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Scalzo: Money games pay off for YSU basketball program

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IAA Fan:
By Joe Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

When it comes to money games, Youngstown State men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum knows the best time to go shopping for a deal is after Christmas.

Because the Penguins have the smallest budget of any team in the Horizon League, Slocum relies heavily on money games to pay for things like facility upgrades, including the renovated film room that housed Monday’s press conference.

“We get the most bang for our buck,” he said, grinning. “I’m the master of that.”

Slocum typically waits until the spring to finalize his schedule. Because he’s willing to play road games during less-than-ideal times (the first or second weekend of the season, the weekend after finals, the week before Christmas), the strategy works.

“We always get top dollar on those,” he said. “So much of our stuff that we’ve done here, like this room, has all come from money games. We’ve fundraised, if you will, through that process. Renovations to locker room, this room, [the director of basketball operations] position — all those things.”

YSU will play its biggest money game of the season on Saturday at Texas A&M. In addition to the $85,000 paycheck, it’s a chance for YSU’s two Texas natives to play close to home. Sophomore guard Marcus Keene and freshman forward Sidney Umude are both from San Antonio, which is about three hours from College Station.

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The Penguins did something similar two years ago when they played back-to-back games in mid-December at South Florida and Bethune-Cookman (which is in Daytona Beach) so Sunshine State natives Blake Allen, Kendrick Perry and Bobby Hain could play close to home.

“Next year we’ll try to get back to Florida again,” said Slocum, who has two Florida natives on this year’s roster in Hain and freshman forward Bryce Nickels (Tampa). “Obviously we need to get an X-amount figure.”

But YSU doesn’t necessarily need a check from everyone.

The Penguins can’t offer opponents much money to play at Beeghly Center — that’s why you see games against Thiel, Oberlin and Wilberforce on this year’s schedule — but they’re willing to play home-and-home series against teams like Bethune-Cookman (which played at Beeghly in 2013) and South Dakota (at YSU in 2013, at Brookings in 2014), even if it’s an odd geographic fit.

YSU typically plays two or three money games per year — Illinois State is the other one this season — and the Penguins under Slocum have played at places like Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, UCLA and Notre Dame.

YSU went 0-5 in those games, but if it beats the Aggies, it will earn its second win over an SEC team in the last two years. In 2012, the Penguins won at Georgia (68-56) just a few months after the football team defeated Pitt in the opener.

“It’s a plus-plus,” Slocum said of money games. “It’s a plus for the university that they get the money and it’s a plus for us that we get an opportunity to play those games.”

Any chance of going to Hawaii sometime?

“I would love that,” he said, chuckling. “You can put that in there.”

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