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YSU Penguin Athletics => YSU Penguin Athletics => Topic started by: Penguin Nick on December 20, 2019, 08:49:48 AM
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I can't believe no one is talking about the game. I'm excited and can't wait. Anyone going? Can we win or at least keep it close?
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I was actually going to post something similar. It's been really surprising to me the lack of promotion and excitement around this event. For probably the biggest college basketball game ever in this area, you'd think there would be a lot of media coverage and promotion. It's mind boggling to me that YSU's social media hasn't even really pushed the event. There should be a lot of interest in this game from basketball fans throughout the region. There's no reason why this game shouldn't be a sellout.
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I have been watching the Guins on ESPN+ and attendance at the home games is very poor. In their defense I have watched other mid major games and attendance is very similar. Is it because of ESPN 2 ESPNU ESPN+ that people do not go to games anymore.
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From Tribune/Vindy:
NEWS SPORTS OPINION LIFE OBITUARIES CLASSIFIEDS JOBS GARAGE SALES
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December 20, 2019 | Today's Paper | Submit News | Subscribe Today
Visit by WVU based on relationship
LOCAL SPORTS
DEC 20, 2019
JOHN VARGO
Sports Reporter
jvargo@tribtoday.com
YOUNGSTOWN — Jerrod Calhoun first met West Virginia University men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins when he played AAU basketball. Huggins was the coach at the University of Cincinnati at the time.
Calhoun, after playing at Cleveland State for the late Rollie Massimino, became a student assistant for the Bearcats.
Huggins, who coached at Walsh University in the early 1980s, saw that Calhoun was doing a great job at Cincinnati. When an assistant coaching job came open with Walsh, Calhoun went to the Canton school before connecting again with Huggins as his director of basketball operations at WVU.
From there, Calhoun landed at nearby Fairmont State. In his fifth year, the Falcons made it to the NCAA Division II title game.
That led to his current job with Youngstown State, which brings us to Saturday’s WVU vs. YSU game at the Covelli Centre, starting at 1 p.m.
“He’s a basketball guy. He’s a good coach,” Huggins said of Calhoun.
The two coaches have stayed in touch and that relationship is a big reason this game is taking place. Games like these rarely happen.
Huggins explained that Power 5 schools like West Virginia, part of the Big 12 Conference, have to think of the business side of basketball.
Playing in games like Saturday’s normally isn’t beneficial to teams like WVU because they lose a huge financial windfall they would receive if it was a home game on the Morgantown, W.Va., campus.
Huggins said the Mountaineers average 10,000 to 11,000 people per game. Tickets for Big 12 games are $20 to $35 for the upper bowl seating and much higher for lower level and floor seating.
Add that up over 16 home games, which the Mountaineers have this year, and the money adds up quickly. Playing a game at a mid-major school like YSU costs money for a Power 5 school like WVU.
Huggins, who was the coach at the University of Akron in the 1980s, learned that lesson when he wanted to host national power Louisville. He reached out to Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum.
“I wrote a letter to Denny Crum when I was at Akron about trying to get him to come to Akron to play,” Huggins said. “I thought I had all these great reasons. He wrote me back. It was a very great letter, just telling me how much money they made every time they open the doors to Freedom Hall for the athletic department. I started to understand then, that this is very much a business.
“We’ve got two sports that make money. If you think about all the sports we have, there’s two that make money. The rest of them don’t make any money. They lose money. That’s that way everywhere, pretty much.”
YSU and WVU made this situation work out for both teams. The Penguins played in Morgantown last year and will again in 2020 to ensure the Mountaineers come to downtown Youngstown.
“This deal with Youngstown is good for them, obviously, and it’s good for us,” Huggins said.
YSU had to sacrifice two “buy” games in which the Penguins could have made anywhere from $70,000 to $90,000 per game for the athletic department. YSU does not make a return on the games played in Morgantown.
“With a chance to play a Power 5 in your own city, that’s pretty neat for basketball fans and fans of ours,” Calhoun said on Tuesday. “I want to fill it up. Here of late, the ticket sales have picked up. It’s not my department, but that’s what I’ve heard recently.”
This is the third time a Calhoun-coached team has played WVU. He’s 0-2 against the Mountaineers.
“He doesn’t take it easy on you, I can tell you that,” Calhoun said about facing Huggins.
The YSU coach still roots for WVU, except when the Penguins are playing the Mountaineers.
“It’s my second-favorite college basketball team,” Calhoun said. “I watch not only all of their games, but (Huggins) comments after the games. I’m a huge West Virginia fan. It’s going to be exciting.”
Eric Ryan, president of JAC Management, said workers at the Covelli Centre have been busy constructing the floor. The surface usually hosts concerts and games of the United States Hockey League’s Youngstown Phantoms.
Like many multi-purpose arenas, basketball surfaces are temporary courts. That is what the Covelli Centre has in storage, along with hoops, shot clocks, etc.
They have to take out the dasher boards, the bottom surface where the puck careens off and up the ice. The Plexiglas attached above has to come out as well.
Then a surface called a membrane is put down before the 4-foot-by-8 foot sections of floor can be placed together to form the temporary home for both basketball teams on Saturday.
Ryan said on Tuesday this takes time to put this together.
“It takes 20 guys the better part of 8 to 12 hours, depending on how it goes to get the ice covered, get the glass down, dashers down and to install the floor,” Ryan said.
Ultimately, to get Saturday’s game and for YSU to host a Big 12 opponent, it takes a relationship — which Huggins and Calhoun already have.
“It means a lot for him to do it,” Calhoun said. “A lot of coaches wouldn’t do it. He’s just a really
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I have been watching the Guins on ESPN+ and attendance at the home games is very poor. In their defense I have watched other mid major games and attendance is very similar. Is it because of ESPN 2 ESPNU ESPN+ that people do not go to games anymore.
It does not help that students are all off campus during the semester break. If they start to win, fans will be back.
Very little promotions have been done for this game.i don't even know if students could get in the game for free. If not, they are not going to pay $20 to see the game.
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Go guins. Let's make this a competitive game. Is the game on TV ? I'll be there but wanna record it as well. I hear just under 3000 tickets sold.
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The Westminster game had a good crowd. The Robert Morris crowd was decent I thought. Sunday's game against SEMO was terrible but that's a hard sell as it was an 8 PM game, the Steelers were playing plus kids are on break. Wednesday's crowd was better but not good. I thought last year's crowds during league play was much better than in the past.
Saturday's game is not televised. I see a lot of WVU people complaining. WVU Twitter said it was Youngstown's choice.
I read somewhere some companies that were picking up the tab for free student tickets Saturday.
Earlier in the week it was said that 2500 or so tickets were sold for Saturday. Supposedly it holds 5900. I looked at Ticketmaster and there's a lot of available seats. Will be interesting to see what the walk up crowd Saturday will be. No concerns on weather. Would think a decent amount from WVU would attend plus you have 2 of their bigs that played local at Warren & Kennedy.
I just am shocked there hasn't been a bigger push on ticket sales
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According to the Vindicator, YSU gave up a minimum of $140,000 and as much as $180,000 to get WVU to play in Ytown. Unless there is a guarantee, one would think the Athletic Department would make sure that the Covelli Center was full.
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There won't be more than 3k at the game. Lots of WVU fans. The game might be close early but WVU will pull away late and win by 15+.
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3k??? What are the expectations of this AD? He has done nothing to effecttively impact attendance in any sport. Apparently there are no expectations at the university.. No one holds the AD accountable so there are NO EXPECTATIONS....
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I'm really surprised WVU is only favored by 12.5. That would seem to be a good bet. I really figured it would be around 18.
The lack of PR for this whole deal has been shocking to me. There still isn't a mention of the game on the YSU Men's Basketball Facebook page. The only thing on the Twitter was a pic of practice the other than and the preview. I really expected a lot of PR and promotion from YSU and the local media more involved. There's nothing on WKBN's or WYTV's site and WFMJ only has a blurb from the AP. Hasn't even been a press conference this week from Coach other than the post-game on Wednesday night.
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I'm really surprised WVU is only favored by 12.5. That would seem to be a good bet. I really figured it would be around 18.
The lack of PR for this whole deal has been shocking to me. There still isn't a mention of the game on the YSU Men's Basketball Facebook page. The only thing on the Twitter was a pic of practice the other than and the preview. I really expected a lot of PR and promotion from YSU and the local media more involved. There's nothing on WKBN's or WYTV's site and WFMJ only has a blurb from the AP. Hasn't even been a press conference this week from Coach other than the post-game on Wednesday night.
This should not come as a surprise to most of us. We have been posting all year about the inability for YSU's athletic department to promote any of its sports.
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The fact that there is no video for the game today is just more incompetency on the athletic department. Did they think not showing any video stream would make more people show up to the game? Embarrassing...
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Lots of blue and gold out there in the stands...
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IT'S GREAT TO HAVE A POWER 5 TEAM COMING TO YOUNGSTOWN. I HOPE THEY HAVE A GOOD TURNOUT AT THE COVELLI CENTER.
IT WOULD BE VERY NICE TO HAVE YSU PLAY A VERY COMPETIVE GAME WITH WVA, BUT MY GUT FEELING IS WVA WILL WIN BY 15 POINTS. I HOPE I AM WRONG.
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The fact that there is no video for the game today is just more incompetency on the athletic department. Did they think not showing any video stream would make more people show up to the game? Embarrassing...
Cannot agree with you there Chief. You guys complain when they do something major and when they don't. This is Youngstown. If it is on TV, people will stay home and watch it. Simple as that. You people have to stop acting as though we are some educated, dedicated and experienced sports community. We do not even sell out 18k football seats with a national championship team back in the 90's; let alone $40 tickets to a basketball game. Also, it is one of the closer major universities to us. Smart move to put "butts in the seats". If we were allowed I would have made it a double-header.
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Good game. Competitive the entire way. Team played inspired led by coach. Team will keep getting better.
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It was so exciting to be part of the attendance at a division 1 YSU game with a major top program. To have this event in our city is a plus for the University and local region. I hope we have more basketball events such as these in the coming seasons. My applause to Ron Strollo and Eric Ryan.
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Take a few minutes to view West Virginia Coach HUGGINS' postgame comments on YouTube. There are a number of valuable nuggets contained in it. Coach CALHOUN may want to screen it to the Penguins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3Kh707sQ2A
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I was anxious to hear the nuggets but the sound on my computer was to low to catch much of anything. :(
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It was a great atmosphere...if it was promoted better the place could have been a sell out I think.
YSU definitely outplayed WVU. When YSU got up 7 in the 2nd half I think everyone realized YSU can win this game. Down 3 with the ball with 2 mins to go, that illegal screen call did them in as WVU went on to score the final 8. It was a shame because the final score sure doesn't tell the world how close the game was. Their bigs were just a little too much down the stretch. I really wasn't impressed with the officiating throughout the game.
I hope this game helps moving forward. If YSU can play hard and continue to play well defensively like this, they should be able to win a lot of league games and be in games even when they struggle shooting. I also think it showed a lot of people what YSU basketball is all about and hopefully gives some incentive to come to some home games. I know the guy that sat beside me didn't know much about basketball, but was impressed how they played.
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I truly think the physical strength of West Virginia wore down YSU and contributed to their victory. We were able to hang with them making hustle plays, and some key shots in the first half but West Virginia fed off the crowds energy because it appeared maybe that their was more Mountaineer fans in attendance.
If this Penguins team treats every game of the conference season like they did, especially at Beeghly, no reason they can't secure a top-3 seed headed into the conference tournament.
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WV just defeated Ohio State, #2 ranked in the country, yesterday.
If we could made the outside shots and FTs, we might not be far off in contending for the league championship.
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A couple tough days for the buck fans. Too bad so sad! LOL
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A couple tough days for the buck fans. Too bad so sad! LOL
It is encouraging to see the FT and 3-PT shooting rise over the last several games. Didn't shoot the ball well early in the season and cost us some games and made others more difficult than they should have been. Defensive intensity wasn't as good on Saturday, but at least we shot the ball pretty well where earlier in the year that would have been a loss.
I just looked back at last year and during league play, YSU gave up over 77 ppg on avg. So far this year, YSU has only given up 77 or more on 3 occasions. I really think if YSU can play well defensively as they have been, it'll keep them in all of the games and should give them an opportunity to win quite a few. Tonight's game at UIC will be a good test. It's a team YSU has struggled against and they like to play fast and shoot 3's. They are a veteran team. Their record is deceiving as they had some injuries and suspensions that kept some of their stars out of many of the non-conference games.