Posts Tagged ‘Damian Eargle’

Youngstown State University (1-0) showed flashes of just how good they could be.  Buffalo (1-0) was coming off of an 18 win season and have been a force in the MAC over the past couple of seasons.  This game was played with a lot of new bodies on both rosters and seemingly the team that committed the most mistakes would probably lose.  Youngstown State did a great job down the stretch converting free throws and maximizing opportunities on their way to 2-0 for the first time since 2004, posting a 64-53 win.

The first half was a strong one for Youngstown State.  Buffalo raced out to an early 10-2 lead, but YSU scored the next 13 points unanswered showing an array of weaponry that Coach Slocum has envisioned in his “potential meter“.  Vytas Sulskis hit a three forcing Buffalo to use a timeout and capping the 13-0 Penguins run.

YSU had a 12 point lead with 4:30 left in the first half before Buffalo cut into the Penguins lead and only trailed by three points at the intermission.  Devonte Maymon had ten first half points to lead Youngstown State.  Sulskis chipped in with eight, and newcomer Tre Brewer added six.  Buffalo was paced by Jawaan Alston and his seven points and four rebounds.  At the half, the Penguins looked impressive and held a 32-29 lead.

YSU maintained a three point lead throughout the first part of the second half.  With 11:57 left in the contest, the Penguins were ahead by the count of 42-39.  Buffalo was really struggling from the free throw line connecting on only nine of 23 to this point in the game. Youngstown State’s kryptonite was the 14 turnovers committed.

With 7:31 left in the game, Youngstown State had a 46-43 lead.  Neither team could capitalize on the other’s struggles.  Javon McCrea hit a lay-up to cut the lead to one and Buffalo had a chance to take the lead but turned the ball over.  Ashen Ward capitalized on the Penguins next possession by hitting a bucket while being fouled and converting the free throw to give YSU a 49-45 lead with just over six minutes to play.

One thing the Penguins did extremely well in this game was rebound.  Dan Boudler grabbed one on offense with 4:41 left in the game and tipped it back in.  On the Bulls next possession, Kendrick Perry created a steal and drove the length of the court to give YSU their biggest lead of the second half at 53-45.  Alston kept his Bulls in it with a basket to cut the lead to 53-49 with 3:19 remaining.  Ward hit a three with 2:00 left in the game to increase the Penguin lead to 58-49.

YSU was led by Maymon who knocked in 13 points.  Eargle and Brewer gathered 24 rebounds for YSU.  Buffalo was paced by Alston and Barnett who poured in eleven points each in falling to 1-1 on the young season.

A festive Jerry Slocum addressed the media after the game.  “Anytime you can win a game when you shoot under 40%, you did a good job battling. This is as good of a team win as we have had in a very long time around here.  Damian [Eargle] and Trey [Brewer] really stepped up getting some big rebounds for us down the stretch, that is what wins games.”

Junior Ashen Ward, who had a career-high 13 points, echoed the sentiments of the coach.  “Winning is fun, and we are having fun because we are winning.  Everything is easier when you are winning, practices are fun.  Guys are buying in and things are working well so far this year.”

The Youngstown State University has undergone a major transformation.  Between graduation and the departing transfers, there were only a few familiar faces with any experience.  One face that hasn’t changed is that of Jerry Slocum.  Slocum pretty much had to rebuild the team from the ground up.  Vytas Sulskis, Ashen Ward, and Dan Boudler were really the only guys who returned with game experience from last season.

YSU parlayed some new chemistry with some clutch free throw shooting down the stretch to get to 1-0 and defeating Samford at The Beeghly Center by the score of 64-61.

Samford University stopped in for a visit Friday night in the opener for both teams.  The pace was flat for both teams in the early going and by halftime, the score would be tied five times and there was one lead change.  Basically, Youngstown State had the lead for the first half of the first half.  Samford took the reigns and held on through halftime. Vytas Sulskis looked good for the Penguins in the first half. Nearly all other Penguins looked inconsistent and sluggish.

As a team, the Penguins were really struggling, throwing up 17 three point shots in the first half and only connecting on two.

At the 15:20 mark of the second half, YSU held a 34-31 lead.  Sulskis and Devonte Mayman had nine points apiece for the Penguins to this point.  Kendrick Perry hit a three to give the Penguins the lead at 37-34.  On their next possession, DuShawn Brooks buried a three to increase the lead to 40-34 with 12:15 remaining.

Jeffrey Merritt did his best to keep Samford in the game.  Merritt gathered an offensive rebound and hit a shot while being fouled to cut the lead to three.  Maymon hit a drive falling while being fouled and somehow connected to put the Penguins ahead, 51-42 with 6:06 left in the game.

Samford’s Josh Davis buried a three-pointer with 3:34 left in the game cutting YSU’s lead to just three points at 56-53. Next trip down the floor, Merritt drove the middle, drew a foul, and got his shot to fall.  From there, Brooks took over for YSU, first tipping in a missed shot and then nailing a three with 1:47 left in the game to put the Penguins ahead 61-57.

Merritt buried a three with 11.7 seconds left in the game cutting the YSU lead to just one point at 61-60.  Merritt was high-scorer for the Bulldogs with 19 points, and he also grabbed 11 rebounds.

Sulskis was intentionally fouled with 9.8 seconds left and hit both free throws to increase the YSU lead to 63-60.

DuShawn Brooks was impressive in his Penguins debut, scoring 20 points and grabbing six boards.  Devonte Maymon was also tough knocking down 15.  Sulskis finished the game with 13 points and ten boards for his third career double-double.

After the game, a cheery Coach Jerry Slocum addressed what effected his team early.  “I don’t know if it was so much being sluggish as it was emotional.  We were really jacked-up tonight and once things calmed down we were better at knocking down our shots.”

Sulskis shared the sentiment of Slocum.  “Last season we would have hung our heads and would not have responded.  This year is much different we are more like a family and stayed together, pulled through when it counted most.”

YSU gets back into action on Tuesday with another home game, welcoming in Buffalo.  Tipoff is 7:05.

The YSU Men’s Basketball Team is doing it’s best to bolster the confidence of the women’s program.  Having lost five to graduation, the Penguins are now without four underclassmen who were expected to be big pieces in the 2010-11 puzzle. 

Juniors Vance Cooksey and Tom Parks and freshmen Eddie D’Haiti and Lamar McKnight have informed the program that they will not return next season.  No explanations were given as to why the foursome have walked away.

Cooksey and D’Haiti both played adequately this season.  Cooksey started 10 games, but more  importantly, would have been the sparkplug next season.  D’Haiti was more of a physical work in progress.  He played, but very sparingly, and admitted himself that he needed to get stronger to compete at this level.

Parks broke his ankle in December in a snow-related accident and missed all but 11 games.  McKnight redshirted and did not play at all.

This leaves six players, ala YSU Women circa 2010, and that experiment did not yield any wins.  Ashen Ward, Vytas Sulskis, and Dan Boudler are the only three carryovers with any true playing experience for Youngstown State.  Andy Timko (above) appeared in three games, and Sheldon Brogdon and Damian Eargle never saw the court this season.  Fletcher Larson and Kendrick Perry are incoming recruits who have committed.  Aaron Anderson is another potential recruit who is close to signing with the Penguins.

Coach Jerry Slocum has not talked on the matters as of yet.

*** Thanks to Letsgoguins.com for updating a mistake that I printed.  Aaron Anderson signed with North Dakota, not YSU.

Jerry Slocum has been coaching basketball at Youngstown State University for five seasons.  His program has made many leaps forward in that span of time.  A new state-of-the-art weight room, a clubhouse atmosphere in the locker room, and putting his recruits on the court with a little experience will all be telltale signs of YSU basketball’s forward progress.  Slocum is just a cool guy.  I cannot say enough good things about him or the way he processes information.  The guy is a genius of this sport and I think that YSU will make it to the big dance in March under his guidance very soon.  YSU fans take notice, we are lucky to have him here and the fruit of his hard work will become visible this season.

Paneech:  In your five seasons, you can finally put your stamp on this team as they are all your recruits playing with some experience.

Slocum:  I don’t think there is any shortcut to look at that.  Experience is what it is.  What comes first, the chicken or the egg?  Are you good without any experience?  I think you have to go through a process to get it.  Once you have that experience process in place, you start building towards winning.  Last year we had seven new guys, I thought it would come quicker than it did, but by February, we had a pretty good basketball team.  That kind of excitement has led into the Spring and the Summer.  Now we are into early Fall, and we are pretty excited about where we are.  You are what you experience, and I think that the experience we have gained will show this season.

Paneech:  Only losing two players from last year and having all this experience back you have to really be excited with the returning talent, the cupboard is stocked for the future too.

Slocum:  We have a tandem with three of the five with Dallas Blocker, Dan Boudler, and Eddie D’Haiti that I think will really play out and be a positive factor for this team this year.  When this class goes, everyone is going to look and say you lost all of these seniors.  We are going to have Ashen Ward return at the two-guard spot.  You are gonna have both three-men back.  You are going to have Damian Eargle back at the four, and Eddie [D’Haiti] coming back as a five.  We have alredy gotten verbal commitments from some kids, so in my mind, we have got the classes where we want them, we have got the kids coming up that are learning from the older guys and there is just a good attitude and symmetry that the group has taken.

Paneech:  Who is the team to beat in the Horizon League this season?  Did you take offense to being picked 7th in the preseason poll?

Slocum: I think there are two teams that are a cut above with Butler and Wright State.  Then there are four or five teams in the next tier, and I would put us in that group, anywhere between three and seven.  I maybe took a little bit of offense to being picked seventh.  Our league doesn’t respect us.  It’s like I say to our guys – respect is earned.  In the last two years we have finished fourth and sixth.  Did I think we would maybe be in that fourth spot?  Yeah, I thought so.  I think we finish third or fourth.  Being picked seventh shows that the league doesn’t have alot of respect for us and the pressure comes back on us to prove it.

Paneech:  Who are your go-to guys with five seconds left in a game, who takes the shot?

Slocum:  I think there are two guys that are pressure shooters and pressure players for us.  I think a bunch of guys can make the shots.  The two guys who can create a shot, follow their shot, and then maybe pitch it to a shot are DeAndre Mays and Vytas Sulskis.  Both of those guys are guys who can find a way to pick us back up with a big shot. 

Paneech:  When it happens, and it will someday, how big of a shot in the arm will it be for this program to appear in the March Madness brackets?

Slocum:  Obviously, it’s a dream that we all have.  To me, it wasn’t as much of a dream as it was a reality to achieve.  I think we are headed in the right direction.  Everybody talks about how you only have to win three games at the end of the year to get in, and I believe that to be true also, but, in the same breath, you have to be able to get to the end and have the confidence.  The way we finished last year should carry over into this year.

Paneech:  Is your group healthy?

Slocum:  Right now, we are healthy.  Every Fall, we do a little bit of a different approach to get our guys ready.  I’m not a big guy on coming in at 100%  top shape.  I think progressively, we get there.  Across the country, some guys get pushed too hard before their bodies are ready to take that kind of a pounding.  Right now we are healthy, and I am cautiously optimistic about our health.

Paneech:  Have you gotten comfortable with Youngstown as your home yet?

Slocum:  We love the valley and Youngstown.  My wife is a nurse at a local hospital.  This is home.  We enjoy the area, we enjoy Mill Creek Park, we enjoy all of the different things that are unique to Youngstown.

Paneech:  I am a fan, yet there are detractors.  Do you care about criticism or is it just accepted as part of the job?

Slocum:  It is what it is.  If you let those people govern you or disturb your thought process, then you don’t focus on your job and doing it the right way.  We knew when we got here that it would be a great challenge for us.  We knew that the recruiting hadn’t been what it should’ve been relevant to the Horizon League.  We had to learn Youngstown and how to recruit for YSU and the challenges of recruiting in a state with the MAC.  I don’t lose any sleep from all of the people that say things behind my back, or to my face about this criticism or that criticism.  I know that right now, the infrastructure of our program is higher than it has ever been and I know that our talent level is better.

Paneech:  How fun is it to play schools like Xavier, Kent, and Pitt?

Slocum:  I think it is fun for our guys.  In the time since I have been here, we have really changed our profile relevant to our schedule.  When you play schools like Ohio State, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Pitt, Xavier, and Kent, it gives our guys the chance to play the best teams in the country.  It also gives you a measuring stick to get ready for your conference play.  We will contnue to do that while I am here.  I think it is a great recruiting tool and it allows our guys to dream a little bit.

Paneech:  Talk to me about riding a motorcycle and the trips you take.

Slocum:  I ride a Honda.  My wife doesn’t have a motorcycle, she just rides with me.  It really started in my youth.  I had motorcycles until I was 23 or 24 when we had our first child.  I went away from them for about 25 years.  Now that the kids are gone, I have picked it back up in the last ten years.  It gives us a chance to go and travel and we love being on the road.  We rode to the very top of Nova Scotia.  Next year, we are planning to go to South Dakota.

Paneech:  If you were asked to coach the Olympic Basketball Team, who would be your starting five?

Slocum:  Obviously, your top two guys would be LeBron and Kobe.  Kobe is probably the hardest working guy in the game.  My big guy would have to be Howard because he is so agile.  Bosh and Garnett would be there too.  The point guard spot would probably be Chris Paul. 

One Word Answers

Best All-Time Coach At Any Level:  Dean Smith.

Favorite Flavor of Handel’s Ice Cream:  (long pause)  Black Raspberry.

Mountaineer or Cedar Point?   Cedar Point.

Restaurant In Youngstown That You Have To Get To:  MVR Club.

Favorite Holiday:  Christmas.

Best Boxer At Any Weight Class:  Kelly Pavlik.

Favorite Group Of All-Time:  The Who.

A Short Description Of This Year’s Team:  Mentally Tougher.

Least Favorite Chore To Do At Home:  Clean Up The Dog’s Poop.

Can The Cavs Win This Year?  Yes.

Favorite Fruit:  Peaches

Best Movie Ever Made:  Patton.