A couple of comments related to previous posts.
On the topic of YSU’s talent level, at one time I bought into the idea YSU was limited in its basketball recruiting potential by geographic location, its character as a regional institution, budget, culture as a football university, etc. These concepts were offered primarily by previous unsuccessful coaches (Stroia, Robic). The basketball success of Akron, Kent State and Cleveland State under the same or similar circumstances argued otherwise. Each has been to the NCAA tournament in the past two decades, Akron (and perhaps others) multiple times. The success of the YSU women’s program on a national level, when well coached, convinced me the aforementioned criteria were not determinant of success at Youngstown.
Coach Calhoun proved he knows what he is doing on the court. The most glaring remaining element is recruit identification and ability to convince to attend.
On the topic of YSU’s winning nonconference record, let’s take a closer look. They defeated North Carolina Central (Sagarin ranked 318 of 352 Division I universities), USC Upstate (Sagarin 331), Robert Morris (Sagarin 298) and SEMO (Sagarin 316). All Division I bottom 20% teams. A couple of the wins were close games. Let’s not be fooled by the team’s performance against an inordinately weak schedule as an indicator of success. Scheduling this many poor performing teams did not occur by accident. Not to be lost, the Penguins were defeated by Western Michigan (Sagarin 236).
