Posts Tagged ‘Jerry Slocum’

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.

Youngstown State University basketball senior player, Dallas Blocker, has been awarded the V Foundation Comeback Award.  ESPN will present the award for the tenth time on April 27th at YSU’s Scholar-Athlete Banquet.  The award will be formally announced tonight, March 30, during ESPN’s coverage of college basketball.

 “It is a great honor to be named the recipient of the 10th Annual V Foundation Comeback Award,” said Blocker. “There are no winners or losers in this. All of the finalists overcame a great deal of adversity and are deserving of this recognition as well. I’m fortunate to have had a tremendous amount of support over the past year. I need to thank my family, Coach (Jerry) Slocum and the entire Youngstown State coaching staff, and our athletic trainer Todd Burkey, who was with me every day during my chemotherapy treatments. I also want to thank The V Foundation, not only for this award, but for all of the work it does for cancer research and saving so many lives of those affected by cancer,” he concluded.

The award is open to all male and female student athletes at all levels and is presented in the honor of the late Coach Jim Valvano.  Valvano was courageous while battling with cancer, inspiring the creation of The V Foundation.

Blocker was profiled earlier in the year on Paneech.com. To read his profile interview, click here.  In the profile, Blocker gives a recounting of his battles with cancer in its early stages, what chemo was like, and how he was able to bounce back.

On behalf of the Greater Youngstown Area, extended congratulations to Dallas for having the courage to fight!

The word frustration has been repeatedly used by players, coaches, and fans involved with Youngstown State Basketball this season.  Doesn’t matter which player said it when or which time Coach Slocum dug deep to find a quick answer after a heartbreaking defeat, the word frustration has been mentioned, sometimes more than once.

DeAndre Mays, after the loss to Wright State, went a step further.  “It is beyond frustrating.  Frustrated doesn’t even explain how we feel.  We fight hard and have been staying in every game, we battle to the end, and we catch tough break after tough break.  Seems like we have to play mistake-free to get a win, because we aren’t getting any breaks.”

Mays and the Penguins head North to take a third swing at Green Bay.  The Penguins lost both contests to Green Bay this year and will be playing with a huge chip on their shoulders.  Losers of their last nine in a row, Youngstown State has played well enough to win seven of those games, but just keeps coming up on the short end.  It is remarkable that this team gets back up and fights again.

Corny analogy time…  If a boxer is in a fight until the 12th round four fights in a row and loses all four, his record will not show how tough those fights were, but rather the fact that he lost all four fights.

The Horizon League Tournament, starting tonight, is YSU’s chance to ease some of the frustration of 2010.  To make things worse, the all-conference teams were named on March 1.  Not a single Penguin received any recognition as a first teamer, second teamer, all-defensive teamer, newcomer, or coach.  Individual accolades in a team sport don’t add up to a hill of beans in my book anyway.  Twenty-one players named, and no Penguins.  Sigh.

This team has not played their most complete game of the season yet.  Oddly enough, they are at the end.  Win or go home.  Coach Slocum is a big-game coach and if this team has any miracles up their sleeve, now would be the time to use one.  They have the potential to win this tournament and you can bet that they will not disappear without a fight.  No one wants to face an angry and talented team like YSU, not when they feel they have something to prove.

The season that Youngstown State started with so much promise came to an anti-climatic conclusion as the Penguins struggled to find their stride in a 62-54 loss to Detroit.  YSU celebrated Senior Day for players and cheerleaders before the game.  The festivities were short-lived as the Penguins trailed the Titans for most of the game.

Detroit was controlling the post game early.  With 11:27 left in the first half, Vytas Sulskis hit a pair of free throws to cut the Titans lead to 11-10.  Detroit’s Donovan Foster drove and nailed a soft kiss off of the glass to vault Detroit back to a three-point lead.

With 3:32 left in the opening half and Detroit holding a 25-19 lead, Ashen Ward buried a three for the Penguins.  After a Titan bucket, DeAndre Mays drew contact on his way to the hoop.  Mays would hit the pair of charity tosses to cut the lead to 27-24.  Thomas Kennedy was tough for Detroit in the first half with nine points as the Titans held a 31-26 lead at the intermission.  Vytas Sulskis was high-point man for Youngstown State with seven.

Kelvin Bright had a thunderous right-handed slam off of a nice feed from Mays to pull Youngstown State to within four at 41-37.  Detroit would score the next five points of the game to open up a nine-point lead at 46-37 with some help from Penguin turnovers.

With 8:57 to go in the game, Detroit jumped out to a 15-point lead.  Bright drove the lane and hit the floating finger roll to cut it to 13.  Youngstown State had a couple of good defensive possessions.  In one instance, Xavier Keeling was driving and released a prayer in the paint as he was falling that happened to go in.  On the next possession, Detroit got a bad-angle shot off with two seconds on the shotclock that didn’t hit anything.  As bad luck would have it, a Titan was right there to catch and release a layup off of a rebound as the 35-second clock expired.  Coach Slocum just threw his arms in there and his body language would say ‘what do we have to do’.

More bad luck for Youngstown State as Detroit had the worst free-throw percentage in the Horizon League coming into the game but were 17-20 through the first three quarters of the game, and finished 22-32.

With 3:37 left in the contest, Detroit had a commanding 57-43 lead in which everything seemed to be going their way.  Too much Detroit on this day as YSU bowed 62-54.

DeAndre Mays paced the Penguins with 13 points in his final Beeghly Center YSU home game.  Kelvin Bright chipped in with 11.  Mays (pictured) talked about his last home game.  “I wish it didn’t go down like this, but we have to make a push to do well in the tournament.” 

Detroit was sparked by Kennedy who finished the game with 15. With 32 trips to the free throw line, it is hard to compensate when your team only has fourteen chances, and that, combined with sloppy play spelled doom for the Penguins.

Coach Jerry Slocum had mixed emotions about Tuesday’s upcoming Horizon League Tournament game with Green Bay.  “We did not play very good today.  That [Detroit] is probably the hardest card in the league for us to matchup with because they are so big, just not good size matchups at all for us.”  Pertaining to what the Penguins could take with them into the conference tournament, Slocum reminded all, “The four games before this we battled with Butler, lost to a hot Valpo team, and lost two games at the buzzard to Wright State and UC Riverside.”

Senior Rebecca Sturgiss (above) cheers her last game on Senior Day.  Senior basketball players DeAndre Mays, Sirlester Martin, Kelvin Bright, Zack Rebillot, and Dallas Blocker played in their final home contest.  The men will travel North to face Green Bay in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament on Tuesday night.  Good luck to all Seniors affiliated with a very well-run program.

Snakebitten.  It is a word often used to associate a series of events that seem to be going positively, but end up negative, aka, the worst luck.  When asked, after Youngsown State’s 76-73 loss to Wright State, if his team was snakebitten, all Coach Jerry Slocum could do was ask a question back.  “Do you think?” 

Vytas Sulskis pondered the question a little deeper.  “It is difficult to deal with losing so many close games.  I don’t know what’s going on, it’s like we did something bad to somebody.”

Youngstown State has been tough, but has nothing to show for it over their last four games, all losses, by a total of nine points.  Teams can sweat their way through these nailbiters against YSU, but be guaranteed that there isn’t a team in the Horizon League who wants to draw the Penguins in the upcoming conference tournament.

Thursday night, it was Troy Tabler, with half a second left, throwing up a prayer from the corner, with a hand in his face to extend YSU’s misery.  The Penguins will use these close losses as motivation.  In all likelihood, Wright State will be the #2 seed in the tournament.  YSU also played Butler tough.  Everyone knows they can hang, nobody wants to see the Penguins, who have yet to put together a full 40 minute effort this season.

Wright State jumped out to an early lead but Youngstown State went up 8-7 with seven minutes gone. Vytas Sulskis showcased his defensive skills as he pinned an attempted Raiders layup against the backboard for a nice block.

The Raiders jumped out to a 15-10 lead with 11:12 remaining in the first half.  Dallas Blocker, who played a good portion of the second half with a bleeding nose,  got a hard-earned bucket on an offensive rebound and putback to trim the deficit to three.

Todd Brown rattled off five straight points for the Raiders to bolster their lead to 22-19 with 7:58 remaining in the opening half.  Sirlester Martin, who had been struggling, showed signs of a big game when he first hit a baseline jumper and later hit a layup while fouled.  It was Martin’s first successful free throw in six games.  Martin then nailed a three with just over five minutes remaining in the half to give YSU their first lead of the game at 24-22.

YSU upped their lead to 32-23 on a Zack Rebillot jumper.  Ashen Ward nailed a three with 2:09 left putting YSU ahead 35-23. The Penguins played up to thier capabilities on both ends of the court in what may have been their most complete stretch in a Horizon League game all season.

Wright State (19-10, 12-6) battled back from down twelve to down three using a 9-0 run to close out the first half.  At intermission, YSU was in front, 35-32, and squandered their huge margin.  Martin paced YSU with 14 first half points and Ward chipped in with ten.  Wright State got nine points apiece from Brown and Vaughn Duggins.

YSU held a 49-43 lead with 13:49 left in the game.  Ward hit a pair of free throws to give him 12 points for the game, a career high.  Sulskis scored in consecutive trips on offense for the Penguins who maintained a slight lead at 53-51 with 11:07 left in the game.

Wright State nabbed their first lead of the second half as Troy Tabler nailed a three to put the Raiders up by a point.  Martin hit a bucket for the Penguins to reclaim the lead, but the way the Penguins were playing late in close games, more than a one point lead would be a blessing.

Wright State came into the game as the best free throw shooting team in the league but struggled from the line going 13-21 as Brown missed a pair with 3:46 left in the game which opened the door for YSU.  Sulskis took an inbounds pass to make a layup and give the Penguins a short-lived lead.  Brown atoned for his lackluster efforts at the line when he stole the ball, drove half the court and slammed the Raiders into a 68-64 lead with 2:57 left in the game.

With the Raiders in front, 70-66, and 1:23 left, DeAndre Mays hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 70-68. Wright State’s Ronnie Thomas was fouled after gathering an offensive rebound, but Wright State continued to kill themselves at the line as he missed both.  On the rebound of the second miss, Sulskis was fouled and hit both to tie the game at 70.  With the rebound, Sulskis posted a double-double, his second of the year.

Duggins buried a pair of clutch free throws with 43 seconds left to make it a 72-70 advantage for the visitors from Dayton.  Mays drew a foul with 37 seconds left and hit one of two.  Tabler was fouled for the Raiders with 28 seconds left, where he hit one of two to raise the lead back to two.  Sulskis answered with his fifteenth point to tie the game.

Troy Tabler then launched his game-winning prayer and threw up a high-arcing desperation three that found a way in.  Another late dagger which sent the Penguins to another close defeat, losing their last four by a total of nine heartbreaking points.

Coach Slocum commented on the devastating loss.  “They shot 32 free throws and we only shot 18 in our house.  Our kids played very hard and have been fighting every game over the past three weeks.  They have to keep their pride.”

In the Grapes of Wrath, the Joad family went West in hopes of finding a way to prosper during tough times.  Youngstown State found themselves in that role Saturday night, as they went West in hopes of finding a way to prosper during tough times. 

Unfortunately, Youngstown State ended up losing their BracketBuster contest against UC Riverside, 62-60, in a real thriller.  Trailing by as many as 11 points, the Penguins rallied in the second half to tie the game at 60 on a Vytas Sulskis jumper with just 24 seconds to play.

UC Riverside’s Lateef McMullan took a shot with three seconds left that missed the mark.  David Chavarria grabbed the offensive board and hit a jumper just before the buzzard to boost the Highlanders (11-15) past the Penguins (8-19).

Kyle Austin took high scoring honors for UC Riverside with 13 points.  Vytas Sulskis (pictured) was the only Penguin to hit double digits and finished with 18 points for Youngstown State.

Coach Jerry Slocum and his Penguins have been so close but cannot seem to find the right combination of artillery to break through for a win.  YSU has lost their last three games by a total of six points.

Youngstown State University had a choice to make going into their contest with Valparaiso.  They could either sulk after a loss to Butler or they could respond positively for hanging with the #15 team in the country.  The Penguins chose to respond positively and played hard but lost 77-75 to Valpo.  The Crusaders have owned the Penguins and have not lost to a Youngstown team since 2000.

The loss left Coach Jerry Slocum searching for answers.  “I thought it was a great basketball game and that our kids played well.  You’re not going to have 16 turnovers and win basketball games.  The hurtful thing about it is that I thought our kids played hard this week.  They gave all they had against Butler and again tonight.  It hurts me as a coach to see that kind of effort and to come up empty.”

Early on, it was the Vytas Sulskis show.  Sulskis was 3-4 from three-point land and had 11 points in the first ten minutes.  The 6’7″ Lithuanian put YSU ahead of Valpo 19-12 with 7:33 left in the first half.  The 12 points for the Crusaders had to be disturbing as they were leading the conference in scoring with almost 73 points per game.

Brandon Wood nailed a three to give Valpo a 23-19 lead as the Penguins went cold after their blazing start.  A Sulskis jumper just inside the foul line and a DeAndre Mays bucket tied the game at 23-23 with 3:15 remaining in the half.  Cory Johnson tied things back up at 27 apiece when he hit a layup and was fouled.

At the half, Youngstown State trailed Valpo 30-28. Sulskis had 13 first-half points for the Penguins, but was hampered with three fouls which may have cut in on his minutes.  Valpo was paced by Brandon Wood’s 12 points.

With 15:35 left in the second half, the Crusaders got a basket from Cory Johnson and YSU answered when Eddie D’Haiti ran the lane and delivered a crowd-pleasing two-handed dunk. Valpo held a 42-40 lead when Ashen Ward hit a two from just inside the arc to vault YSU into a tie. The Penguins would take the lead, 44-42, at the 13:21 mark when D’Haiti first kept a possession alive with an offensive rebound and then hit a pair of free throws, the first two attempted by the Penguins in the contest.

Mays hit a baseline jumper with 9:32 left to give YSU a 53-51 lead. However, on YSU’s next possession, Mays was swatted by Matt Kenney who took the ball three-quarters of the court for a layup. At the 7:37 mark, Valpo held a one-point lead at 56-55.

Wood put Valpo up 62-57 with a three.  Valpo, to this point, was shooting a blistering 9-15 from three-point land.  Kelvin Bright tied the game with his second dunk of the game.  With 4:45 left both teams had 62 points.

Sulskis was in a different zone on this night, he topped his season-high with 24 points and tied his yearly high with nine rebounds.  Matt Kenney had a dunk with 35 seconds left in the game to give Valpo a 73-72 lead.  Kenney was then intentionally fouled and hit both charity tosses to put Valpo up 75-72.

Mays was fouled on YSU’s next trip up the court and he hit one of two to cut the Crusader margin to just two points at 75-73.  Kenney was fouled on the rebound of Mays missed free throw where he promptly connected on both attempts making it a two-possession game at 77-73.

Bright was fouled with five seconds left and hit both his his free throws to cut the lead to two points at 77-75.  After a quick foul, YSU grabbed a rebound but Sulskis had to heave a half-court prayer that didn’t get close and Valpo held on for an exciting 77-75 win.

Valparaiso (14-14, 9-7) got 22 points from Brandon Wood.  Youngstown State (8-17, 2-13) got 24 from Sulskis and DeAndre Mays had a career high with ten assists.

Valpo Coach Homer Drew was full of praise to Youngstown State after the game.  “Jerry [Slocum] has these kids playing hard.  We knew they were going to play hard against us.  I was also proud of our guys to hang in there.  What a game, we’re up, they’re up, we’re up.  Not having any turnovers in the second half and hitting 10 of 18 threes were the difference.  Credit Youngstown, they have been in alot of games and it comes down to one shot here or there either way.”

YSU next heads to Milwaukee for a Monday 7:00 game.  Catch the action on AM-570 with Robb Schmidt bringing the call.

Sirlester Martin was the glue of the Youngstown State Basketball Team last season.  This year he has help, a team full of guys still trying to win games.  With the upcoming BracketBusters game on Fenruary 20th, nobody has to remind Martin that if this team can catch fire and play a stretch of complete games, that the sky is still the limit.  Martin stands at 6’7″ and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee and has been the most consistent rebounder the Penguins have had through the last couple of seasons.  I recently sat down with Martin and discussed everything from Coach Slocum being on Survivor to X-Box to academic standing.

Paneech:  What is it going to take for you guys to make some noise in your conference tournament?

Martin:  We have to be tough and stay disciplined on defense.  We have to box out and do all of the small things all the time. 

Paneech:  You recently had a game on ESPNU.  People came out of the woodwork to see.  How much of that do you guys really take in?

Martin:  Well, what we do when we go into any game is not focus on the fans.  We just try to motivate each other and keep one another going.  The bench has to have life, everyone has to stand up and be clapping.  We use the extra energy from the bench to keep our guys going.  We don’t focus on the stands or who is watching us. 

Paneech:  So when there is a packed house chanting “De-Fense“, you can’t hear it?

Martin:  I mean, you can hear it, but you kind of block it out because you are focused. 

Paneech:  Comment on Coach Slocum.  He is an emotional guy.  Could you see him on a reality show like Survivor?

Martin:  Coach Slocum is a real interesting guy.  I have played for many coaches and he [Slocum] definitely has his own way of doing things.  He does have alot of passion for the game, but I think we all do.  As far as seeing him in another role, he thinks he is pretty funny.  I could see him doing some stand-up comedy or something like that.  Maybe doing a radio show where he can open up.

Paneech:  How did you get to Youngstown State, and what other options were available to you?

Martin:  I came out of Walters State Community College in East Tennessee.  I played two years there.  My freshman year, I played pretty well and in my sophomore season, we went to the nationals and finished the season 32-3.  Coach Mike [Wernicki] came up and seen me.  I was recruited but had a problem with some hours that Summer that I had to get finished.  Some schools would not wait around, but Youngstown State stood behind me and waited on me. 

Paneech:  How has the education been at Youngstown State?

Martin:  It has gone pretty well.  I asked around when I got here about different things to do as far as declaring my major.  I took general studies for the first couple of years.  I am leaning towards social work when I graduate.  I would like to work with juveniles and help straighten their lives out.  I came from an atmosphere that was tough, so I feel I can relate to what they are going through.  The classes at Youngstown State are challenging, and I love this school.

Paneech:  Do you watch any other sports, or just basketball?

Martin:  I used to watch alot of football, I was a wide receiver in high school.  Mostly though, I watch the Cavs.  They might be able to make a run, but it’s gonna be tough without Delonte [West] and Mo [Williams].  Shaq could turn out to be ok for them, but anything can happen.

Paneech:  Walk me through a day from start to finish.

Martin:  I wake up, go to my 8 o’clock class,  then I come here [Beeghly Center] and head up to the coaches office.  I do some studying or watch some film until my next class starts at ten.  Usually, I will come back to Beeghly, work out, and get to take some shots before practice.  Go through practice, shower, and then head home.  Depending on the day or the way I feel, I will stay and get more work done and then go home.  Once I get home, eat something, and then just watch some TV or play a video game.  After that, I relax and talk on the phone.  I usually call it a day around 11:30.

One Word Answers:

Favorite Fast Food:  McDonalds.

Favorite Drink:  Snapple Juice.

Biggest Phobia: Snakes.

Worst Habit:  Procrastinating.

Favorite Video Game:  Street Fighter and UFC

Best Show On TV:  The Game and Rayjay.

Best Movie Ever Made:  Waist Deep.

Favorite Cereal:  Lucky Charms.

Favorite Candy:  Gummy Bears.

Favorite Toy As A Child:  My wrestling men.  Hulk Hogan, Sting.

Best Class Taken at YSU:  Psychology.

 

Youngstown State University had to play with nothing left to lose.  After all, the Penguins dropped the first meeting 91-61 on January 16 and wanted to pick up some steam heading into Bracketbusters on Feb. 20.  Surely a win, or at least a good showing against #15 Butler shoud help compile confidence.

Half of the battle was won, as the Penguins made a respectable showing against the powerful Bulldogs ultimately falling 68-57.  Butler (22-4, 15-0) clinched the Horizon League Championship with the win and is very capable of advancing a few rounds in the NCAA Tournament come March. 

With 12:44 left in the first half, Butler raced out to a 16-8 lead, but Ashen Ward gathered in a long deflection and hit a cutting DeAndre Mays for a pair to cut the early Bulldog lead to six points. 

The Penguins cut the lead to one point at the 8:05 mark on a Kelvin Bright three-pointer.  Youngstown State was playing a great game defensively in the early going.  With Butler ahead 18-17, Mays nailed a three to give YSU their first lead of the game.  Vytas Sulskis hit another to put YSU up 23-18 as the large Beeghly Center crowd got loud.

The Penguins extended their lead to seven with 4:17 left in the first half when Mays hit a layup for his twelfth point of the half.  It was the first half that no one would have expected and the lead grew to eight.  Unfortunately for Youngstown State, things started unraveling and Butler used a blast of offense to take a halftime lead and had an 11-2 run to put themselves a point in front of Youngstown State at 31-30.

Butler took advantage of shoddy YSU ball control to start the second half.  Over the first seven minutes, the Penguins turned the ball over five times.  Coach Jerry Slocum commented on the poor second half start.  “We had five turnovers in our first six possessions in the second half.  This game was lost during those first seven minutes of the second half.  You can’t keep a good team like that down too long when you have that many empty possessions.  Another turning point in the game was when [Matt] Howard got his fourth foul and they want one big and four small, we did not match up well at that point.”

Butler was paced by Gordon Hayward (pictured) who finished the contest with 22 points and 17 rebounds, more than half of his team total of 31.  The 6’9″ Sophomore Guard was 8-9 from the free throw line and played a very well-rounded 36 minutes.  Zach Hahn seemed to keep the Penguins at bay down the stretch as his eight points all came at crucial times.

Butler Coach Brad Stevens was happy to escape with the win.  “This time of the year you just try to take a win, get better, and move on.  The guards and players for YSU scare every coach in this conference because when they get it going, they are really hard to stop.  They played a great game and it is a big road win for us.”

Butler heads to Cleveland State next for a Saturday matchup where they have had fits.  Youngstown State (8-16, 2-12) hosts Valparaiso Saturday night.

Courage. It is a word that bends many different ways.  Cancer. It is a word that doesn’t show mercy and sometimes has a long and tragic meaning.  Don’t get me wrong, plenty of courageous people have lost battles with cancer and paid with their lives.  Dallas Blocker is one of the courageous who survived and to hear his story weakened me.  Mad respect to the big 6’9″ Youngstown State Senior for openly talking about his fight with the evil disease.

Paneech: Talk to me about the battle you had with cancer.

Blocker: As of right now, I am free of it.  At first it was rough because you are not used to it.  You think, ‘old people get cancer’ not people who are 21 years of age, so it really hit hard at first.  I was diagnosed with testicular cancer.  I went through four rounds of chemotherapy and I would go five days a week for about six hours a day.  I would sit in a chair while they pump stuff into my blood through an IV.  For the first couple of weeks I was fine, and I was functioning as normal.  After that second time, it kind of hit me.  All of my hair started falling out and off of my body, and my energy level went way down.  I was struggling to go up a flight of steps. I was eating real good, I like mexican and spicier foods, but by the third or fourth treatment I could not hold anything down.  I would be with Andy Timko in the Summer, and we would like to go out to eat.  We were just talking about it the other day, he would see me run off to the bathroom and he knew I just couldn’t keep anything down.

Paneech:  Did your fight with cancer give you a different outlook on the life you lead?

Blocker:  Going through what I did, I look at every day as a blessing to be here. Days are more important to me now.  Before all of this, I would just go through life with a ‘who cares about this’ attitude.  Now I am really concentrating on school and my future because I am not going to be playing basketball forever.  I am transitioning to being an adult and will graduate with a degree to teach in a year.  The whole thing has opened me up and made me a more mature person.

Paneech: Using a bad situation to make something positive from can transition to this basketball team you are on.  How does YSU pick itself up and move forward?

Blocker: We [the five seniors] are looking at it as our last chance.  We all have a role on this team and have to buy into Coach Slocum’s system.  Right now, not everyone has bought into the system and we are playing as individuals.  We actually had a meeting after practice where DeAndre Mays stood up and reminded everyone that everyone is starting to fall off and we need to circle the wagons and get back into it.  We have eleven games left in the season and if a team gets hot in this sport at the right time they could go pretty far.  We still believe we can get hot enough to still make it to the NCAA Tournament if we can get going that well.

Paneech: What changes can Coach Slocum make and how do you compete with a team like Butler?

Blocker:  Butler is just an all-around great team.  They are beatable and have their flaws though.  We had them on their backs at times but had a bunch of unforced errors that they took advantage of and that is what they [Butler] do best.  Coach Slocum wears his heart on his sleeve.  You always know where he is at emotionally.  When he is down, he is really down.  He tells us everyday at practice that he is not going to change, and he never does.  He has very good character and I like the attitude he brings to practice.

Paneech: What NBA player do you like?

Blocker: I’m not really a big fan of the NBA, I would much rather watch college basketball.  If I had to pick a player I would say Kevin Garnett because of the way he prides himself as a great defensive player.

Paneech: I have seen a little change on offense where it seems the big guys are getting more chances to score.  What brought that on?

Blocker: I brought that up a couple of weeks ago.  DeAndre [Mays] and Sirlester [Martin] are going to shoot the ball.  After one of them hits a few shots, the defense is going to adjust to them, so why not dump it down in the post.  When we score a couple of times, the defense will adjust again and then we can kick it back out to our pure shooters.

One Word Answers

Favorite Meal Of The Day: Dinner.

Best Fast Food: Taco Bell.

Biggest Phobia: Maybe being claustrophobic, maybe.

Worst Habit: (laughs)  Lying.

Favorite Soft Drink: Dr. Pepper.  Cherry Dr. Pepper is ok too.

What Do You Get On Your Pizza: Meat Lover’s.

Last Book You Read Not For School: The New Moon from the Twilight Series.

The Hardest Thing You Ever Had To Do: Survive Cancer.

Worst Class You Had At YSU: Math for teachers.  I got a B but the content was so boring.

The Biggest World Problem That Needs Fixed: The economy.

Favorite Childhood Toy: My Ultimate Warrior action figures.