Messages

1591

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Horizon League Expansion

« on: May 10, 2012, 11:09:13 PM »

I have no idea how much Robert Morris values its football team, but the NEC conference just got their automatic bid into the FCS playoffs last season (a joke but that is not the point here.)  So if RMU left the NEC to join the Horizon League, they would either have to abandon football or find another spot for their football team.  Only option would seem to be dropping football scholarships and joining that pathetic Pioneer Conference (which will also get an automatic bid once the playoffs expand to 24 - an obscene joke.)  None of us know the true priorities of RMU officials.

1592

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Horizon League Expansion

« on: May 10, 2012, 02:27:30 PM »

For the long term, Fort Wayne would be a better addition than Oakland.  Right now Oakland, of course, has the superior basketball team, but few besides alumni in metro Detroit care about either Oakland or the University of Detroit.  Ann Arbor is basically a western suburb.  East Lansing is not that far up the interstate. By comparison, IPFW could develop some community support in that basketball-rich state if they played in a stronger league.  They also, I assume, have access to that ancient but large structure where we played several Mid-con tournament games.

Of course, nobody mentions this in these speculative articles, but baseball must factor into our expansion plans.  Oakland, Fort Wayne, or whoever must convince league officials that they will operate a baseball team indefinitely as a condition for entry.

1593

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Softball #4 Seed

« on: May 07, 2012, 03:07:32 PM »

At the early season southern tournaments, we played teams from conferences that were not nearly as good as the Horizon League.  That led to the high but unrealistic expectations.  As OleYSUfan so correctly notes, pitching is everything in softball.  Our pitchers are better than average but lack the ability to shut down the top lineups in the Horizon League.  Our batters, who are quite good, are no match for the excellent pitchers that Valpo, Loyola, and Butler have. (Butler's ace pitcher was hurt when they played us; we get her in the first round of the tournament, unfortunately.)

Campbell has done a good job lifting this program from really bad to above average.  But we can't take the next step up to legitimate contention until we get that dominating pitcher. 

1594

YSU Penguin Athletics / Congratulations to the women's track team

« on: May 06, 2012, 08:30:34 PM »

Beat Milwaukee decisively in Wisconsin, 172-129.  Numerous individual winners over the two-day span.  Men finished as the runner-up behind Milwaukee.  Weren't even competitive. (175-108.)

I think this marks the first time in about three years that a YSU team has won a Horizon League title in any sport. 

1595

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Basketball recruiting target Ronnye Beamon, 6-4 SF/SG Hammond(IN) Bishop Noll HS

« on: May 03, 2012, 07:32:57 PM »

Everybody brace yourself and prepare for incoming artillery!  Wait until the 6'10" or bust crowd hears about this "wasted' scholarship.

1596

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Butler expressing interest in Atlantic 10 per ESPN's Andy Katz

« on: May 02, 2012, 04:27:02 PM »

Indy, just a few more thoughts.

The "waiver" period is indeed wonderful.  There is no need for the conference to make a rash decision.

Didn't Oakland build a new, but small, gym while we were still in the Mid-Con?  Didn't think it was 5,000.  Might be wrong.

I have zero fear that the Horizon League will splinter.  Despite the delusions of fans at several schools, these institutions have nowhere to go.  Obviously, Butler is the first basketball-driven movement in the past decade.  That opportunity came only with their amazing run and their location in talent paradise.  Delusional fans can't seem to grasp that college athletics is football-driven and that their school ain't got the goods.

If the Horizon League really wants to save baseball, it could adopt this draconian measure.  Make it a mandatory sport.  The new rules would look something like this, with a large participation team sport offered during each season of the academic year:

For the men, offer soccer or non-league football in the fall, offer basketball in the winter, offer baseball in the spring.

For the women, offer soccer (or volleyball) in the fall, offer basketball in the winter, offer softball in the spring.

Detroit, Cleveland State, Loyola, and Green Bay would be livid about the baseball requirement.  But where would they go?  To the Summit League?

1597

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Butler expressing interest in Atlantic 10 per ESPN's Andy Katz

« on: May 02, 2012, 11:09:47 AM »

Since this certainly looks official, it is terrible news for the Horizon League.  But it is very good news for YSU.  Look at the basketball budgets that Indy posted earlier in this thread.  We go from being 2.5 million behind the league leader to 1.3 million, just like that.  And Butler can and does get prime talent; Milwaukee and Cleveland State can not recruit at that level (unless they embrace thugs that big-time powers don't want.)

You can say that the Horizon League lost much prestige and now has little chance of attaining multiple tournament bids.  True, but what has that got to do with us?  Again, if other schools in the league start to lose high caliber recruits because of the defection of Butler, that just further helps us close the talent gap.

Some have proposed leaving the Horizon League for a conference that plays at the level of the NEC.  OK, but what if the entire league now drops in quality and starts to resemble the NEC.  Again, that is very good for us.

1598

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU to build Soccer Stadium this summer

« on: May 01, 2012, 11:31:30 PM »

DiscMan,

During the spring game, I got a good look at the land between Fifth and Ford from the concourse of the stadium.  With the houses removed, you can tell just how large a space we have over there.  Nobody has seen the diagrams yet, but there will be plenty of room for a soccer field, a softball stadium, and a throwing area. 

1599

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU to build Soccer Stadium this summer

« on: April 28, 2012, 10:55:43 PM »

goodnews,

Hiring a string of bad coaches.  Starting football games at unpopular times.  Failing to inform alumni about upcoming facilities upgrades.  It is all connected.  Just condition yourself to expect nothing from this administration; then you will never be disappointed.

1600

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Basketball recruiting target Ronnye Beamon, 6-4 SF/SG Hammond(IN) Bishop Noll HS

« on: April 24, 2012, 11:14:33 PM »

Guys, I can help you out here.  Private schools set their own admissions standards.  They can let in anybody that they want.  Most schools, of course, set high standards, but about twenty years ago even Harvard and Yale admitted foreigners who barely spoke English because they considered that the trendy, politically-correct thing to do.   

As you know, the key for athletes is establishing NCAA eligibility with that test score.  If he does that, any public or private school will undoubtedly welcome him with open arms.

1601

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: 2012 FB starting times

« on: April 15, 2012, 12:34:48 PM »

I remain convinced that we should play all of our games at 7:00.  That accommodates people who work on Saturdays.  It makes it easier for parents who have youth activities during the day.  It also helps folks who just need to spend Saturday working on household chores.

7:00 starts would end about 9:45; still plenty of time for people to go out on the town.  For college students, 9:45 on Saturday is just the beginning of their evening.

Some will suggest that it gets too cold late in the year.  True, but the last playoff games were at night for tv, well attended, and I remember that at least the James Madison game was quite cold.  Anyway, our afternoon games in November have been a disaster at the gate recently, so why not try something different?

This is what frustrates me.  We cling to formulas that don't work and seem afraid or too lazy to innovate.  Play a full year's schedule at 7:00 and see what happens.

1602

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Red Beats White 28-14 in 40th Annual Spring Game

« on: April 15, 2012, 12:23:07 PM »

It is just so hard to form any reliable opinions based upon the spring.  I still worry about the lack of a pass rush and the overall play of our secondary.  That said, they might have improved but there is no evidence of that because our offense is just that good.  We will not know until mid-October after the games against UNI, NDSU, and Illinois State.

1603

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Basketball recruiting target - 6-4 G Jonathan Octeus Wabash Valley CC

« on: April 08, 2012, 10:49:26 PM »

High school basketball in the Mahoning Valley is a wasteland.  Can't get any help here.  Players in other parts of the country want to come to a basketball school where fans are excited about their game.  Hey, thirty years ago, but not now.  But there is a potential source of talent that we have largely ignored.  Basketball in Europe is vastly superior to what it was thirty years ago.  For our community, with over half the population tracing their roots to southern or eastern Europe, this source should have been tapped long ago. And eastern Europeans tend to be taller than say, French or Spaniards.  And those players would leap at the chance for an American college education (paid for with their basketball skills.)  And there are ethnic organizations in the Mahoning Valley with cultural ties to those ancestral homelands.  We should be networking with those folks and seeking info about potential talented teenager players in Lithuania (remember Vytas) Greece, and the remnants of Yugoslavia.  And Slocum (or at least one assistant) should fly out there once a year.  But that takes money, and we all know that administrative staffing takes priority over recruiting in all sports except football.

1604

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Scalzo: Fickiesen to leave Women's hoops team

« on: April 06, 2012, 11:10:48 AM »

This is a devastating loss for Boldon and diminishes any hope of resurrecting the women's program.  She was the best player by the end of the season and an important building block for the future.  This now means that for Boldon's first true recruiting class, one freshman left before the fall semester began, one freshman is now leaving after her first year, and the final freshman suffered a serious shoulder injury in the weight room during pre-season.  Not good.

1605

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Saturday Scrimmage

« on: April 02, 2012, 11:23:14 AM »

Hess' interceptions are not a concern since they did not happen.  He was 10 out of 15 with a td and no interceptions.  Angle was picked off twice, Nania once.  This comes from the official stats on the university website.

Last spring, it was hard to evaluate the defense since the offense had holes in the line and at wide receiver and their potency was unknown.  This spring, with virtually all the players back from the best offense in FCS (based on their performance against the NDSU defense that completely shut down supposedly unstoppable offenses from Sam Houston and Georgia Southern) we will be able to detect progress from the defense if they can just limit offensive productivity.  Actually, even if the defense can not stop this offense, they might still be improved enough.  Our offense is just that good.