YSU MEN'S BASKETBALL/SLOCUM

[Wick250]

The debt has been eliminated, but money remains extremely tight in all areas of the university.  We simply can not continue to lose money on basketball, the one DI sport where you should be able to make at least a little over the course of a year.  How many times this year have there actually been 1,000 paying customers in our gym?  I would say once....on that day in December when people came to meet the football team.

Love Slocum or hate Slocum, the status quo is not sustainable.

[ysuguins4]

2 games left for Jerry.

[ysuguins4]

Thank goodness.  Only 1 game left for Jerry.

[YsuPride]

Embarrassing. It will be a travesty if he has not fired

[coachtress]

I was at the game today.  Definitely outplated, but did have a few head shaking calls go against us.  Walking off the court at halftime Slocum and a YSU assistant coach were going at it with one of the officials.  I don't blame Slocum for the T.  That said, why can't we sweep a team?  We beat them in the first matchup, almost guaranteed loss in rematch.

[jbags]

Since moving to Rocky River I haven't seen the team play til yesterday..the lack of hustle was appaling to me...it didn't even appear that they had any division 1 talent at all...the program has fallen off the edge of the earth and needs a blood transfusion...what has any of Slocum teams hung their hat on? What style of ball does typifies his recruits? This program needs a coach that recruits a bunch of 6'5 athletic kids and just run 94 feet of constant pressure...kids today relate to it and we have never been able to recruit good post players anyway...it can be done with a young aggressive coach that recruits in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Cincinnati...just hire someone that hangs his hat on constant pressure and turn this darn thing around for good
.it can and should be our goal as a program

[IAA Fan]

That is what we used to do with Slocum bags ...everyone complained about lack of a big guy and our inability to score. This years it seems as though we flipped.

[YSUFANSINCE1990]

 Slocum is done, and long overdue.  His teams have been among the worst defensively in points allowed most years.  He is a joke.  Players have turned him out.   Yes, the program has fallen off the face of the earth, all time low.

 He also seems to have lost any fire that he once had. 

[jbags]

The new coach must come from outside the current staff...Coach Wernicki is a good guy but to turn this thing around we need new recruiting contacts...be it Rick McFadden or a young guy from a lower division we do need someone completely new. Sure we can't pay competitively but there has to be someone itching for the opportunity to coach at a D1 level. The easy way out is elevating Wericki but it's time to do this right

[YSUFANSINCE1990]

 Wernicki has no shot at this job.  Promoting from a failed staff will never be considered.  McFadden I am sure will get an interview, but YSU needs to do its homework and see what is out there.

 I talked with a successful D-2 coach earlier this year.  He said YSU's facilities are what is holding them back.  Beeghly Center is old and antiquated, and kids, especially today want to play in a state of the art arena.

 We see it n football, Stambaugh Stadium one of the best at FCS level.

[go guins]

Wernicki has no shot at this job.  Promoting from a failed staff will never be considered.  McFadden I am sure will get an interview, but YSU needs to do its homework and see what is out there.

 I talked with a successful D-2 coach earlier this year.  He said YSU's facilities are what is holding them back.  Beeghly Center is old and antiquated, and kids, especially today want to play in a state of the art arena.

 We see it n football, Stambaugh Stadium one of the best at FCS level.

While you may be accurate to a minor level, in many respects I disagree.  Get the right coach; you'll get the right players.  It's ALL ABOUT THE HEAD COACH. 
While the Ice Castle was once at the very top of FCS football, as time passes by, so do other stadia.  We play in a league with 3 indoor facilities, so no ice castle games in NDSU, SD, NIU, and are adding a 4th in NDU.  Plus many FCS programs have blown by Stambaugh Stadium since it was built.  JMU has maybe the best overall facility in FCS plus places like Jacksonville State and EWU from last year’s playoff run are superior to YSU. 

[IAA Fan]

Some of you talk about things that cannot be done & furthermore ...I do not want to see them done. Time to be realistic. Our facility is fine. I have been to many of the MAC schools and some of these are FAR worse than YSU. Look at Butler ..successful & nothing but a large HS gym. They built history around it and now no one wants any changes. Indiana kids all get pumped from the movie Hoosiers in which it was featured. I do not want to be a top MBB program ...sorry it is is basketball and there is only so much $$$ to go around. There are the big-3 sports (Football, Baseball and Basketball). Well there is your order for me and the school was just about to scrap baseball for a basketball program? I mean we are in a power area for prep baseball ...absolutely zero local basketball (boys). I mean the school we recruit with most directly (for baseball) just had two CWS appearances. A school only 20-miles away. They also have a traditionally good MBB program but have been an absolute nothing in football except for a couple of years when 2 of our former coaches were with the program. So do you want to be like Kent?

Then there are other sports where we have a good shot at performing at a higher level. As you can see from past performances as to basketball...WBB is more important than MBB. We stand a chance to recruit coaches, players and major home games in our current budget. You just had both men's and women's track win the HL; what is that ...over 20 in the past 10-years? Our baseball program plays in a better facility than anyone in the conference and we stand a chance to get major programs to play here, at least in the late season ...something that will not happen with MBB. Look at your new bowling program having success already. Tennis (especially ladies) has been able to bring in Europeans and win big. Golf is having a huge resurgence in the Valley and at YSU. Just too many things that have priority over MBB.

We have 3 choices for a coach next year...coach Slocum, internal hire, or external hire. So let's start with Slocum's contract situation. Has anyone figured out if this year is his final extension or was he given a new contract for this year? If the latter, your questions are answered.

Then there are expectation terms. Be at or above .500 in the HL, or overall. Maintain 980APR, graduate players within 7-years, maintain 980APR, etc. It is not unfair to place these types of requirements (if reasonable) on any coach. However, a brand new coach will be on his second contract before any serious expectations can be put in place. Is this the solution? Only if we are lucky.

[go guins]

IAA I usually agree with you on most points.  For instance you are right on about facilities.  Good grief, Kent and Bowling Green are dumps. But when you get apologetic on me, I drift away.  While there are universities where one sport dominates at the expense of others, by-in-large sports are very independent.  IE, Florida wins national championships when they have Urban Meyer coaching FB.  Florida wins national championships when they have Billy Donavan coaching MBB.  When the coaches move on, they don’t win national championships.  It wasn’t because women’s golf or track took away attention.  You are being an apologist for people who need to be able to stand alone on their performance.   We have $42,000,000 in state tax dollars going to YSU and a significant amount of that is going to subsidies NCAA athletics.   I consider university athletics to be a significant marketing programs for any university. Successful athletic programs make successful marketing efforts.  Losing programs make for less effective marketing.   YSU MBB is clearly a very weak link in the athletic marketing effort.  Therefore, its level must be raised.  Clearly the HC is the key to ANY and ALL athletic endeavors.  Frankly, a change in MBB HC is called for.   
I do agree that "outside" is called for in a new coach and for me, a successful, lower level coach moving up is the way to go. 

[Wick250]

I agree that the seating in Beeghly is terrible, and that might turn off some recruits.  But Akron and Kent have worse facilities, actually far worse, and they have done just fine over the past several decades.  It is all about the head coach.  Good coaches recruit well and win; poor coaches lose. 

The ultimate question is this: can we entice anybody with strong credentials to take this job?  There will be no transfer of football money to basketball.  There will be, minus a private benefactor, no major upgrade for Beeghly. 

[go guins]

I agree that the seating in Beeghly is terrible, and that might turn off some recruits.  But Akron and Kent have worse facilities, actually far worse, and they have done just fine over the past several decades.  It is all about the head coach.  Good coaches recruit well and win; poor coaches lose. 

The ultimate question is this: can we entice anybody with strong credentials to take this job?  There will be no transfer of football money to basketball.  There will be, minus a private benefactor, no major upgrade for Beeghly.

I agree, it's the HC.  There is no football money to basketball.  There is only income and expense and you need to spend money to make money.  I don't care about seating.  Good grief, we are way above average facalities for second tier and lower MBB programs.  Athletics is marketing.  FB T&F WBB (injuries killed a promising season this year) golf, are pulling their weight, MBB is not.