The Town Crier

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I caught up with Penguin’s Josh Jones, who in his junior year will likely be Youngstown State’s starting SG this coming season. Josh had just completed a short training camp at C2P Basketball Camp in Indiana.

I found out that two of the three incoming Penguins’ freshmen players (PG Tim Lostetter and SF William Worley) attended the same camp. Based on his experience at the training camp, Josh was excited to have both joining the team this coming season. “I gave Tim the nickname “Sparky” because he’s like a spark plug…small (5’6”) and energizing. Tim plays all out and feeds the ball well to others, so I think he’s going to be a big asset at the point for our team. I call William Worley “Bilbo”. For a small forward, he’s going to be a strong rebounder. He’s not afraid to put up 3’s, and if he starts knocking them down better, he can come off the bench to put some quick points on the board for us.”

Josh indicated he was sorry that Jamal Grady, who is expected to contend for a starting position at center this coming season, wasn’t able to attend the training camp. Jones commented, “I saw Jamal play a couple games in the state tournament this year, and he’s talented in every phase of the game. I can’t wait to get on the court with him.”

Jones has been invited back to the C2P Camp as a player instructor and is excited that he’ll be working with high school players who will be attending camps throughout the rest of this summer.

Asked about new head coach K.D. Durst, Jones said that Durst got to campus after the end of the school year but has made contact with everyone on the team and seemed intent on making some changes to get the team on the winning track. Jones indicated that with the entire coaching staff being new, he’s expecting there will be substantial changes to offensive and defensive strategies and overall philosophies.

[PointGuard]

Three Recruits Heading to Penguins
By Steve Porter

The Youngstown State Athletic Department announced today that three high school players have given verbal commitments to play basketball for Youngstown State next season.

Kent Jones, a 6-7 senior center from Mitchell, Indiana, B.J. Dennis, a 6-0 senior starting guard from Pickerington, Ohio, and Aaron Tice, a 6-6 senior power forward from Ashland, Ohio plan to join the Penguins next year.

Coach K. D. Durst said that Jones is a strong rebounder with good inside scoring abilities as well as being a top-flight shot blocker. Durst indicated that Dennis scores well from the outside. Tice was rated in the top 5 of all attendees at the Chicago Prep Review held in July and is a talented rebounder and defender along with being a good scorer.

The Penguins still have one scholarship to award. Durst and Steve Simmons, his recruiting assistant, plan to continue to their recruiting activities, but don’t expect to fill the final scholarship position until this coming spring.

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Inside sources indicate that Youngstown State’s basketball practices have been marred by repeated incidents centering around expected starting point guard, Ryan Surpin. While the incidents haven’t been of such a nature to result in a suspension, Coach Durst has counselled Surpin more than once.

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Coach Durst Redshirts Two
By Steve Porter

As pre-season practices are winding down for the Youngstown State basketball team, Coach K.D. Durst has redshirted freshman SF William Worley and sophomore PG Levall Hart. Redshirting will allow both players to gain an additional year of eligibility while working to build their skills this season. Durst is holding off announcing his starting lineup until just before the Penguins begin their season on November 14 when they host East Tennessee State.

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Penguins Basketball Tips Off Tomorrow
By Steve Porter

A new era of basketball at Youngstown State begins tomorrow night as the Penguins play their first game under the direction of new head coach, K. D. Durst. The Penguins first opponents are the East Tennessee State Buccaneers.

Coach Durst’s starting lineup for tomorrow night’s game will be as follows:

PG Ryan Surpin (6-2 Sr)
SG Josh Jones (6-0 Jr)
SF Chad Delzell (6-8 So)
PF Kareem Toole (6-6 Sr)
C Steven Puzey (6-10 Sr)

Durst indicated that there was stiff competition for all five starting slots. According to Durst, PG Tim Lostetter, SG Jermaine Harrington, SF Rick Martin, PF Rich Braswell, and C Jamal Grady will all get substantial playing time and all of them could possibly break into the starting lineup at some point during the season. SG Lonnie Holt and walk-ons PF Greg Knight and C Kevin Anderson round out the Penguins’ squad.

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Inside information indicates that Coach Durst feels that at the beginning of the season his interior players are stronger than his perimeter players and that his big man depth is stronger than that outside.

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Youngstown State Drops Opener

By Steve Porter

Isaac Stowers and Steven Puzey, the starting centers for East Tennessee State and Youngstown State each scored the first 6 points for their respective teams. Jamal Grady subbed in for Puzey and scored the Penguins next 4 points. At the 13:13 mark, Tim Lostetter hit a pair of free throws to score the first points by a non-center for the Penguins. The Buccaneers relied on Stowers to build a 26-22 lead with 7 minutes to play in the first half. Cheered on by a sparse crowd in Beeghly Center, the Penguins fought back to achieve a slim 34-32 halftime advantage. Stowers led all scorers in the first half with 13 points for the Buccaneers while SF Chad Delzell was high point man for the Pioneers with 10.

East Tennessee State opened up a 7 point lead midway through the 2nd half as Stowers continued to pour in points and the refs called 7 fouls against the Penguins while calling none against the Buccaneers. But even though Stowers finished with a total of 29 points, it ultimately was a combination of a porous defense (allowing East Tennessee State to hit 59% of their shots), turnovers (24 by the Penguins), and failure to control the boards (-9) that led to the Penguins to lose their season opener by a final score of 76-64.

Three Youngstown State players scored in double figures: SG Jermaine Harrington had 11, and SF Chad Delzell and PG Ryan Surpin each scored 10.

Responding to questions after the game, Coach K. D. Durst said, “I was pleased with how hard our guys fought throughout the entire game, but we definitely found some things we need to work on in practice this week. In particular there were far too many errant passes. We’ve got to control the ball better.” Asked about Stowers, Durst replied, “You gotta hand it to the guy. We double-teamed him all night and he still found ways to penetrate. We just couldn’t handle him.”

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I checked in with Raymond Harrington, 1st assistant coach, since I had heard that a couple players on the team may have sustained injuries in last night’s game. Harrington said, “No real injuries. Josh Jones and Rich Braswell had muscle tweaks so today both just did some limbering exercises and we had them skip team practice, but both will be back to normal practicing tomorrow.” According to Harrington, practices up to this point have been pretty intense, but today’s was toned down and focused on a few key points. Even though the two players didn’t participate they were on hand to listen and observe. He said that holding them out of practice today was purely precautionary and both will be at 100% for the Penguins game later this week.

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Penguins Speared by Lancers
By Steve Porter

Youngstown State travelled to Farmville, Virginia to take on the Longwood Lancers. The Lancers won their season opener 87-74 on the road against Cal-Poly.

The Penguins had a tough time hitting their shots until late in the first half. At the break they trailed 37-28.

Youngstown State’s defense fell apart in the 2nd half and the Lancers took advantage of that to open as much as a 24 point lead. The Penguins were handed their second loss, dropping this game by a score of 89-68.

All five starters for Longwood scored in double figures. C Steven Puzey scored 20 and grabbed 11 boards for the Penguins. SG Josh Jones scored 12 and PG Ryan Surpin added 10 for Youngstown State.

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No wins yet for Coach Durst. I guess we can’t expect miracles and for an immediate turn-around of the fortunes for Youngstown State. So far the Penguins have played poor defense. If they can’t start playing D, it’s going to be a long year. Thus far, the center position has produced the most. Steven Puzey, a senior, and freshman Jamal Grady have combined to average 21 ppg and 11 rpg, although Puzey has been most dominant in the first two games. But they’ve been outplayed by their opponents, so again defense is a big deficiency.

I’ve been unable to have an in depth talk with Coach Durst, but Raymond Harrington, 1st assistant coach, has told me that the team still isn’t playing together well as a unit. He feels that is going to take some time and therefore they aren’t overly concerned about the team’s pre-conference record, but hope the Penguins will be competitive by the time league play rolls around.