Topics

46

YSU Penguin Athletics / CONGRATULATIONS to the Women's track CHAMPIONS

« on: May 03, 2015, 03:51:25 PM »

Another outstanding performance.  For the second year in a row, they just completed the running triple crown (cross country, indoor track, outdoor track.) 

This marks the fifth Horizon League championship (out of ten) for the women this academic year.  That very well might be unprecedented in league history.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Congratulations to Women's Golf AND Women's Tennis CHAMPIONS!

« on: April 26, 2015, 06:15:18 PM »

Great job by these student-athletes.  The Horizon League has now crowned champions in 8 out of their 10 women's sports for this academic year.  YSU has won FOUR of those.  That matches the four that we won last year.  Congratulations on outstanding performances on the links and on the courts.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Women v. Cleveland State

« on: January 15, 2015, 10:59:27 AM »

Absolutely critical game tonight.  CSU is a bad rebounding team, but for some reason, they always hurt us on the boards.  Hopefully, with the improvement in Walker and the depth provided by Cash we can control the boards this time and make this game much easier.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / What do you expect from a Pelini football team?

« on: January 03, 2015, 01:31:27 PM »

The less said about basketball the better.  Too depressing.  Let's get back to the important things.  Please do not turn this thread into comments about language, media relations, or what Pelini did at Nebraska.  Rather, suggest how you expect him to change the culture of our football program.  I will start with three things.

I expect that he will recruit more hard-nosed football players and far fewer talented "athletes" that are impressive physical specimens but tackle like little girls.

I expect that he will make sound halftime adjustments so that we will not relive the spectacle of gaining over 350 yards against Illinois State during the first two quarters then practically nothing in the final two quarters.  We will still lose to more talented teams but not puke games away like Wolford.

I expect that we will not lose at home to inferior opponents like Western Illinois and Indiana State.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Some year-end ramblings

« on: December 31, 2014, 08:36:40 AM »

Just some thoughts on this last day of 2014.

Into what mental institution would they have placed you had you insisted on New Year's Day, 2014, that by the last day of the year Jim Tressel would be the president of YSU and Bo Pelini would be our football coach?

Who would have believed at the start of 2014 that the women's basketball program, which struggled terribly late in 2013 under new coach John Barnes, would go on to win 22 games during calendar year 2014 and offer promise of even more success for the future?

Who would have expected on New Year's Day, 2014, that our Olympic programs, spearheaded by Brian Gorby's track athletes, would go on to win six championships during calendar year 2014, the best performance in the Horizon League?

But for you traditionalists who don't adjust to change very well and always seek consistency in your life, take heart and do not despair.  There is always men's basketball.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Women's Basketball vs Akron

« on: December 29, 2014, 10:59:37 AM »

Akron has played most of their games at home and, like us, has played quite a few low major programs.  Like us, only two of their foes have winning records.  They are undefeated because they have not played a high major team.

As Barnes suggested in the paper today, Akron will play fast, shoot quickly, and try to outscore us.  Undoubtedly they try to wear teams out with that pace, but we should have the depth....and quality depth....to deal with that.  Play strong defense and break out of our shooting slump and we should be fine.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Women's basketball early signings

« on: November 13, 2014, 09:44:52 PM »

If you follow women's hoops, go to the athletic department web site and read information about the five players that just signed.  Impressive credentials.  All from Ohio.  Included in the group is a 6'5" center that one recruiting service is calling the 3rd best high school player in Ohio.  Hype means nothing until you prove it on a college court.  But if you combine these recruits with this year's freshmen, it is, on paper, the best collection of talent EVER.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / The NCAA Simple Ratings System

« on: November 05, 2014, 07:42:13 PM »

Don't read this unless you want to get very angry.  But if you read the Any Given Saturday site, you know that some have uncovered the not so mysterious or secret methodology behind the NCAA SRS (simple ratings system) that the selection committee uses, in conjunction with strength-of-schedule, to fill the at large berths.  Turns out this information was on the 15th page of an NCAA release about the FCS playoffs.

Simply put, this is an abomination.  Why?  Because it treats EVERY FCS PROGRAM AS AN EQUAL.  For example, if we beat Illinois State in Normal or NDSU in Fargo, we would get 1.25 points for each win.  But if a Southland team wins a road game against the garbage at the bottom of their conference (for example, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word, or Nichols,) they get 1.25 points for each win.

Here is how it works.  If you win a home game against a FCS opponent (any FCS opponent including Paladin's "weenies,") you get 0.75 points.  If you win a road game against a FCS opponent, you get 1.25 points.

If you lose a road game against a FCS opponent, you suffer a 0.75 point reduction.  If you lose a home game against a FCS opponent, you lose 1.25 points.

Here is an even worse feature.  Lose to a FBS foe and suffer a 0.65 points reduction.  Beat one of those and you get only 1.35 points.  Seriously.  I am not making this up.

Anyway, here is how the contenders in the MVFC stand now under this ridiculous formula with three weeks remaining.  This has not been published anywhere.  Just access the results and use a calculator.

8.85 NDSU
5.50 Illinois State
4.25 Youngstown State
3.85 Indiana State
1.45 Northern Iowa
0.75 Southern Illinois
0      SDSU

How about contenders from the CAA, given that New Hampshire and Villanova are locks.

4.85 Richmond
3.45 James Madison
1.35 William and Mary

And what about that logjam atop the Big Sky conference

6.0   Eastern Washington
3.75 Northern Arizona
2.85 Cal Poly
2.75 Montana
2.75 Montana State
2.6   Idaho State

Keep in mind that this absurd ratings system supposedly counts only 50% for the at large selections.  SOS counts the other 50% and every MVFC team will profit there.  And conferences with lots of dogs at the bottom (Southland and Big Sky) should be hurt by SOS too.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Horizon League Cross Country Championships

« on: November 01, 2014, 12:56:57 PM »

Preliminary results are posted from the women's race.  We apparently won the event with 71 points as opposed to Milwaukee's 84 (low score wins in cross country.)  Congratulation ladies.  Men, you are next.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / The new coach: what credentials would you like to see?

« on: October 12, 2014, 12:34:42 PM »

Last evening marked the end of Eric Wolford's attempt to be a head coach at the collegiate level.  We won't win more than two more games and the poor record, coupled with low attendance for the remaining home games, will force Tressel to enact the buyout clause.  And making a major sports-related move is something that I am sure that Tressel hoped to avoid for a least a few years.

So in what direction do we turn?  Would it not be best to hire a successful head coach from the ranks of the lower scholarship divisions?  No more on-the-job training that might never succeed.  And Wolford is the poster boy for that.  Hire someone who can utilize the Watts and the high assistant coach salaries to our advantage.  Also something at which Wolford failed miserably. 

The national media loves to trash Tressel, but he is nearly universally respected within the coaching profession.  I have confidence that he will use his network to secure a replacement who can take full advantage of our many strengths.  Who better to find the "next Tressel" that the original Tressel.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / The Western Illinois game

« on: October 07, 2014, 06:24:29 AM »

Can we stop this childish bickering and focus upon the task at hand?  Obviously, Western Illinois can play defense.  They proved that against NDSU and, for a half, against Wisconsin.  I am paranoid that we will see a repeat of past seasons under Wolford.  A good win followed by a lackluster effort from a poorly prepared team.  Let us hope that Wolford, his staff, and the players have evolved past that stage, and that they are prepared to play every down with the intensity that they demonstrated last Saturday.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / A quirk in the league schedule that might help us

« on: October 06, 2014, 08:01:22 AM »

We all know that playing NDSU and UNI takes a physical toll on a team.  Looking over the league schedule, I noted this oddity.  Our next five opponents play either NDSU or UNI the week prior to playing us! 

Western Illinois (hosted NDSU last Saturday)
Southern Illinois (will visit NDSU the week before playing us)
South Dakota State (will visit UNI the week before playing us)
South Dakota (will host NDSU the week before playing us)
Illinois State (will visit UNI the week before playing us)
Indiana State (will host SDSU  the week before playing us)
NDSU (with visit Missouri State the week before playing us)

Will we receive any concrete advantage from such scheduling?  Who knows but it cannot hurt.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / The Master Plan of Lets Talk and Wick250 is accomplished!

« on: September 17, 2014, 01:50:53 PM »

IAA Fan, this is technically not sports, but it is vital to the university.  Please keep it here until at least Lets Talk gets a chance to read it.

Last spring, Lets Talk and I proposed this master plan: Tressel as president with Martin Abraham from the STEM College as provost.  Today, it just happened.  Tressel named Abraham the provost, bypassing the four candidates who visited campus last week.  This is the dream partnership that can move us forward.

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YSU Penguin Athletics / Volleyball continues to win!

« on: September 13, 2014, 07:37:21 PM »

Other sports are always ignored during football season.  These women deserve commendation for the start to their season.  9-2 record with one of those losses coming against a ranked Northwestern.  One of the wins came yesterday against Virginia.  In a short time, this coach has done a remarkable job in resurrecting this program. 

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YSU Penguin Athletics / New Stadium lights for next season, hopefully

« on: September 09, 2014, 10:59:56 PM »

Surprised that nobody has mentioned this yet.  In today's Vindicator there is an account of Strollo's appearance at the last Curbstone Coaches meeting.  He pointed out that our lighting is outdated and projects only about half of the foot-candle power that the NCAA now considers the standard.  He wants to have that fixed by next football season. 

Later in the article, Strollo also stated that season ticket sales have increased for each of the last five years.  Hey, don't kill the messenger.  That statement is what Scalzo attributed to Strollo in the article.  It was rather obvious at the Duquesne game, don't you think.