State of men’s basketball

[Penguin Nation]

I would have no problem with Kevin Mackey as the YSU MBB HC.

The Manute Bol issue is slightly worrisome, and the other issues concern me none.

[jbags]

Matt Donlon 6'7'' small forward from Iowa Western JC commits...originally from Melbourne Australia,  played 1 year at S. Dakota St. Seems like a decent get....also recruiting G Mike Davis from Lakeland CC who spent a year at N> Illinois...would also be a good sign...IMO still need to be all over Antwan Lilliard from Cleveland CC...I would feel a lot better with these 3 guys added to the 3 we signed early and the 7 footer that sat out last year...keep fingers crossed

[ysuguins4]

Interesting to note: The last time the job came open, I thought YSU should have looked at Kevin Mackey. No less an authority than Larry Bird, who'd hired Mackey as a scout with the Indiana Pacers, gave me 20 minutes on the phone on a Saturday afternoon. Bird talked about what a great job Mackey was doing and how he'd paid his debt for the mistakes he made and deserved another chance as a college coach. I wrote as much in a column, but as far as I know, Mackey was never considered. The style of play Mackey employs would have put butts in the seats at Beeghly from the start and the name recognition in northeastern Ohio would also have helped the program. But hey, what do I know?

Also interesting to note: Disgraced former Baylor coach Dave Bliss is back in the game. But Kevin Mackey could never get another shot?

Glad you're still checking in.  Does anyone in administration or any of the big money donors give a rat's behind about men's basketball, or are they like most of the Mahoning Valley and apathetic towards it?

[edpuskas]

Interesting to note: The last time the job came open, I thought YSU should have looked at Kevin Mackey. No less an authority than Larry Bird, who'd hired Mackey as a scout with the Indiana Pacers, gave me 20 minutes on the phone on a Saturday afternoon. Bird talked about what a great job Mackey was doing and how he'd paid his debt for the mistakes he made and deserved another chance as a college coach. I wrote as much in a column, but as far as I know, Mackey was never considered. The style of play Mackey employs would have put butts in the seats at Beeghly from the start and the name recognition in northeastern Ohio would also have helped the program. But hey, what do I know?

Also interesting to note: Disgraced former Baylor coach Dave Bliss is back in the game. But Kevin Mackey could never get another shot?

Glad you're still checking in.  Does anyone in administration or any of the big money donors give a rat's behind about men's basketball, or are they like most of the Mahoning Valley and apathetic towards it?

I can't speak for any big-money people. I just don't get invited to those parties all that often. My view is that the administration cares, but the money isn't there to buy out a coach and then pay two guys, especially when the idea is perhaps to sweeten the contract down the road.

The defections from the program are troubling, though. I would think at some point YSU has to talk about what's happening and why.

[penguinpower]

Basket is irrelevant to me and many others.   Even with good teams attendance was bad in basketball

[IAA Fan]

I think the apathy is nationwide. Both the NBA and the college game is seeing steep declines in viewership. only 2.8% the Harris people rate college basketball as the #1 sport (8th place, even fell below NBA, car racing and the NHL; where college football is #3 behind the NFL and the MLB (11.8%). The NFL has never been out of 1st-place (averaging around 30%+), while the MLB passed up college football for the #2-spot. There is just over a 1% gap between college football and the MLB. While the gap between College basketball and college football is 11.8% to 2.8%. Clearly we need to sink ever penny we have into football, as I bet those numbers are even more widespread in NE Ohio. So nationwide, when you add up football, over half of the people consider the NFL or NCAA football the top sport.

I watch every Penguin MBB game I can, or at least listen (thank you YSU and iHeart radio). However, outside of that, I have little interest in college basketball. I have not watched an entire NBA game since the glory days of the Lakers ...I think I was pre-teen. It is to the point where I barely consider most NBA players athletes. I might add that it makes me even more disgusted when I see the salaries for the pros and the attitudes for both the collegiate and the NBA players ...but especially the collegiate players. So if you had to pick an area where coach Slocum might be at an age disadvantage ...it is here more than anywhere else. Everyone thinks they can be a star ...when the the odds of this happen are slim-to-none. Not one them seems to want to be a star in college.

[ysufan0505]

I think the apathy is nationwide. Both the NBA and the college game is seeing steep declines in viewership. only 2.8% the Harris people rate college basketball as the #1 sport (8th place, even fell below NBA, car racing and the NHL; where college football is #3 behind the NFL and the MLB (11.8%). The NFL has never been out of 1st-place (averaging around 30%+), while the MLB passed up college football for the #2-spot. There is just over a 1% gap between college football and the MLB. While the gap between College basketball and college football is 11.8% to 2.8%. Clearly we need to sink ever penny we have into football, as I bet those numbers are even more widespread in NE Ohio. So nationwide, when you add up football, over half of the people consider the NFL or NCAA football the top sport.

I watch every Penguin MBB game I can, or at least listen (thank you YSU and iHeart radio). However, outside of that, I have little interest in college basketball. I have not watched an entire NBA game since the glory days of the Lakers ...I think I was pre-teen. It is to the point where I barely consider most NBA players athletes. I might add that it makes me even more disgusted when I see the salaries for the pros and the attitudes for both the collegiate and the NBA players ...but especially the collegiate players. So if you had to pick an area where coach Slocum might be at an age disadvantage ...it is here more than anywhere else. Everyone thinks they can be a star ...when the the odds of this happen are slim-to-none. Not one them seems to want to be a star in college.

LOL, what?

[guinpen]

Basket is irrelevant to me and many others.   Even with good teams attendance was bad in basketball

It has been a while but I have been at games that were packed, I know that some slam the D3 games but I had to sit in the last row of the bleachers for a game against then NAIA D2 Westminister. Point being that people will come out for a good program. But you have to spend money to make money, every empty seat is lost money.

[Penguin Nation]

The first round of the NCAA MBB tournament averages a 6.6 TV rating, whereas the FCS title game received a 0.7 rating (1.1 M viewers).

I'm not saying YSU MBB should be prioritzed over FB, although a strong argument can be made that it should.  But the acceptance of failure of MBB makes no sense.  Also, the attendance figures are falsely inflated.  I went to the Kennesaw State game, and we had our own section to ourselves.  The attendance was listed at 1,229.  The capacity is listed as 6,300.  No way 1/5 seats were filled.  I'd say actual fan attendance was ~300.

[IAA Fan]

I think the apathy is nationwide. Both the NBA and the college game is seeing steep declines in viewership. only 2.8% the Harris people rate college basketball as the #1 sport (8th place, even fell below NBA, car racing and the NHL; where college football is #3 behind the NFL and the MLB (11.8%). The NFL has never been out of 1st-place (averaging around 30%+), while the MLB passed up college football for the #2-spot. There is just over a 1% gap between college football and the MLB. While the gap between College basketball and college football is 11.8% to 2.8%. Clearly we need to sink ever penny we have into football, as I bet those numbers are even more widespread in NE Ohio. So nationwide, when you add up football, over half of the people consider the NFL or NCAA football the top sport.

I watch every Penguin MBB game I can, or at least listen (thank you YSU and iHeart radio). However, outside of that, I have little interest in college basketball. I have not watched an entire NBA game since the glory days of the Lakers ...I think I was pre-teen. It is to the point where I barely consider most NBA players athletes. I might add that it makes me even more disgusted when I see the salaries for the pros and the attitudes for both the collegiate and the NBA players ...but especially the collegiate players. So if you had to pick an area where coach Slocum might be at an age disadvantage ...it is here more than anywhere else. Everyone thinks they can be a star ...when the the odds of this happen are slim-to-none. Not one them seems to want to be a star in college.

LOL, what?

yep. In my mind, the game never kept up with the changing players. I never missed a home Pride game for 2 seasons. I was on campus waiting for my father in a night class. The level of athleticism there was above any NBA player ...well above.

Think about it ...
In today's NBA there is no defense, players basically travel with every possession of the ball, there is not even enough talent for a lay-up, they refuse to push the net up to 14.5' (which is about where it should be using the average height of players today vs when the game first established the 11'). I just do not see it. I mean guys under 6' tall used to get such elevation going to the basket. Today most players do not need to fully extend their arm ...let alone body. Certainly there is a skill in shooting, but the average ghetto kid does not go to school ...he just shoots all day, then no matter how undereducated he is ...he knows he has his college at least partially paid for once he gets to 80% ...problem is ..he need someone else to calculate the percentage. Yet they won't refine the game to attract a better class of athlete. They just continually make the game more and more like street ball. They want every game to have 100+ to 100+ scores. Could not be anymore boring as they lower the athleticism of the game to meet the players, because 7' people cannot jump.

[ysufan0505]

My lord I-AA... I've seen you say some out of the box things. This is unreal! Hahahahahaha. The Pride?!?

NBA has THE most athletes out of any sport there is. Timmy Legler sure is more athletic than Lebron though

[popsicle]

1AA........open your mouth and remove all doubt. Geez....I can't believe what you posted. Sarcasm, I hope? The rim is at 10'....not 11. And as for the kid who works to get to 80% shooting?......sign him up w/ Slocum! I will personally fund his scholarship, take his classes for him and attend all games! Of course, it will only last one year...until he gets fed up with the program, coaching, apathy, environment etc...and transfers out.
By the way....where are your football seats located.....the 110 yard line?

[ysuguins4]

In Slocum's 10 years, the Guins' highest finish in the league was 5th in 06-07.  They've finished 6th 3 times, 7th once, and 9th or 10th the other 5 years.  They have never made it to the semi-finals of the HL tournament, which means they have never won back to back games in the tournament.  As bad as UIC was this past season, they managed to win back to back games and advance to the semi-finals.  Here is the number of semi-final appearances by team over the past 10 years.

Butler - 7
Green Bay - 6
CSU - 6
WSU - 5
Valpo - 5
Milwaukee - 4
Detroit - 3
UIC - 2
Loyola - 2
Oakland - 0 (only been in the league 2 years)
YSU - A BIG FAT ZERO

[IAA Fan]

In Slocum's 10 years, the Guins' highest finish in the league was 5th in 06-07.  They've finished 6th 3 times, 7th once, and 9th or 10th the other 5 years.  They have never made it to the semi-finals of the HL tournament, which means they have never won back to back games in the tournament.  As bad as UIC was this past season, they managed to win back to back games and advance to the semi-finals.  Here is the number of semi-final appearances by team over the past 10 years.

Butler - 7
Green Bay - 6
CSU - 6
WSU - 5
Valpo - 5
Milwaukee - 4
Detroit - 3
UIC - 2
Loyola - 2
Oakland - 0 (only been in the league 2 years)
YSU - A BIG FAT ZERO

Let's use those same teams and list all of them that have a football team that supports more than 8 scholarships? 1 = YSU. You cannot deny it, that changes everything ...top-to-bottom. Hey lobby the NCAA to drop title-IX and when we still have this performance out of MBB ...I will change my vote.

[Wick250]

I have ignored this forum for ten weeks.  It is somehow refreshing to see that the craziness still prevails.  Anyway back to the topic at hand, YSU basketball.

First, Slocum has a tough job.  He not only operates with monetary restrictions but also lacks a local recruiting base.  High school basketball in the Mahoning Valley stinks compared to the rest of Ohio; it stinks badly compared to the regions of America that are basketball hot spots.  Given these restrictions, I could almost tolerate a program that kept and graduated its players and won about half its games.  Obviously that is not the case.  Constant failure on the court is now accompanied by instability and occasional chaos within the program. 

What makes Slocum's shortcomings more obvious is the success of Boldon and Barnes.  The women's coach is also poorly paid by Horizon league standards and has a poor recruiting budget.  But look at what Barnes just accomplished on the recruiting trail.  Five kids, all from Ohio.  FOUR first team all-state selections.  Also a third team all-state selection who is still probably, relatively speaking, better than any Slocum OHIO recruit.

Finally, on the matter of football versus basketball, I would suggest that television ratings are irrelevant.  Millions of Americans watch sports on tv but they are not active fans who would attend an event.  In 2007, the Ohio High School Athletic Association hired the Scarborough group to survey the percentages of Ohioans who actually went to a sports event during the year 2006.  Here are the results:

26.3% high school sports
21.8% major league baseball
 8.4% pro football
 5.7% college football
 3.7% pro basketball
 2.8% college basketball
 2.2% pro hockey
 0.8% pro soccer

These figures were, of course, for the entire state of Ohio.  I suspect the number of active college basketball fans in northeast Ohio is considerably smaller.  These figures suggest that allocating more resources to YSU basketball would not yield an impressive increase in attendance.