Cleveland State game

[Wick250]

No specific thread about this game yet?  Ok, signing day is next week, but let's at least pretend that we care about basketball.

I expect that the officials will go a long way in determining the outcome of this game.  Cleveland State plays the best pressuring defense in the Horizon League.  Their success results from two things: very good athletes and illegal contact on nearly every possession.  If the officials allow hand-checking, holding and bumping away from the ball, we are in serious trouble.  If they enforce the rules properly, our team, with the best ball-handling skills in the conference, should be able to neutralize their pressure.

[ItalianPenguin]

All chairback seats are sold and CSU is bringing 2 bus loads of people. Should be a fun atmosphere.

[ysuindy]

Saw this earlier from Will Haskett, of the Horizon League broadcast crew - YSU has lots of fans around the league tomorrow night.

willhaskett Will Haskett
A consensus among HL folks after last night's games: If Cleveland State can win tomorrow, it's their league to lose.

Pomeroy projects a 68-65 CSU win, giving YSU a 38% chance of winning. 

Sagarin's ratings make CSU a 4 point favorite.

Wish I could be there.  Be loud!

A chance to move in to a tie for first in the league and hold the tiebreaker over CSU.  Huge game!

[ysuindy]

http://www.vindy.com/news/2012/jan/27/ysu-nears-sellout-saturdays-cleveland-state-game/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The Youngstown State men's basketball team is closing in on a sellout for Saturday's Horizon League showdown with Cleveland State at Beeghly Center.

The school had sold 5,800 tickets as of 3:30 p.m. Friday. Beeghly's capacity is about 6,300.

The 7 p.m. game will follow the 4:35 p.m. game between the YSU women and Wright State.

[ysuscuba]

Wow, I'm very excited for this team! I really wish I could fly up for this game. We are all cheering for you guys!  Make penguin natiOn proud!

[ysu16]

Cleveland State -4 Betus.com

[IAA Fan]

This one was over at the 12-minute mark of the first-half. No toughness at all. We are being pushed all over our own court. There are a lot more people here than the computer is showing. Cleveland State has no less than 1,000 fans here.

[Dmorton]

Nice job of showing for the most important game in over a decade.  Again, no toughness or heart whatso ever.   No bench, could not play to our strength of shooting threes.  Totally dominated, and the worst part is, it was known they would play pressure defense from the start of the game, and nothing was done to adjust to it.

[ysufan0505]

Absolutely embarrassing. Biggest crowd since 1984 and it's a shame what happened. When's football season?

[OleYSUfan]

I applaud all of you (6,300+) fans in attendence, you got behind the YSU team and they flopped. This is the reason the attendence has been sooo poor! We constantly depend on the 3 point shot and we had openings, but couldn't deliver.

Great fan support, but we all are so disappointed!

[goodnews]

I live in Arizona and was disappointed to see the score so lopsided early in the first half.  I think regardless of what happened the fan support should not hibernate for another 2-3 years. This team still has home games against Butler and Valpo and needs the local support. Its hard to build something when no one believes in you except yourself and a select few.  Regardless of what people say Slocum deserves some credit for fielding a pretty competitive team.  However, I don't understand why he downplayed this game so much in his weekly news conference... Regardless of what he said the team was going to be amped up. Its OKAY to get excited and more importantly let the fans get excited about an opponent that is cleary your biggest rival in the conference.  Live by the 3 or die by the 3.......   

[IAA Fan]

Good question goodnews. I think he did not downplay it, he is looking at it as a 3-game set to try and reduce the change of a fall-off. However, we fell off very early in the first of the three games. I too agree that Slocum is showing it can be done, and I am behind him and the team. I even had my mother at the games today ...great atmosphere! It took a while for the reserved and season seats to fill, but it was jammed up in general well before. They even ran out for programs. If people like this type of game atmosphere ...come out and make it this way every game!!! Even with the loss ...a good time was had by all. The ladies were out muscled, then came back like gangbusters. I wish that last shot, in regulation, would have been a 3.

The thing fans need to realize is this the type of crowd that can make quality recruits play for Slocum & Co. I am sure that those 4 kids down by the bench were recruits. One was relatively big and tall. I am going to go and watch every football game & every weekend basketball and baseball games that I can. I feel that everyone in the Valley should do the same.

I caught the end of the track meet in WATTS ...very exciting to watch. Real nice video on the Horizon League TV. I was also at pitching practice a few weeks back ...WATTS is very-well designed. So versatile.

[YsuPride]

It was sad to see us flop in front a great crowd.  We needed to win to prove to the fans it is worth coming to Beeghly.  CSU was the much better team and better coached last night.  Let's hope the fans are not turned off by this performance.  Our bench is pathetic!

[YSUGO]

Went to the game last night and this was the first game I saw in person this year.  Awesome atmosphere!  Cleve St... was much more talented, physically bigger and came in with a mission to be served.  We stole a game up in Cleveland, like I said before...They kicked our ass in Ytown..Iaa made a comment that Slocom downplayed the game all week and the team played like it..Maybe I am wrong...but from what I can see, maybe we have a little more guard depth but this team isnt much better, than previous Slocom teams..We looked smallish...and I know people are in love with this guy on here, but he just seemed like he couldn't wait for the game to end...why no timeouts..when they were making a run...Hell, Waters up by 20 called a timeout with 15.9 second before the half ended.  I know we get what we pay for.What bothers me the most if We could have recruited an average big guy to help Eargle, we would be alot better so shame on the staff for not getting the job done ...but truthfully even with that help Cleve state would beat us 8 out of 10 times ...oh ..one of their frosh came off the bench and had 14 points and like 11 rebounds..

[Wick250]

Unfortunately, that game will be a watershed event for the basketball program.  This set of starters is the best here in a long time, and they were simply manhandled by Cleveland State.  Over 5,000 casual fans witnessed the horror show which will translate into an empty gym for three or four more seasons.  As others have mentioned, we occasionally show signs of life and then disintegrate in spectacular fashion.  Time to refocus on the gridiron where we know that we belong.