conference’s All-Freshmen team) and sophomore starting point guard Francisco Santiago (9.1 points, 4.3 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game).

Then there’s starting junior small forward Matt Donlan, a dead-eye 3-point shooter (46 percent) who averaged 13.1 ppg.

“Without Bobby in there, that inside presence, that hurts them,” Milwaukee coach Rob Jeter said after beating YSU on Jan. 7. “So I think Coach Slocum is doing a phenomenal job of giving them a chance to win.”

There’s just two examples of conference-foe coaches who supported behind-the-eight-ball Slocum without being probed.

And another thing Slocum and YSU seemingly have on their side going forward is a cohesive locker-room.

Prior to this season, the Penguins had four rotation players transfer from the program. High-scoring starting sophomore guard Marcus Keene was the most notable — the same guy who reportedly, in practice, punched out 2013-14 teammate Ryan Weber (a sophomore starting guard that year who transferred following the season).

There were no brawls within this YSU team. Instead the group meshed, while a true leader emerged in Santiago.

“When those guys from last year decided to transfer, our chemistry — just that day — was better than it was,” Santiago said following YSU’s win against Northern Kentucky on Feb. 27. “Sometimes chemistry seems to alter when you’re going through a tough time — and we’ve been through slumps. ...But for the most part we’ve managed to stay together and be tough.”

My point? This YSU team — which lost nine games by less than 10 points — is close to being a real contender in the Horizon League. With all its youth, it just wasn’t ready to win yet this season. But all the factors mentioned above are good signs for the future.

True, YSU still has to develop its front-court group of Jorden Kaufman (first-year junior), Sidney Umude (sophomore), Bryce Nickels (freshman) and Devin Haygood (freshman).

Its ineffectiveness and lack of physicality was a big reason why the Penguins surrendered a putrid 83.8 ppg. But big men develop slower than guards, and the potential is certainly there (especially with the latter three).

Back to the main topic, is there a strong argument Slocum’s contract shouldn’t be renewed? Certainly. But the time to part ways may have been last year or after other past poor seasons.

Not now, with a talented, young roster that has come together. A change would only disrupt what’s building — unless YSU was to bring in an established, well-respected coach (but considering its basketball budget, don’t count on that).

In turn, it appears that, for one final contract, YSU is still Slocum’s team. And the pieces are in place for some consistent happy times.

Steve Wilaj covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Email him at swilaj@vindy.com or on Twitter at steve_wilaj