YSU at Illinois-Chicago - 8 pm Wednesday

[ysuindy]

The men open Horizon League play tonight at UIC.

The Flames enter with a 9-4 record.  UIC opened at 9-1 before losing their last 3.  They opened the season with a 59-52 win over UC Riverside, before losing to New Mexico 66-59 in the first round of the Virgin Islands Paradise Jam.  UIC finished the Paradise Jam with wins over Mercer 62-36 and Iona 86-81.

UIC ran off six more wins in a row:  SE Missouri State 56-45, at Northern Illinois 58-46, at Northwestern 50-44, Roosevelt 81-43, Colorado State (now 11-2) 64-55 and Eastern Michigan 74-48.

The three game losing streak has been on the road:  Western Illinois 70-54, Miami Ohio 82-70 and Toledo 74-55.

The Flames are very comfortable at home at 5-0.

Pomeroy has YSU 125th overall and gives YSU a 39% chance of winning.  Projection is a 66-63 UIC win.

Massey has YSU 143rd overall and gives YSU a 30% chance of winning.  Projection is 67-61 UIC win.

Both Pomeroy and Massey have YSU at 9-7 in the Horizon, 17-12 overall with the Bracket Buster game pending.

Sagarin rates UIC 84 and YSU 123.  His overall ratings makes UIC as 7 point favorite, Predictor ratings a 6 1/2 point favorite.  Both include the 4.15 home court advantage.

At the start of the season, this looked like the easiest road trip of the season.  UIC and Loyola have exceeded expectations and this trip will be a stern test for the Penguins.  Sign me up for 1-1 right now. 

[ysufan0505]

Big game tonight. Let's see how they do on the road against what might be the best team in our conference

[Dmorton]

Valpo is easily the best team in the conference followed by Detroit.   That doesn't mean we shouldn't win out fair share.  Or any other Horizon team for that matter.

[ysufan0505]

Wow, we are ICE COLD shooting... And Eargle is so overrated. Bum

[ysufan0505]

Total collapse to end the game.... Horrible

[Wick250]

Four close games this year, four losses.  Some things never change.  In the closing minutes while leading 59-57, a backup literally gives the ball to a UIC guard who goes down the court and evens the game.  With about 50 second left, Perry, brilliant those he was in this game, dribbles backwards onto the half-court line.  Then with about 20 seconds left, we leave a three-point shooter open by two feet. 

Just fix the darn football team and pumped some money into women's hoops.  Enough of this fantasy that we will ever amount to anything on the men's side. 

[Dmorton]

Good chance of the team starting out 0-3, or 0-4 in the league.

[ysufan0505]

Slocum has to go. His coaching is BAD

[IAA Fan]

Valpo is easily the best team in the conference followed by Detroit.   That doesn't mean we shouldn't win out fair share.  Or any other Horizon team for that matter.

Loyola had no issues with Valpo last night. Close in the first half, then Loyola pulled away.

[YsuPride]

I agree Slocum has a hard time winning close games.  His record is terrible in close games in his 8 years here. This is a game we needed to win.  As for Valpo and Detroit as the best teams in the league that is questionable.   Loyola is the best team and has done a complete 360 in just 1 year.  They had a great recruiting class and D1 transfers to help turn it around.  Look out for UIC and Wright St as well.  The league is so balanced this year so every game will be important.   We will most likely lose to Loyola and it will be hard to climb out of an 0-2 league start.   Come on Slocum win a close game for a change!

[ysuindy]

I agree Slocum has a hard time winning close games.  His record is terrible in close games in his 8 years here. ...... Come on Slocum win a close game for a change!

This comment intrigued me, so I did some research.

Defining close games as 5 points or less:  YSU under Sloum 28-34 (.452)

All games:  YSU under Slocum:  82-142 (.366)

Obviously you could define close games at a different number and get a different answer.

[Wick250]

Indy,

I'm defining "close" here as a one-possession game.  A game that is tied or almost tied after the 39th minute.  There are no statistics to reinforce or to refute my impression, but it seems that Slocum loses about 80% of those one-possession contests.  Just this year he lost to Kent and NDSU in overtime, blew a six point lead in the final minute against JMU, and now the fiasco last evening.  If our talent is good enough to be tied with an opponent after 39 minutes, we should be able to win 50% of those games.  And we don't.

[OleYSUfan]

Coaching is nearly everything in college and high school BB, that's why good ones are paid big bucks.
Slocum is mediocre coach and will never get YSU to the big dance. He has recuited some excellent talent like Perry, but Kendrick can not carry the team against some of the better teams.

Slocum has won some big games against Bulter, Georgia and G. Washington, but then lose many to poorer teams. They must penetrate more to the hoop to challenge the opponent's big men and get the opponent's into file trouble because we have problems out rebounding many of our better opponents.

My guess we will go 8-8 or 9-7 in the Horizontal league and again miss the big dance.

[Dmorton]

Big Dance!  I was hoping for at least the CBI.  That will be out of reach too unless we start performing better than what occurred last night!