The Town Crier

[PointGuard]

CBI Tournament

The 5th seed Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix (16-13) took on the 4th seed Utah State Aggies (17-12) in the first round of the CBI Tournament’s West Regional. Led by C Jamil Weekes quick 10 points, Wisconsin-Green Bay sprinted out to a 14-0 lead just minutes into the game. Midway through the half, the Phoenix were ahead 20-6. The Aggies cut the lead to 7 points and at the end of half trailed by a score of 35-28. Weekes had 13 points in the half.

Utah State tied the game at 45-45 with 13-1/2 minutes left to play. But Wisconsin-Green Bay scored the next 10 points. With 4 minutes remaining, the Phoenix were ahead 71-50. Wisconsin-Green Bay recorded a resounding 78-59 lopsided victory. Utah State turned the ball over 23 times compared to 12 by the Phoenix. C Jamil Weekes scored 20 and pulled down 6 boards while SG Romain Perry scored 14, dished out 4 assists, grabbed 7 rebounds, and had 3 steals.


In their second game in the CBI Tournament, Wisconsin-Green Bay played #1 seed Alabama State (19-11). The Phoenix were unable to contain the Hornets in the first half. By the end of the half, Alabama State led 55-32. While the Phoenix were able to cut into the lead a little in the 2nd half, the hole was just too great to crawl out of and Wisconsin-Green Bay lost 82-66. PF Josh Abraham led the scoring for Wisconsin-Green Bay with 16 points.

[PointGuard]

NCAA Tournament

Youngstown State (23-7) seeded #13 in the Midwest Region took on #18 ranked and #4 seed Alabama (23-7) in a first round matchup. Even though the Crimson Tide finished 3rd in the Southeastern Conference, they won that conference’s tournament. Four of their starters averaged in double figures and the fifth nearly averaged in double figures.

The Penguins scored the first 9 points of the game and Alabama didn’t score for the first 2-1/2 minutes when they connected on a free throw. YSU prevented Alabama from making a field goal for nearly 5-1/2 minutes. But a combination of multiple fouls called against the Penguins that sent Alabama repeatedly to the foul line and turnovers by YSU allowed the Crimson Tide to wrest the lead from YSU when an errant pass by Pat White was intercepted and Alabama scored on a driving layup to go ahead 16-15 at the 11:27 mark. The Crimson Tide rolled on from that point and by the end of the half led 46-30. Alabama’s turn-around resulted from them hitting 48% of their shots while holding YSU’s shooting to 38%. The Crimson Tide went to the line 15 more times where they scored 12 more points than the Penguins. YSU uncharacteristically had 10 turnovers in the half compared to just 4 by Alabama. PG Pat White led Youngstown State offensively with 9 points.

Alabama continued their onslaught throughout the 2nd half, seemingly scoring at will and opened as much as a 28 point lead. The Penguins made a late run that cut the lead to 12 but ‘Bama stopped the run and finished with a 95-77 thumping of Youngstown State. Alabama hit 57% of their shots for the entire game and held a 17-9 turnover advantage.

PG Pat White scored 17, PF/C Andre Lilly hit for 16, and C Will O’Neil had 14 points for YSU. Alabama had 6 players scoring in double figures led by SF Charles Johnson who scored 18, grabbed 10 rebounds, and had 3 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks.

“Alabama took us to school in the last 30 minutes of the game. We hoped to pull off an upset, but they’re so quick and physical that we had trouble keeping up with them,” said Coach KD Durst. “I was pleased by how we never game up and made a nice run late in the game. Our two seniors, BJ Dennis and William Swan both played well in their final collegiate game. We’ll miss them next season.”

The tournament concluded when Arizona won the national championship by beating Oklahoma State 89-85.

[PointGuard]

Penguins Gather Awards
By Steve Porter

The Horizon League announced its award winners yesterday. Youngstown State was well-represented.

For the second straight season the Horizon League Player of the Year is C Will O’Neil. The Defensive Player of the Year award went to SF Colin Chambliss. Coach Kendrick “KD” Durst is the league’s Coach of the Year for the 4th year in a row. Named to the league’s 1st Team All-Conference is Will O’Neil. A member of the 2nd Team All-Conference is PG Pat White.

Vic Morrissey, Youngstown State's Athletic Director, said, "All of these guys really deserved their awards following yet another great season. What's great is that the 3 players who garnered awards will be returning next year."

[PointGuard]

Head Coach Change at YSU?
By Steve Porter

Rumors abound that KD Durst, the head coach of Youngstown State’s basketball team, is awash with offers from other schools. Thus far apparently he has just listened and not taken any action to follow up on those preliminary inquiries.

Durst has been the head coach of the Penguins for 6 years. Following two “building” seasons which took the team from the bottom of the Horizon League to respectability, his team has run off 4 straight league titles.

Bob Townsend, head of the Penguin Colony fan club, said, “We certainly don’t want to see KD leave. He’s done such a terrific job developing a top-notch program at Youngstown State. He’s recruited some exciting players and hopefully will want to see how they develop in the future. Unfortunately, I’m sure other schools are willing to pay him far more than YSU does, but he’s never indicated to me any dissatisfaction here. Although part-time starter BJ Dennis is graduating, all other starters are returning this coming season including Matt Angner, the other part-time starter at SG this past season. So next year’s team should be awesome. Hopefully KD will want to see how far he can take them.”

A source at the university said that Durst likes to build teams and now that the Penguins are riding high, there may be a strong desire for him to move on to a new challenge. Repeated calls to Durst have not been returned nor has he made any public comment.

[Wayne23]

The interesting thing that this brings to mind is that in my experience when I leave a team to go to a different team the team I leave does okay for 2-3 years and then more often than not goes right down the drain, even good teams. Admittedly, I have no data to back this up but I informally watch the teams I leave and that's what I see.

[PointGuard]

The interesting thing that this brings to mind is that in my experience when I leave a team to go to a different team the team I leave does okay for 2-3 years and then more often than not goes right down the drain, even good teams. Admittedly, I have no data to back this up but I informally watch the teams I leave and that's what I see.

Well, to a degree it is understandable: a team that has risen to a very high level of success under a coach who recruits exceptionally well is likely to play well for a few years after that coach leaves and then slip some (unless a coach of equal caliber follows him), even in real life.

But there is an inherent problem with these types of games...even if the AI is strengthened by the developer, the AI is never the equal of the human player. In DDSCB, Gary has improved AI aggressiveness and created 4 levels of difficulty for recruiting, but in ALL (including BRUTAL), the human can outdo the AI. I've been using Brutal a long time and playing at low prestige programs...and I still get better recruits (and out-recruit some, albeit not all, of the more prestigious programs) than I really should. WIth lesser levels of recruiting difficulty (e.g. Hard, Normal, Easy), that disparity is magnified greatly.

So that results in a program that has become very successful under the human coach, dropping down substantially after the human coach's "recruiting gems" have graduated as the AI tends to move toward mediocrity recruiting against itself.

[PointGuard]

Ex-YSU Assistant Becomes Head Coach
By Steve Porter

Steve Simmons, who was an assistant coach under Coach KD Durst, has been hired as the head coach for the Gardner Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs. Simmons was the recruiting assistant at YSU for 4 seasons. He then took a year off to complete a graduate degree. He returned to coaching this past season as an assistant at Davidson, helping the team post a 24-8 record, finish ranked #25 in the polls, and participate in the NCAA Tournament. That earned him the head coaching job at Gardner Webb for this coming season.

“It’s fantastic that Steve has become a head coach in Division 1. He’s earned it by his hard work and excellent capabilities. Steve definitely is taking on a challenge since Gardner Webb has posted just a total of 13 wins in the past 3 seasons. But he’s a heckuva recruiter, so I expect that the Runnin’ Bulldogs will become a force in the Big South Conference,” said Coach KD Durst.

[PointGuard]

Durst Visits Other Colleges
By Steve Porter

The mystery concerning whether there will be a head coaching change at Youngstown State has taken on increased uncertainty. During the past week, Penguins head coach KD Durst visited the campuses of the University of Mississippi, Virginia Tech, and Kansas State where he reportedly spoke with officials of each university about their head coaching jobs.

When contacted Durst said, “Yes, there have been a number of programs that have expressed interest in the possibility of my coaching there. After talking to Vic Morrissey, our AD, and gaining his concurrence, I narrowed the list to three that I decided to visit so I could take a look at their program and facilities and talk face-to-face with them. To be honest, each of the three has some attractive opportunities for me, but I’m in the review and consideration stage yet. I’m still the head coach at YSU and have made no decision whatsoever about leaving what I consider to be a great job. I don’t believe in leaving people in limbo though, so want to make a decision quickly, probably within the next 3 or 4 days.”

Morrissey confirmed that Durst talked with him about checking out offers. “While we really want KD to continue coaching the Penguins, I felt it was only fair that he have the opportunity to look at other options. But we’re actively talking with him about what it will take for him to continue building on the success he has created within our program.”

Additionally, it’s reported that Durst has been contacted by several local businesses about being a spokesman for them. That would increase his potential earnings beyond what his YSU contract provides.

Dr. Barry Franklin, who retired recently after being a long-term professor at YSU, said, “Along with others, I congratulate Coach Durst on his success here. But we’re concerned about athletics at the university being given too much importance and siphoning much needed revenue from a financially-strapped school. It’s important that scholastics remain YSU’s top priority. It would be a major mistake for the university to spend money that is critically needed for the education of our students on the basketball program and its staff. Other schools may be in a better able to pay Durst what he is worth in the Division 1 basketball world. YSU is not in the position to get into a bidding war for his services. We’ve made our concerns known to Youngstown State’s President and its Board of Trustees. It’s my understanding that the Youngstown State Faculty Senate has also expressed reservations to the President of the University about funds being siphoned from academics to athletics.”

[Magic Bird]

I agree with Wayne23's points; I think you should stay at Youngstown State and try to get a higher tournament seed (8 seed or higher). YSU has only been nationally relevant for a few seasons. Unless coach Durst wants to coach at a more prestigious program, then in my opinion he/you should try to make at least one decent tournament run (Sweet Sixteen) before you move on.

[PointGuard]

Durst Makes Decision
By Steve Porter

Vic Morrissey, Youngstown State Athletic Director, announced that Coach Kendrick “KD” Durst has accepted a new contract to continue coaching the Penguins. “We’re very pleased that KD will continue the excellent job he has done rebuilding our men’s basketball program. The team’s 96-33 record the past 4 seasons with 3 straight trips to the NCAA Tournament following a season where he took the team to the semifinals of the NIT is a testament to his success,” said Morrissey.

A source within the university has said that Durst was seriously considering offers from several colleges in need of rebuilding of their programs in major conferences. Apparently Virginia Tech nearly convinced him to take a much higher paying job and develop a Hokies team that has been languishing at the bottom of the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference. But Durst was persuaded to remain at Youngstown State not only due to a contract extension with a significant raise in salary, but also the university committing to a solid increase in the team’s recruiting budget for next season.

YSU’s starting PG Pat White stated, “I’m so relieved that Coach Durst has decided to stay on at YSU. He’s one of the big reasons I transferred here after playing a year at Oregon. So I personally wanted to finish my Penguins’ career with Coach Durst at the helm.”

Morrissey also announced that at the conclusion of his contract Kirk Smith, the team’s 2nd Assistant, has decided to move on to be an assistant coach at Radford so he can be closer to his family. In his place, YSU has hired Donnell Weems as 2nd assistant coach in charge of scouting. Weems is 50 and has been an assistant coach at Kennesaw State the past two seasons where he helped the Owls reach the NCAA Tourney this past season. Brandon Warren will continue as YSU’s 1st assistant in charge of player development and Shannon Winn will remain as 3rd assistant handling recruiting.

Smith’s move to Radford expands the number of Durst’s proteges who are now populating coaching jobs in Division 1 ball. As previously reported, Steve Simmons is the new head coach at Gardner Webb. A.D. McKenna is 1st Assistant at Montana, Miguel West is 3rd Assistant for Marquette, and Raymond Harrington is 2nd Assistant at Harvard. “It’s great to see these guys fill important jobs. They’re all rising stars in the coaching world,” commented Coach KD Durst.