One of the biggest challenges any college basketball coach faces annually is recruiting.  Finding just the right guy to plug into your system sounds pretty easy because there are so many young men playing basketball in high schools.  However, the hard task takes months of combing over players, feeling out attitudes, and seeing how committed a person can be to succeed at the next level.  The biggest recruiting tool for any college sport is usually winning.

Jerry Slocum admits that his time at Youngstown State has been very tough.  The results are not what he had envisioned being a successful coach everywhere else he had been.  To the university’s credit, they have stuck by Slocum hoping that he can build a winner.  Last season, the Penguins showed a lot of promise and were very competitive in taking giant steps toward something bigger.

“I was excited about this class, and I am excited about our future”, commented Slocum.  “I thought the improvement was very noticeable as the year went on.  We had great effort beating Butler, missing a tip-in to almost beat Milwaukee, losing to Valpo in overtime, should have beat Akron.  We were competitive and it gives us hope.  We now are in a position where we don’t have to rely on junior college kids.”

In the past, recruiting was tougher because the team was not as competitive as it was last season.  Beating Butler is huge. I don’t care if YSU beat them because it was an off-night for the Bulldogs, the bottom line is that they won a tremendous college basketball game.  They beat the second best team in college basketball the last two seasons.  Do you think  Slocum, Coach Wernicki, Coach Thorne, or Coach DePaoli were able to recruit effectively by saying, “Well, we beat Hiram and should have beat Robert Morris”? I think not. The visits were easier this year because every kid looked at knows that Youngstown State beat Butler.

“No disrespect to junior college kids”, said Slocum.  “We have the ability with this group to grow them as freshmen into our system and mold them.  We will work with all of them to maximize their ability, and that is just easier than changing a transfer or a junior college player in most regards.”

The new players have Slocum and staff excited.  “We have four really good freshmen in this class.  D. J. Cole, Cale Zuiker, and the two kids we redshirted, a 6’9″ kid, Fletcher Larson, and a 6’5″ kid, Shawn Amiker, will really add stability.  I finally think we have a Horizon League kind of talent”, noted Slocum.

The brightest sign of a big year ahead is not only how much the core improved as a team last season plus the promising recruiting class.  A big factor could be what the other teams in the Horizon League are losing.  Butler is losing Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard. Valpo is going to lose Brandon Wood.  Wright State is pretty much losing their starting unit.  Cleveland State is losing the one guy that they cannot afford to lose, the Horizon League Player of The Year – Norris Cole.  Wisconsin-Green Bay is losing Rahmon Fletcher and Bryquis Perine. The only school getting back an abundance of talent is Detroit.  This could leave the door open for the Penguins to surprise people in 2011-12.  Go ahead, Horizon League, and underestimate our chances.  Your preseason poll this year should have Youngstown State in the top four.

When asked after the Butler game if it was his biggest win ever, Slocum said it ranked up there with a few others.  When I asked the same question again five months later, Slocum explained why in hindsight that the Butler win was really big.

“At other places and moments in time, I have had bigger wins in terms of the stature at the level I was coaching”, commented Slocum.  “For example, when I was at Geneva, we won the chance to go to the National Tournament, a fete which had not been accomplished there since 1952.  That was a really big win for that school at that moment.  At YSU, the ESPN game against Cleveland State at home in front of a packed house was a big game for this university.  Going back to this Butler game we won at home… it got bigger and bigger as the year went on.  Nobody cheered harder for Butler in that championship game than we did because we would have been the answer to a trivia question for years to come.  Cinderella has never really won the whole thing.  Indiana State and Bird did not finish the deal.  Butler has been there the last two times, and they could not finish it.  I told my wife after I got off of a FOX Sports show that if Butler wins, it would be clearly the biggest win in the history of Youngstown State Basketball.  So, to answer your question, in hindsight, yes, I do believe that the Butler win was the biggest win that I have ever had here.”

I stopped by the basketball offices last week to pick up a flyer for the upcoming camps in June and saw Slocum.  In May, he was working.  His staff was working.  For five plus years they have been working to turn this program into a winner.  As 2011-12 gets closer, let it be said, let it be written…  this team and these coaches shall reap the benefits of their hard work this season.