YSU’s Tevin Olison inks pro deal in England
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YOUNGSTOWN -- After transferring from the NAIA level to Division I basketball a year ago, recent Youngstown State grad Tevin Olison is ready to make his next leap.
Olison, who spent one season with the Penguins after a pair of seasons with University of the Cumberlands, recently inked a one-year deal with the Bristol Flyers, a British Basketball League team. The BBL is the highest level of professional play in the United Kingdom.
"It's a surreal feeling," Olison said. "It's what you've worked for all your life. I'm really excited for this new journey."
Olison averaged 12.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in his lone season in Youngstown. After wrapping up that campaign, the Memphis, Tennessee, native said he first heard from the Flyers around the end of May.
"My agent, Drew Kelso with One Motive Sports, after I signed with (the agency), they just started getting a lot of offers for me," Olison explained. "I came in, and he just told me that this team is in a good league, they have a great coach and they have a great system for you. So I just started chopping it up with the coach, and they liked it and what we had to offer."
Things progressed from there.
"When I first started hearing about them, they stayed in touch. I just feel like we built that connection, just built that trust with them. It really caught my interest," he explained.
Olison and the Flyers often conversed about how he'd fit into their system and city. The Penguin alumnus explained that Bristol supports the team well, and that the franchise sounds trustworthy.
"They sound like a big family, and that's big for me," he noted.
Of how he'll fit into the Flyers' scheme, Olison added, "Kind of the same (style) I always have -- just be one of the best defenders on the floor and score the ball consistently. So that's what I'm going to focus on the most."
It isn't the first time Olison has been in this sort of transition. After spending two seasons at the NAIA level, where he twice earned All-American status, the guard quickly worked himself into the YSU starting rotation and was one of the team's most consistent contributors.
Making the jump to D1 is something Olison says prepared him for this.
"The NAIA level is really competitive. It has a lot of great players that come down from D1 and stuff like that, so it's really competitive," he explained. "But Division I was so much different because you can't take days off or anything like that. You have to play great competition every night. I think that really got me ready for the pro level."
He also credited the YSU coaching staff for helping him to reach this point.
"I do want to say thank you to all the coaches and staff at Youngstown State. They did a really good job of exploiting my talent and stuff like that, and they put me in great positions to be successful," he said.
Olison begins step one of his professional journey in September. In the meantime, he says he's training twice a day -- once in the morning and again in the late evening -- to prepare and stay sharp.
"I'm always trying to make my defense better. I think I need to be better on my reads -- reading out ball screens and stuff like that. That's going to be big at this level," Olison said. "So those are two things I'm going to focus on the most because ... my jump shot is going to fall and my athleticism is there. I just have to think the game better."
And, of course, there's the excitement of beginning his professional career, though there also are some nerves.
"It was my dream to be a pro, and I'm finally getting the chance to do that and prove myself over there," Olison said. "I'm just kind of anxious about being out of the country. It's my first time being out of the country, and I'm not going to know too many people. A lot of things are going to be different, but I'm going to adjust to them. I shouldn't have a problem."
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com