Topics

1

YSU Penguin Athletics / Womens Basketball #2 (where it really counts!)

« on: July 14, 2021, 10:22:23 AM »

For the second straight season, the Youngstown State women's basketball team posted the second-best grade-point average among all Division I teams with an impressive 3.874 during the 2020-21 academic year.

The Penguins, who have now been among the top 10 teams in five of the past six seasons on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll, posted their highest GPA on record in 2020-21. YSU's student-athletes had a combined GPA of 3.897 in the fall and 3.850 in the spring.

"I am extremely proud of the 2020-21 team for their efforts both on and off the court! The players and staff worked very hard to have a winning season on the court and to fight for a top spot in the nation academically off it," said YSU head coach John Barnes. "YSU Women's Basketball has been ranked in the top 25 nationally 10 of the past 11 years, and that says a lot about the culture and focus of the program. Congratulations to each player and staff member for helping achieve this great honor!"

Maine led the nation with a 3.900 GPA, and Youngstown State edged fellow Horizon League member Robert Morris for the second spot. The Colonials had a 3.824 as the only other conference team in the top 25. In the last six years, YSU has finished second twice, third, seventh, 10th and 24th.

Youngstown State made its debut on the prestigious list in 2010-11, and it has possessed one of the nation's top 25 GPAs in 10 of the last 11 seasons. No other program in the country has accomplished that feat. Previously, the Penguins were second in 2019-20, third in 2015-16, sixth in 2011-12, seventh in 2018-19, 10th in 2017-18, 17th in both 2010-11 and 2012-13, 22nd in 2014-15 and 24th in 2016-17.

Individually, YSU had 11 student-athletes record a 4.0 in at least one semester during the year. Mady Aulbach, Mary Dunn, Gabby Lupardus, Malia Magestro, Chelsea Olson, McKenah Peters, Emma Randall, Lexi Wagner and Jen Wendler had a 4.0 in both semesters, and Amara Chikwe and Maddie Schires had a 4.0 in the fall.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Justus Reed

« on: October 19, 2020, 12:17:45 PM »

Nice to see Reed starting at DE for Virginia Tech.  Bet he is THRILLED he escaped the cowards with the MVFC and got to play his senior year.  Hope he does well.

3

YSU Penguin Athletics / Tressel

« on: November 26, 2019, 09:01:00 AM »

Word is, the job of president of OSU is between Tressel and John Kasich. 
1AA, you can move this wherever you want, but this would affect YSU sports more than any other person at YSU leaving.
BTW I think  JT is 66 JK is 67

4

YSU Penguin Athletics / Boring!

« on: September 18, 2019, 09:34:20 AM »

The "week 0" opening game with national TV coverage was great, especially with a big win over a frequent playoff team.  HOWEVER this early season bye week is BORING!!! 
We have few injuries, few controversies.  Some may want to start a Craycraft or Waid for instance, but there is NO WAY Mays deserves benching.  Not only were the Dukes a playoff team last year, but they won a first round game, and handling them the way we did is NO time for benching anybody.
Plus we have the building excitement of battling the mighty Colonials of Robert Morris in a week and a half.  Yawn
The Buckeyes have the Miami RedHawks who lost 35-13 to Cinn.
And to top it off, I'm not a big fan of Blake Shelton. 
  Oh well, Go Browns!

5

YSU Penguin Athletics / Which teams should leave FBS?

« on: January 31, 2019, 10:22:24 AM »

It's cold as "heck" and not much going on in sports so time to read some SBNATION news.  Guy makes a lot of good points:


There are lots of reasons a smart school might consider dropping out of FBS, college football’s top division, and moving to FCS.
The financials of the sport are changing. Coaching salaries are skyrocketing at an ahistorical rate. In a few years, the average head coach salary in the AAC, a non-power conference, could be north of $2 million. Programs are feeling pressure to increase assistant salary pools, with top coordinators easily clearing $1 million a year.

That’s just coaching salaries. There’s also pressure to invest in expensive facility projects and pay analysts, recruiting staffers, and other full-timers. Travel costs aren’t getting cheaper either.

Other future obligations are unclear. The NCAA, its conferences, and its schools might have to defend a class-action lawsuit over concussions. A court case could force schools to spend more on athletes — or even eventually pay players.

That might not be so bad if revenues were rising as quickly as expenses. Attendance has declined all over. With the decline of cable TV, the rise of media fees should slow, especially outside the Power 5 conferences. Many state governments have slowed their support for higher education, leading schools to charge students heavy fees to subsidize athletics.

Many teams aren’t going to win anything significant. They’re often the same ones in financial peril.

To free themselves from that wasteful cycle, an FBS team could consider dropping to FCS. There are a few structural differences between the two levels, the biggest being the different scholarship limits. FBS lets you have 85 full-ride scholarships, while FCS is limited to 63 (and in some leagues, even less than that).

The cost savings over scholarships is suspect (the schools are cutting checks to themselves, after all), but the costs for virtually everything else, from facilities to coaching salaries to support staff, are substantially less. The revenues are smaller too, but for some G5 programs without lucrative TV deals, the future savings may outweigh the costs.

Dropping down could help a team win more and spend less. Attendance could reveal some candidates.
The NCAA technically requires that FBS teams average 15,000 in paid attendance per game over a rolling two-year period. Schools typically pad their official attendance numbers, but in real life, many schools actually have fewer than 15,000 butts in their seats every game.

In 2017, 34 FBS schools had fewer than 15,000 people actually scan tickets into their average home game. Some schools don’t have to comply with records requests for data like that, so the number could be even higher.

But we know these teams didn’t scan 15,000 fans into their games: ULM, Coastal Carolina, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Ball State, UMass, Kent State, San Jose State, Miami (Ohio), Central Michigan, Charlotte, UL Lafayette, Akron, Northern Illinois, UTEP, Arkansas State, New Mexico State, Ohio, Western Michigan, Middle Tennessee, Texas State, Nevada, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, UNLV, Old Dominion, Toledo, UTSA, Southern Miss, Marshall, Louisiana Tech, Wyoming, Connecticut, and Western Kentucky.

If we’re just using attendance as a benchmark, the entire MAC could drop to FCS. But that isn’t fair, as the MAC’s TV-focused strategy (with games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights) has to depress turnout. If MAC teams played all their games on Saturdays, then Toledo, NIU, and WMU would sell more tickets.

But the MAC’s situation has gotten worse. The state of Ohio no longer produces FBS-caliber recruits like it did in the 1960s. The Rust Belt is losing population relative to the Sun Belt and West, sapping potential support for smaller schools. Building fanbases in the shadows of Big Ten programs might only get harder.

One idea: three of the 12-team MAC’s lowest-revenue programs — Kent State, Ball State, and Eastern Michigan — keep their MAC membership in other sports, but play football in the Missouri Valley. To get back to 10 football schools, the MAC could try to woo FCS power North Dakota State.

6

YSU Penguin Athletics / MIKE PRIEFER

« on: January 17, 2019, 03:52:43 PM »

BROWNS SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR MIKE PRIEFER

It should be noted that new Browns Special teams guy won a national championship as special teams guy at YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY under Jim Tressel!  It was his first paying job in football after being a graduate assistant at the Navel Academy, from which he had graduated. (he is a native Clevelander too)

7

YSU Penguin Athletics / Illinois State

« on: November 14, 2018, 11:00:36 AM »

Well, it's the last game of the season (if anyone noticed or cares) and we are playing at Ill St. (if anyone noticed or cares)
Is there anything of interest in this game?  Obvious Bo played the seniors on senior day and they played well, best game of the season IMO.  Does he play next year's team Saturday?   
I love our WBB team, but good grief, it's the last game of the FB season and we have more talk about WBB than FOOTBALL?? 
Will Bo be back?  Will his coordinators be back? 

8

YSU Penguin Athletics / Women's BB

« on: November 06, 2018, 10:05:15 AM »

As a lifetime Lordstown resident, I know I am biased, but this is what college athletics as all about!  Walk-on to star!  One of the great stories I read about WBB at YSU was a couple years ago when they had an astronomical GPA to go with a winning record.  I don't know what is it now, but I'll bet it is high.  We should a be very proud of Sarah and her teammates!  Have a GREAT season, ladies!
http://www.tribtoday.com/sports/ysu-sports/2018/11/time-to-cash-in-at-ysu/

9

YSU Penguin Athletics / Browns work out Kevin Rader

« on: September 12, 2018, 02:30:24 PM »

It doesn't pay to drop a bunch of balls in the NFL.  Browns on search for TE.

General Manager John Dorsey is still perusing the unemployment line in hopes of finding a player that can help the Cleveland Browns this season.

The team tried out tight end Vince Mayle, linebacker Darnell Sankey, tight end Nick Keizer, tight end Kevin Rader.

Rader is an undrafted free agent out of Youngstown State. The Pennsylvania native spent some time with the Green Bay Packers but he has not appeared in a regular season game.

10

YSU Penguin Athletics / Saturday

« on: September 11, 2018, 08:28:58 AM »

Too bad there isn't a game on Saturday.  The team really needs to establish something of an identity going into the MVFC season and the best place to do that is on the field.  Oh well, I guess we'll try to "coach them up" during this bye week and get ready for Western Il.  After-all, that strategy worked really well against Butler.

11

YSU Penguin Athletics / Maryland OL Jordan McNair dies

« on: June 14, 2018, 10:05:25 AM »

Maryland offensive lineman Jordan McNair died Wednesday.

The redshirt freshman was hospitalized after a team workout on May 29. Maryland announced he was in the hospital on June 4.

“Our team is heartbroken with the loss of Jordan McNair,” Maryland coach D.J. Durkin said in a statement. “Jordan was an incredible young man, and his passion and enthusiasm made him an invaluable and beloved member of our team. Jordan was a hard worker and he always had a smile on his face. He was an extremely talented football player and a humble and genuine human being. He embodied the essence of what it means to be a teammate. Jordan was a fighter. Over the past few weeks, Jordan never gave up with his family, friends and team by his side. Our team will continue to be inspired by the spirit of this brave fighter. Please continue to pray for Jordan’s family during this difficult time.”

Always the saddest part of each season is losing players that "shouldn't" be lost.  RIP Jordan.

12

YSU Penguin Athletics / Richmond update

« on: May 14, 2018, 03:08:05 PM »

A judge has ordered that Youngstown State defensive end Ma'lik Richmond, who was convicted as a teen of raping a 16-year-old girl, should be taken off Ohio's sex offender registry for juveniles, as allowed by law.

Friday's ruling by Judge Thomas Lipps came in the case of the former Steubenville High School football player who was convicted in 2013 of raping a West Virginia girl the previous year during a party after a football scrimmage.

Richmond, now 21, served a one-year sentence and later rejoined the Steubenville football team. He initially was required to register his address as a sex offender every six months for 20 years.

In 2014, Lipps decreased Richmond's reporting requirement to once a year for 10 years. Ohio law allows juveniles to request removal altogether.

Richmond's attorneys argued that he had served his punishment, had completed all sex offender programming and is now a successful college student.

Lipps said that Richmond did everything required of him, including registering with the sheriff's office.

"He has demonstrated that he can live amongst society and no longer needs the supervision and restrictions necessary for Juvenile Sex Offender Registrants," Lipps said.

Prosecutors, who opposed removing Richmond from the registry, declined comment.

The 2012 case drew international attention because of the role social media played in publicizing the assault. There also were initial allegations of a cover-up by local authorities and frustration that more football players weren't charged, including some who witnessed the assaults.

Richmond was released from prison in January 2014 and attended colleges in West Virginia and Pennsylvania before transferring to Youngstown State in the fall of 2016 as a sophomore.

Richmond appeared in five games for the Penguins in 2017 and recorded five tackles. Richmond settled a lawsuit with the university in October that was filed after he had been told he wouldn't be allowed to play this season after he made the team. The settlement allowed Richmond to remain on the active roster.

13

YSU Penguin Athletics / Recruiting Classes

« on: February 27, 2018, 11:41:09 AM »

According to Brian McLaughlin, who does this regularly, but I haven't followed enough to have an opinion, here are the top 50 FCS recruiting classes for 2018.  We were ranked 38th in his list last year.
Of note is the lack of SDSU on the list, and I was surprised to see how many OVC schools were ranked above us!  Opinions?  Anybody have an opinion on McLaughlin's creds?

50   Holy Cross
49   Northern Colorado
48   UT Martin
47   Campbell
46   Duquesne
45   Alcorn State
44   Furman
43   Rhode Island
42   Houston Baptist
41   Northern Iowa
40   Elon
39   Bethune Cookman
38   Youngstown State
37   Fordham
36   Tennessee State
35   Howard
34   Illinois State
33   Dartmouth
32   Eastern Kentucky
31   Montana
30   Murray State
29   Stephen F. Austin
28   Prairie View A&M
27   Grambling
26   Western Carolina
25   South Dakota 
24   The Citadel
23   Delaware
22   Penn
21   Sam Houston State
20   Stony Brook
19   Weber State
18   Southern Illinois
17   UC Davis
16   Austin Peay
15   Villanova
14   Columbia
13   Southern Utah
12   Kennesaw State
11   Mercer
10   Eastern Washington
9   Central Arkansas
8   Cchattanooga
7   Jacksonville State
6    Harvard
5   James Madison
4   NDSU
3    Montana State
2   Yale
1   Princeton

14

YSU Penguin Athletics / YSU 75-73 over Oakland

« on: February 15, 2018, 09:05:54 AM »

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.

15

YSU Penguin Athletics / Ohio Valley

« on: February 08, 2018, 10:49:52 AM »

It's the dead of winter.  NLI day is over.  Spring football seems a LONG way off and the season really IS a long way off. 
With the Ohio Valley Conference at 9 members and the MVFC going to 11 members, there is no time better to move from the MVFC to the OVC! 
All sports.  More natural rivalries, Less travel,  Lots of good reasons to move.  Only one I can think of to stay.