Men's Basketball Preview - Part 1: Youngstown State
Oct. 25, 2005
Youngstown State men's basketball coach Jerry Slocum is used to winning.
Slocum's teams have a run of 17 consecutive winning seasons, including 24 in his last 25 campaigns and have posted at least 20 wins on 19 occasions.
In his three stops as a head coach he showed up to rebuild a program and at each of those schools he left as the schools all-time leader in wins or winning percentage.
Now he brings his coaching talents to Youngstown State, a program that has a combined to 27 wins in the past four years. Not to mention just three winning seasons over the last 20 campaigns.
"I don't do losing well," Slocum said when he was hired in April.
With his hiring, the perception of the program changed overnight. In comes a coach with 580 career victories and 910 games under his belt. Only eight active Division I coaches have more wins than Slocum and out of his peers in the NCAA coaching ranks he is 18th in victories.
Penguin basketball fans are hopeful Slocum can turn the program into a force in the Horizon League, one of only nine conferences to have multiple teams reach the Sweet 16 in the past three years.
But the 2005-06 season will be a challenge for the Penguins.
Only two returning starters are back after the squad finished 5-23 a year ago.
The key face on the court in the rebuilding stage is junior guard Quin Humphrey.
Humphrey started every game last year and averaged a team-best 14.4 points per game. He ranked eighth in the league in scoring, the highest a Penguin has ranked since joining the conference four years ago. He scored in double figures on 25 occasions, including the first 14 games of the year.
Another key will be senior guard Derrick Harris. Harris had the best year of his career last season averaging 6.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game.
Harris showed his scoring capabilities finishing with 23 against Eastern Michigan and 22 against Siena. He scored in double figures six times in 2004-05.
Harris (31) and Humphrey (39) combined to make 70 3-pointers for the season. Of Humphrey's 39 3-pointers made, 25 came in the final 12 games of the season.
Besides Harris and Humphrey, Domonique Crawford is the only other returning guard from last year. Crawford saw limited action last season appearing in 20 games.
YSU must replace starting point guard Jon Mends who started all but one game last year.
Junior college transfer Keston Roberts did not play last year taking care of his family in Brooklyn, N.Y., but had a solid sophomore campaign in 2003-04 at Connors State College where he averaged 16 points and 10 rebounds.
"For us to have the year that we want to have, Keston's a major part of it," Slocum said. "He's a very offensively skilled kid. When you can put Quin Humphrey and Keston Roberts on your two wings, those are athletic guys who can put the ball in the basket and find a way to score. Both of those kids are above-average scorers. I look for both of those guys to have good years for us."
Freshman Mikki Niemi joined the program just as school started and brings some international experience to the program. Niemi, who is 20 years old, played on the Finland Under-20 National Team that competed at the 2005 European "B" Championships.
The post positions will see the biggest change. Forwards Brian Radakovich and Khari McQueen are gone. Last season, Radakovich 12 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest. He played in 25 of the Guins' 28 games.
McQueen started 19 of the final 20 games of the year averaging 6.4 points and 3.7 rebounds per contest.
Sophomore forward John Barber has the most experience of all the post players. Barber came on strong to average 6.3 points and 3.6 rebounds for the campaign. He scored in double figures six times and had 17 points and 10 rebounds in the Horizon League tournament game at Loyola.
The only other returning post players are sophomores Alex Sanchez and Colin LaForme, junior Dwight Holmes and senior Mike Adams. Of those three players, Sanchez saw the most playing time. The four individuals combined to play a total of 546 minutes, score 138 points and grab 82 rebounds.
Holmes brings a tremendous amount of athleticism to the court while LaForme improved throughout the season. Sanchez made eight 3-pointers while just making seven two-point field goals on the year. In his limited role, Adams grabbed 23 rebounds and blocked eight shots.
Freshman newcomer 6-8 forward Jack Liles should see a lot of playing time.Liles averaged 10 points and eight rebounds at National Christian High School last season.
Slocum has been known to play to his team's strenghts and odds are good he will try to push the right buttons to get the program back on track.
"We're going to play 10 kids a night so the competition has been very, very intense," he said. "Everybody knows that it's kind of an open take for them right now. They have the ability to get playing minutes."
Story provided by Youngstown State University Office of Sports Information
