YSU 75-73 over Oakland

[go guins]

IMO the biggest win of the season.  Partly because it was Coach Calhoun's press that was key.  Guy has a system, and we all knew it would take a while, but it is catching on.  Somebody on the blog said after the first month we probably won't win another D-1 game all season.  Oh ye of little faith!

Covington's Putback at the Buzzer Gives Penguins 75-73 Win over Oakland

Garrett Covington had a catch-and-shoot putback at the buzzer to send the Youngstown State men's basketball team to a 75-73 win over Oakland at Beeghly Center on Wednesday night.

Covington caught Braun Hartfield's miss and got his winning shot off with 0.1 seconds left to give the Penguins their second straight Horizon League victory. YSU scored the final nine points of the game after trailing 73-66 with 2:30 remaining, and seven of those points came from Covington.

Covington finished with 18 points, and Cameron Morse scored a game-high 23 points for Youngstown State.  Jalen Hayes led four Golden Grizzlies in double figures with 19 points.

Youngstown State (8-20 overall, 6-9 Horizon League) had 13 steals and forced Oakland into 18 turnovers, and the Penguins converted those turnovers into 25 points. YSU also had seven blocks, including a big one by Covington at the end of the shot clock on Oakland's final possession.

[Double ET]

IMO the biggest win of the season.  Partly because it was Coach Calhoun's press that was key.  Guy has a system, and we all knew it would take a while, but it is catching on.  Somebody on the blog said after the first month we probably won't win another D-1 game all season.  Oh ye of little faith!

Covington's Putback at the Buzzer Gives Penguins 75-73 Win over Oakland

Garrett Covington had a catch-and-shoot putback at the buzzer to send the Youngstown State men's basketball team to a 75-73 win over Oakland at Beeghly Center on Wednesday night.

Covington caught Braun Hartfield's miss and got his winning shot off with 0.1 seconds left to give the Penguins their second straight Horizon League victory. YSU scored the final nine points of the game after trailing 73-66 with 2:30 remaining, and seven of those points came from Covington.

Covington finished with 18 points, and Cameron Morse scored a game-high 23 points for Youngstown State.  Jalen Hayes led four Golden Grizzlies in double figures with 19 points.

Youngstown State (8-20 overall, 6-9 Horizon League) had 13 steals and forced Oakland into 18 turnovers, and the Penguins converted those turnovers into 25 points. YSU also had seven blocks, including a big one by Covington at the end of the shot clock on Oakland's final possession.

I was at the game, The small crowd was pretty noisy especially during the last 40 secs of the game.
The team played extremely in the last several minutes over coming the deficits.
With the game tied, Oakland ran the clock down and had the open shot just inside the 3 point arc with around 8 seconds to go. He passed up the shot and passed it to Nunn in the corner who took a 3 point shot. Covington blocked Nunn's shot  and YSU called timeout and set up the last play.
During the game, on a YSU missed shot, Tyree took off from the foul line grabbed and dunk the ball back in with tremendous power. I thought that was the highlight of the game....

Their defense is getting better and they start to play team defense.

[go guins]

IMO the biggest win of the season.  Partly because it was Coach Calhoun's press that was key.  Guy has a system, and we all knew it would take a while, but it is catching on.  Somebody on the blog said after the first month we probably won't win another D-1 game all season.  Oh ye of little faith!

Covington's Putback at the Buzzer Gives Penguins 75-73 Win over Oakland

Garrett Covington had a catch-and-shoot putback at the buzzer to send the Youngstown State men's basketball team to a 75-73 win over Oakland at Beeghly Center on Wednesday night.

Covington caught Braun Hartfield's miss and got his winning shot off with 0.1 seconds left to give the Penguins their second straight Horizon League victory. YSU scored the final nine points of the game after trailing 73-66 with 2:30 remaining, and seven of those points came from Covington.

Covington finished with 18 points, and Cameron Morse scored a game-high 23 points for Youngstown State.  Jalen Hayes led four Golden Grizzlies in double figures with 19 points.

Youngstown State (8-20 overall, 6-9 Horizon League) had 13 steals and forced Oakland into 18 turnovers, and the Penguins converted those turnovers into 25 points. YSU also had seven blocks, including a big one by Covington at the end of the shot clock on Oakland's final possession.

I was at the game, The small crowd was pretty noisy especially during the last 40 secs of the game.
The team played extremely in the last several minutes over coming the deficits.
With the game tied, Oakland ran the clock down and had the open shot just inside the 3 point arc with around 8 seconds to go. He passed up the shot and passed it to Nunn in the corner who took a 3 point shot. Covington blocked Nunn's shot  and YSU called timeout and set up the last play.
During the game, on a YSU missed shot, Tyree took off from the foul line grabbed and dunk the ball back in with tremendous power. I thought that was the highlight of the game....

Their defense is getting better and they start to play team defense.

Biggest problem with this team is still the Francisco injury.  Freshman are getting closer to being Sophomores and so they are beginning to make progress.  This is going to be fun watching this program develop.  Anybody hear if Santiago is going to get medical redshirt year?

[ytownchief22]

6 conference wins in his first year. Calhoun is the real deal... Won't know anything on Santiago's possible extra year until the summer time.

[go guins]

6 conference wins in his first year. Calhoun is the real deal... Won't know anything on Santiago's possible extra year until the summer time.

Oh, then we should find out in a couple days based on today's weather!  (much as I'd like, I bet we have some winter left!)
Any idea on a spring game?  After cancelling last year due to terrible weather, I haven't seen anything even scheduled this year.

[mudclods]

I was really hoping we could get a signature win this year.  It was the type of game that a good team finds a way to win, and we needed that.  Down 7 with 2:30 to go and to finish on a 9-0 run to beat Oakland is impressive.  Despite getting killed on the glass last night, YSU did a great job turning Oakland over, which kept us in the game.  We also played pretty smart and didn't turn the ball over.

It's great to see Cam playing so well again...sure didn't want  to see him end his YSU career like it was going at times early in the year.  He's playing with confidence and looks like he's having fun.  He's been damn near perfect from the foul line against the league shooting 30-32 and had that one rim out last night.

Covington was amazing last night.  He had a steal, took a charge, and the block at the end before the winning bucket.  He impresses me so much in his press conferences...seems very intelligent and speaks so well.  It's hard to believe he's a freshman.  Going to be fun watch him progress in the coming years.

YSU's biggest weakness besides defense for the most part seems to be finishing strong inside and converting fast breaks.  I feel we've missed so many opportunities this year in both categories that has cost us a few games this year.  More often than not we're winning the turnover and rebounding battle, but not converting.

YSU really has a great opportunity now to finish the regular season strong with home games against Detroit and Cleveland State along with the road game against N. Kentucky, which will be tough.  Would be tremendous to end the regular season winning 4 of 5 to head into the conference. 

I think we'll see if YSU is making progress if we can take care of business Friday night against Detroit.  Will probably be favored for only the 2nd time this year.  We should have never lost in Detroit and then followed that up with a tough loss at Wright State that we played well enough to win.  I thought that was a key juncture early in league play that started the tide going the other way.  We had opportunity to be at least 4-2 and a good opportunity at 5-1, but was instead 3-3 and lost all the momentum we had after starting 3-0. 

[go guins]

I was really hoping we could get a signature win this year.  It was the type of game that a good team finds a way to win, and we needed that.  Down 7 with 2:30 to go and to finish on a 9-0 run to beat Oakland is impressive.  Despite getting killed on the glass last night, YSU did a great job turning Oakland over, which kept us in the game.  We also played pretty smart and didn't turn the ball over.

Your notes are all X's and O's and basketball.  Comments that are pretty much spot on, but I think you are missing the point.  Being 3-3 at a point vs 4-2 or even 5-1 is relatively unimportant.  What is important is learning how coach wants to play, learning the system, playing the right way, and bring the young kids into 1-A MBB.  Those goals are being accomplished.  Obviously wins are an important measure of progress, but not the only way.  Progress this season will be measured in wins over the next 2 or 3 seasons! 

[YsuPride]

Great game. I love the enthusiasm of these kids and the coach. Give the new coach sometime. We would have folded last year any game like this. It seems getting better as the season goes on as they should. We need some more big players for next year hopefully. I think next year we'll see a 16 to 18 win season. Hopefully we surprise everyone come tournament time this year though

[IAA Fan]

I feel that I must point out that our success came when we did not play laker ball, but rather when we went back and let Cam drive. We have some decisions to make in terms of style. I agree with you Go, now that we have "pulled the plug" and went with Calhoun, you really want him to install his style at 100%. However, I have notice that so many of these young guys have matured their individual game & if we can pick up just one more player with above average defensive skills, we can win in the conference play a bit more half court control again. However, how many times have we said that over the past 10-years? Again, some big decisions to make.

[ucfpengbuck]

Great points mudclod.   I think the area that we need to improve in going forward is some interior presence.   We need a rim protector and on offense some one who is a threat that teams might have bring a double which open up the perimeter.  Naz is playing his ass off down there but we need some more beef.

Do you think Oakland hates us between last night and last season in the tournament ?  Hopefully coach can get two more league wins to get to eight.   Slocum's best year was 10 in his 12 years as coach.   One could argue that the league is easier than years past.

[mudclods]

Great points mudclod.   I think the area that we need to improve in going forward is some interior presence.   We need a rim protector and on offense some one who is a threat that teams might have bring a double which open up the perimeter.  Naz is playing his a$$ off down there but we need some more beef.

Do you think Oakland hates us between last night and last season in the tournament ?  Hopefully coach can get two more league wins to get to eight.   Slocum's best year was 10 in his 12 years as coach.   One could argue that the league is easier than years past.

Also, there were only 16 games for several of Slocum's seasons. 

[go guins]

I feel that I must point out that our success came when we did not play laker ball, but rather when we went back and let Cam drive. We have some decisions to make in terms of style. I agree with you Go, now that we have "pulled the plug" and went with Calhoun, you really want him to install his style at 100%. However, I have notice that so many of these young guys have matured their individual game & if we can pick up just one more player with above average defensive skills, we can win in the conference play a bit more half court control again. However, how many times have we said that over the past 10-years? Again, some big decisions to make.

This issue in college ball (ANY sport) is you are also going to have losses.  Cam is done, so picking up "just one more player with above average defensive skills" you have lost a ton on offense.  I'm not sure what "did not play laker ball" means, but driving to the basket was always part of the Calhoun offensive plan.

[go guins]

With a second to go both the men and women's BB teams were in trouble. 
Great finished kids! 

[IAA Fan]

To me, Laker ball is producing more opportunities to score, much of the time at the expense of second-chance opportunities. It works well when you have a team with lower percentage shooters. Our conference is more defensive-minded, but with the school losses, that is not as much the case the last couple years. We are winning when we drive to the basket with our high % shooters (Cam) & slowing down a bit before we set for defense.

[go guins]

To me, Laker ball is producing more opportunities to score, much of the time at the expense of second-chance opportunities. It works well when you have a team with lower percentage shooters. Our conference is more defensive-minded, but with the school losses, that is not as much the case the last couple years. We are winning when we drive to the basket with our high % shooters (Cam) & slowing down a bit before we set for defense.

Big issue with this team is still the lack of Santiago.  In a post game presser, Jarrod talked about Cam and the issues he has had learning to be a playmaker as well as scorer.  This second half of the season would have been very interesting with Francisco!