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Morgan confident Penguins will soar
Season’s first game is tonight in Pittsburgh
By Dan Hiner
Youngstown
Devin Morgan, a guard on the Youngstown State men’s basketball team, is confident. So confident he made a bold prediction on Monday: YSU will beat Pittsburgh in its season opener tonight at the Peterson Event Center.
The junior guard doubled down on his previous statement.
“We’re gonna beat Pitt,” Morgan said. “There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. We have all the pieces that we need. Like I said, I think we match up with them pretty well. We don’t look at it as an upset, but to everybody else, it’ll be an upset.”
YSU head coach Jerrod Calhoun thinks the players have a right to be confident. He said the Penguins “saw success” in their exhibitions and have a good mindset.
“It doesn’t matter if your playing an [Atlantic Coast Conference] team, a [Mid-American Conference] team or a Horizon League team, anytime you’re going on the road and trying to win, it’s hard,” Calhoun said. “You got to do a lot of things right and we’ll certainly try to do that [today].”
Today’s game will feature two teams trying to forget about slumps in the second half of their 2017-18 seasons. The Penguins lost 12 of their last 15 games last season while the Panthers ended on a 19-game losing streak.
Pitt’s Jared Wilson-Frame is the only returner to average double digits. The senior averaged 13 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists last season.
The Penguins experienced a lot of turnover following last season.
Seniors Cam Morse and Francisco Santiago graduated while sophomores Braun Hartfield and Jeremiah Ferguson and freshman Jacob Brown all were released from the program in March.
While Morgan said he believes the pieces are in place for a successful season, Calhoun needs to see the Penguins in action.
“Basketball’s a long season. We’ll have to see how the guys respond,” Calhoun said. “I don’t think you really know your team until you play someone better than you or equal to you. You gotta go see how you respond in a hostile environment, which is why we play them.”
Garrett Covington is YSU’s leading scorer from last season. He averaged 8.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game while Naz Bohannon, the Penguins’ leading rebounder, averaged 7.2 points and 8.1 rebounds.
Morgan, a junior, and freshmen Darius Quisenberry and Atiba Taylor will take over at point guard. Calhoun said the numbers and point guard play will be the strength of the team.
Morgan had to sit out a year due to NCAA transfer rules. He came to YSU from Delaware State last season and will get his first action tonight.
“It’s been a long year,” Morgan said. “The offseason actually went by pretty fast. Like I said, I can’t wait. The coaches prepared me on and off the court — seeing a lot of things and learning the game off the court and of course developing my game and becoming a three-dimensional scorer and playing on both ends.”