Messages

286

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: FCS Championship Tomorrow here in the Dallas metroplex and nobody cares!

« on: January 07, 2018, 02:38:45 PM »

Watched most of the game.  Thought JMU was actually the better team, but mistakes got them.  Probably better athletes, but maybe not better football players.  Their QB is gone next year and I think they get the Pitt Transfer who I didn't think was that good at Pitt. We will see how he does at JMU.

NDSU has their QB back so they will be formidable as usual.  Not sure how much they loose as seniors, but that usually doesn't matter for them.  We need some good recruiting these next weeks and maybe a FBS transfer or two to be able to compete with them.

287

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: mens bb

« on: January 07, 2018, 02:32:39 PM »

Saw both games this week.  Really happy for the results; actually surprising since I didn't think we could compete based on our past this year.  But the two freshman, Bohannon  and Covington, have really improved their play and are no longer new freshman and Cam and Hartfield are really playing well.  Also Robinson is great inside and playing more minutes.  And the subs are playing well and I think we are wearing down the other team by the 2nd half by playing so aggressive on defense, and being able to substitute with not much of a let down in production.  I was hoping that Anibar could contribute in the post, but not yet.

Now the league sees what we are and we are playing top teams in Oakland and Wright State on the road in the coming schedule.  They will be ready.  It will be nice to see how we do Wednesday in Oakland.  They looked very strong Friday again Northern Kentucky; both those teams have bigs that worry me.  We will see.

It sure is nice to feel you have a chance in the league with MBB.

288

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU 80 CSU 77

« on: January 02, 2018, 02:15:29 PM »

No doubt the bench got shorter.  I think both Akuchie and Anabir will play in our future and be contributors, but for this game I think the chemistry was right with those that played and we all know we needed a win badly.  Really all the players are new except Cam and Braun Hartfield.  Too many different combinations makes it difficult to play as a team.  We got some easy baskets inside with passes from Cam and others that showed good teamwork and anticipation.  Too many new players makes that difficult.  Benton sure looks like our point guard from now on out.  Not sure about Ferguson with his mask etc and how much he can contribute at the point.  This weekend we will need to play more people to have energy for all those minutes. 

289

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU 80 CSU 77

« on: January 02, 2018, 09:24:43 AM »

Really happy for the players, coaches, and athletic administration who have sure had a ruff road with men's basketball.  All that loosing takes its toll on everyone.  Coach Calhoun is a young energetic coach who will be successful, but it is a learning curve at our level and our environment.  But I see success in our future with the coach learning and working hard.

Really happy for Cam who has had a rough go of it lately.  Playing with a bunch of new freshman and a new system takes its toll.  I think the team practiced so hard on the pressing defense that they lost basic basketball skills like shooting and defense.  The few times we tried the press we got burned with easy baskets.  With our current group that will not work.  Glad to see the coaches change the system to fit the players instead of staying with the system.  We have some good young talent that should grow as the season progresses and maybe we can be competitive and win a game or two.  I know practice today will be a lot more focused and fun for all involved.

290

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: FCS Playoffs

« on: December 19, 2017, 08:09:07 PM »

As much as this year hurts with us not getting in and being better than probably at least half of those that did, (with Hunter Wells and Justin Reed playing), you almost have to give all the conferences 1 auto bid so they have something to shoot for during the season.  It is much like us in Basketball.  The Horizon entry in many cases is probably not better than some of the teams left out.  Our league is just too strong.  Not sure why the Dakotas and Northern Iowa are so strong, but they are and that is what is disturbing logical selections.  Are they funded better due to them being in states without so many 1A teams or is their recruiting so much easier?  Are they headed to 1A?  Not sure about that.  But it sure hurts us now; especially this year.

291

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Idaho St - YSU

« on: December 19, 2017, 03:53:43 PM »

I agree with these comments.  Loosing Santiago really hurt.  Our 3 main players coming back were Morse, Hartfield, and Santiago.  Running this new type system, running our tails off all game, makes each player weaker as the game goes on.  If you have very capable backups, fine.  But we have all new players who aren't ready for significant playing time and responsibility. And without Santiago and Morse not scoring, we are in trouble. Need to simplify what we are doing and preserve the energy of our top players so they can play to full potential.

For sure next year we need some bigs that can play.

292

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Idaho St - YSU

« on: December 19, 2017, 02:40:52 PM »

Things sure don't look promising.  Our lack of height inside really causes problems beyond just the obvious lack of inside scoring for us and such an advantage scoring easy baskets by the opposition.  Our outside shooters, due to lack of an inside threat, are really pressured which makes their game suffer.  We are a weak shooting teams, but it is worse because of our lack of an inside game.

On defense we give up way too many easy baskets.  I think the press needs to be cut back on to help us defend better.  Yes we get some turnovers, but I think we give up more points than we get and we are the team getting tired out, not the opponent.  When we played Kent, a bigger, stronger, better shooting team, we did better when we didn't press than when we did.

Long term this method of playing will work out, but not with the current players.  We need to play to our players strengths and not a system that doesn't seem to fit our current players.  Go back to the fundamentals of offense and shooting and defense. Those were the skills that Idaho St had and we didn't.  We were physically better, but they were better at the basic basketball skills.

293

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Double Header Tonight

« on: November 15, 2017, 01:14:54 PM »

I think that one person playing well makes it easier for all the others.  If your inside game is good and the defense needs to double or shade in, then the outside shooters are getting open shots, not closely guarded contested shots.  That is what is happening to us I think and the result is poor shooting percentage and turnovers.  Kent and Pitt have good players and are bigger than us in general. That makes it easier to guard the inside and the outside. Thus poor shooting percentage and turnovers.  Sara is the key for the most part.  She draws a crowd inside and still produces.  That frees up the outside shooter if it is played correctly. That is where I think Morgan Brunner can help.  Good outside and close to the basket shooting and size and ability to get rebounds.

On another note look at what Hunter Wells does to our offense and what Justus Reed does to our defense.  All of a sudden we can play with Pitt, have a running game, don't have huge number of sacks, can throw the ball, and we get sacks, stop the run, slow down the passing game, but when they are gone we have trouble with lesser teams.  Outstanding players make the others around them better and by a lot I think.

294

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Double Header Tonight

« on: November 15, 2017, 10:48:08 AM »

I agree with much of what has been said, ie too many substitutions and playing 2 or the 3 bigs at once to have a chance inside.  One player I think can help is #13, Morgan Brunner.  When she is in she shoots the ball well and gets rebounds.  Not sure if she is quick enough to guard smaller quicker guards, but I think she can help with our poor outside shooting so far.  Our outside shooting has killed us in both losses in addition to our inside game both on offense and defense.

295

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: Basketball atmosphere at Akron

« on: November 13, 2017, 01:40:11 PM »

I was at both games in Akron.  No doubt there was a good crowd for the Akron game.  They have been winning and that sure helps build a following. As for the atmosphere, I couldn't get past the dark blue color everywhere. No brightness in my opinion and a definite poor atmosphere for me.  Yes they did have their activities etc., but the darkness and colors did nothing but hurt the atmosphere in my opinion.  I think our gym with new bleacher seats that are permanent will make Beegley far better.

As for our team, one thing about basketball is height and shooting ability are very important.  We were short on those important ingredients.  I really think that Kent's height and our style played right into Kent's plan and gave them easy baskets and deflated our player will by the 2nd half.  It will take time to get our new plan in place.  In the first half when we only pressed occasionally, it worked better for us. And remember Dom from our past.  He had shooters shoot and set them up to shoot.  We may need to do more of that with our current group.

296

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: ISU In-Game Thread

« on: November 06, 2017, 12:23:48 PM »

Here is my thought.  I think Ricky Davis is the most athletic of all our current QB's, running, throwing, size. Has not developed into a QB like Hunter who can read defenses and check down to secondary receivers, same with Nathan Mays. Is it coaching or lack of ability, I don't know.  One thing I see is that our play calling didn't help either Ricky or Nathan until this past week with quick short throws when they blitz etc to take the heat off the inexperienced QB's.  All teams now load the box on early downs against the run and blitz on obvious passing downs. Finally we had a bit of an answer to help; I understand against a weaker team.

On defense I think we are small and that has taken its toll on the linebackers and db's.  Much of the run game tackles are not by the d line and our smaller back end people have been beat up.  Now they are gun shy in my opinion.  I think we have put too much pressure on the smaller safetys and corners to stop larger running backs and it has taken its toll.  We need larger linebackers and safetys to handle this increased load with the d line not involved that much in stopping the run.

297

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: UNI

« on: October 22, 2017, 02:30:49 PM »

On defense they basically dominated us.  No real fire and they easily got 5 yard gains on first down running.  We really did not match up well.  Also on many of the run plays we had players in the vicinity, but did not tackle. No pass rush made the qb look like Brady as he surveyed the field unmolested and threw with good accuracy.  Not much we could do with our defensive players against their offense.

On offense we sure don't pick up the blitz at all.  It works every time.  No hot receiver, not O line protection, over and over. At times it is on the qb for not sensing the pressure and throwing sooner or away. Also it seems like we never throw into single coverage that is remotely close.  And running into a strong run defensive alignment just doesn't work and we are 2nd and long or don't make a 1st down on 4th down.  If we make the field goal and the 1st down on the 4th down call we could win the game as poorly as we played. We continue on offense to make calls that are against the defensive strength and loose.  That can be fixed with a change in play calling and preparation for the stacked run defense, throwing on so called running downs, and prep for the blitzes we are going to face from now on.  As we are now, we can't succeed.

Can they make the needed changes? I hope so.  Maybe Ricky Davis can give them a spark and the offensive play calling and prep can change us into a less predictable offense and one that can pick up and burn the blitz. That can help the defense for sure and we can win.

298

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: YSU vs. North Dakota State

« on: October 15, 2017, 05:01:36 PM »

NCS had a better O Line and D Line and QB.  But we still could have won because you win with a team.  The last 2 weeks in the final series with the game tied, they stack the line and we run the ball into that.  Either we have no faith in our QB to throw against a run defense or our play calling is suspect. In our final drive for a td, when we threw into their single coverage, it worked. Yes the db was close, but it worked.  At this level the offensive receiver has the advantage over the db, and we are reluctant to throw unless the receiver is very open which doesn't happen with the pass rush we face against good teams. We need quick throws to beat the blitzing that we face. Trying to drop back and view the field hoping for a wide open receiver is not possible with the pressure. Thus we get sacked and are up against it for that series.  I feel we play right into the opponents hand doing what we do.  And the QB must get rid of the ball quickly which rarely  happens.  Remember the Pitt game. They are as good as the teams we lost to the last 2 weeks.  We threw against them. Yes a different QB, but different play calling too.

299

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: South Dakota

« on: October 08, 2017, 07:06:26 PM »

Tough game.  If any of 3 things happen we win.  1. The defense plays well. The offensive line plays well.  3. The QB plays well.  None happened. 

It seemed like on defense we were never set and looked confused.  Also using line backers to cover faster receivers did not work. their number 33 had 200 yards receiving! And we rarely got pressure on their QB.  I think we were so concerned with his running that we held back on the pass rush to keep him in the pocket. His throws killed us.

The offensive line did not give our QB time to pass most of the time. And there was no way we could run the ball consistently with them packing the box, especially on 1st down.  But must not have had confidence in our QB to throw on early downs much of the time. 

Nathan Mays had a hard time under the pressure of their defensive line and blitzing. So he locked on to only one receiver and that was it.  And his throwing ability is not that strong.

Finally when tied on the last series we again try to run against an impossible front and play for overtime.  If they committed to the run so much and we don't have confidence to pass the ball, we are in deep mud.

Not sure about Ricky Davis but would sure like to see what he could do this year.  He for sure has a stronger arm and is a stronger runner.  Against the top teams we are in trouble as we are currently structured.  I think the defense will be better, but on offense I am not so sure.

300

YSU Penguin Athletics / Re: South Dakota State

« on: October 01, 2017, 02:33:02 PM »

Great game, but it really looked like SDSU was the stronger team on offence for sure. Their passing game is strong for FCS (maybe even most of FBS) and team size was markedly bigger than we are. It has been said on this board that our uniforms make us look smaller, but I don't know.  They moved the ball at will for the most part, but turnovers really hurt them.  Thank God for Bo and company coaching the defense and special teams.  And we have a nice running game to use clock.  Our teams pre Bo would have been in deep trouble against them. Would not like to play their offence again. 

As for QB, it looks like Hunter may be questionable at best the rest of the year. Nathan Mays looks ok, but will need to pass the ball down field if we are to have a chance to be really good this year. Again Ricky Davis may be needed with Nathan Mays running and possibly getting hurt.  If that happens I hope Ricky is up to the challenge; I think he just might be after all he has been through.