43
YSU’s Slocum calls it a career
RELATED: YSU’s Slocum announces retirement after 42 seasons
Jerry Slocum calls it quits
Gallery
The best Horizon League tournament run of Jerry Slocum's 12 years at Youngstown State University will apparently be the veteran coach's college basketball swan song. A YSU athletic department official has confirmed today that Slocum intends to announcement his retirement after more than four decades of coaching leaving behind an overall YSU record of 142-231. - See more at: http://www.vindy.com/news/2017/mar/07/ysu-basketball-coach-jerry-slocum-retires/#sthash.XJkYg4bu.dpuf
YOUNGSTOWN
After 42 years on the sidelines, Youngstown State head men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum has called it quits.
The 65-year-old Slocum is retiring after his 12th season in charge of the Penguins.
Blake Allen, a former YSU basketball player with Academic All-Horizon League accolades in 2012-13, said the news was a bit surprising.
“I was like, ‘Wow.’ It’s hard to be shocked when someone has been coaching for so long, but he just loved being around the game so much,” Allen said. “It really gave me mixed feelings.”
During his run at YSU, the Penguins were 142-232 (.379) overall and 63-143 (.305) in Horizon League play.
The Penguins had two winning seasons under Slocum. In 2011-12, YSU went 16-15 overall and 10-8 in the Horizon League to finish tied for sixth place, and in 2012-13, the team went 18-16 overall with a 7-9 conference record, good enough for fifth place.
The Penguins made it to the second round of the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament that year, defeating Oakland 99-87 in the first round before losing 84-82 to Canisius in the second round.
Slocum found more success at the lower levels of college basketball before his move to YSU prior to the 2005-06 season. Slocum had a career record of 199-166 at Nyack College in Nyack, N.Y., from 1975 to 1987 before he went 203-80 at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa., from 1987 to 1996 and 179-78 at Gannon University in Erie, Pa., from 1996 to 2005.
Slocum did have some signature wins at YSU.
On Feb. 3, 2011, YSU defeated Butler 62-60 at Beeghly Center. The Bulldogs were national runners-up the year before and went on to the same finish in 2011 as well.
“I always tell people we were the last team to beat Butler before they finally lost in the national championship game,” Allen said. “I still tell that to people to this day.”
The next season, on Nov. 12, 2012, YSU went to Georgia and defeated the Southeastern Conference team 68-56 in Athens.
Slocum won his 700th career game as a head coach on Nov. 23, 2015, when YSU defeated North Dakota 79-69 in Fort Myers, Fla.