Can Cavs ‘turn it on’ in playoffs?

April 16, 2017

Over the next few weeks — as few as two or as many as eight — we will find out if a good team not playing very well can suddenly “turn it on” when necessary. The defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers began defense of their title on Saturday with a 109-108 win over the Indiana Pacers. Indiana came into the game having won five games in a row, a streak that was necessary for the Pacers to even make it into the playoffs. The Cavaliers, on the other hand, ended what has to be considered a disappointing regular season in a disjointed fashion. The Cavs were inconsistent in ...

This haul of recruits could make YSU Bragg

April 10, 2017

YOUNGSTOWN — Bear with me as I play connect the dots. This is something of a recruiting puzzle that coach Jerrod Calhoun could fit together. Not to start the next Youngstown State men’s basketball season, but beginning with the 2018-19 campaign. The YSU coach and assistant coach Paul Molinari were in North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana and Chicago the past few days looking at potential recruits. Five scholarships remain for the 2017-18 season, and some might be filled by graduate transfers. But that’s not the theme of this column. That 2018-19 season could be a monumental season ...

Let’s wait and see on competitive balance

April 9, 2017

Be careful what you wish for. After years of voting and haggling and debating and complaining, competitive balance is here in Ohio high school sports. Will it work? We will pretty much have to wait and see. The Ohio High School Athletic Association this past week released the divisional breakdown for the coming fall sports season, covering the sports of football, boys and girls soccer and volleyball. The 2017-18 school year is the first in which the OHSAA’s competitive balance policy will be used to determine in what division a particular school will play. Winter sports (boys and ...

Adding pieces is vital for Penguins’ new regime

April 7, 2017

YOUNGSTOWN — Size. It’s something Jerrod Calhoun has noticed his first full week with Youngstown State. The Penguins need to get bigger. They need to be more athletic. Shooting the ball better from the team’s power forward and center spots wouldn’t hurt either. Calhoun, the YSU men’s basketball coach, wants to keep pushing on his recruiting trips, which are Thursdays and Fridays. He practices his team Monday through Wednesday. The 35-year-old mentor wants to enhance the Horizon League’s best returning backcourt and arguably the odds-on favorite for pre-season and ...

YSU fans can forget dismal past

April 5, 2017

YOUNGSTOWN — Jerrod Calhoun has taken hold of the dark past of Youngstown State men’s basketball and wants to turn his back on that chapter. The 35-year-old coach has his own take of YSU’s struggles which include 20 or more losses in 11 of the past 16 seasons. Depression around the Penguins’ program has lingered more than the stench of a dead skunk. In only three seasons has YSU had 18 or more wins since 1985. If Calhoun was Italian, he might say, “Forget about it.” The new YSU coach is doing just that the first week on the job. He’s not saying this team has a three- ...

Calhoun recruiting focus on NE Ohio

April 4, 2017

Jerrod Calhoun is about relationships. He got off to a great start to his recruiting — for the class of 2019. The new Youngstown State University men’s basketball coach utilized his strong Cleveland ties to offer a scholarship to 6-9 sophomore Brison Waller from Garfield Heights, according to a tweet last week from Garfield Heights coach Sonny Johnson. However, Calhoun couldn’t get Duane Moss, a 6-foot-7 recruit from Carolina Forest, to stay committed to the YSU program. The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., stated in an April 3 article that Moss is decommitting from YSU. Moss ...