YSU’s McBride excelling in return to starting five
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YOUNGSTOWN -- The starting lineup wasn't where Bryce McBride preferred to be, but lately it's where he's making the most impact.
After starting in Youngstown State's first two games of the season, the senior point guard expressed a desire to come off the bench and for nearly two full months did just that.
But when Shemar Rathan-Mayes, who had gone into the lineup to grant McBride's request, sustained a knee injury in practice, McBride was thrust back into the starting five ahead of YSU's game against Robert Morris on Jan. 5 -- his first start since Nov. 9 against UT Martin.
So far, results are showing McBride was more than ready for the change.
Since that RMU game, McBride is averaging 12.2 points and 4.4 assists, including a 19-point day at Oakland. Meanwhile, the Penguins have gone 5-0 in that span.
"I told him he didn't have a choice, to be honest," YSU coach Jerrod Calhoun said. "He kind of liked that role coming off the bench, but he didn't have a choice at this point. He's really embraced (starting). Bryce is a great kid, curious kid, wants to get better and studies the game. He's one of the hardest workers that I've got, and he's going to have a great second half of the season. He's playing at a high level right now."
For as well as things are going right now, though, McBride's early collegiate years presented hefty challenges.
The Jackson, Tenn., native took the junior college route out of high school and spent his first season at Motlow State, located in Tennessee, where he appeared in 29 games and made seven starts. Off the court, circumstances were less than ideal.
"At my first juco, I stayed with 18 guys in a four-bedroom house," McBride said. "There were beds everywhere, and we were living with rats and ants. But it created a sense of toughness ... and it pushed me to be even more hungry and to want it more and to know there was something bigger out there than what I was presented with."
McBride departed Motlow State after that season and went to Dyersburg State, located in Dyersburg, Tenn., and spent another season at the juco level. At Dyersburg, McBride earned an NJCAA All-American Honorable Mention and ranked eighth among juco players in scoring at 24.2 points per game. He shot 52.8 percent from the field that season, including a 45 percent mark from 3-point range.
Soon, he found his way to Division I.
McBride transferred to Eastern Michigan, where he was recruited by head coach Rob Murphy, EMU's head coach from 2011 to 2021.
"(Murphy) had a strong belief in me, and it was literally my first (Division I) offer," McBride explained. "I told myself I wanted to go where I was wanted and needed right away, and I could tell that there was a sense of need for me, so that's where I wanted to go and where I ended up going. I'm extremely blessed and thankful for Rob for allowing me to come up there and play my game, because truth be told, I wasn't really looked at by other schools like that."
While in Ypsilanti, McBride scored 525 points and dished out 86 assists, but he was playing off-ball. With a desire to play for a program primed for success and to play point guard while doing so, McBride hit the transfer portal.
"I wanted to be able to showcase my passing ability as well as be able to score the ball and play defense," he said. "So I wanted to play more of an all-around game instead of playing off the ball like I was doing at Eastern."
Enter YSU.
According to Calhoun, former assistant coach Chinedu Nwachukwu -- a University of Michigan graduate -- had familiarity with EMU's staff, and the Penguins were interested.
"We did our background on him, and we really liked what we saw," Calhoun said. "We brought in him and his mom -- phenomenal lady -- and we really hit it off during the visit and just felt like he and Dwanye (Cohill) and Brandon (Rush) would be a heck of a 1-2-3 punch."
Calhoun's prognostication proved correct. In addition to McBride's recent surge, Cohill is averaging 17.2 points per game this season, and Rush isn't far behind at 14.2 points per game.
While their impact was a bit more immediate this season, McBride took some time to gel in the Penguins' system.
"It's still taking time," McBride said. "It was a constant adjusting period because nothing was secure -- playing with a bunch of different lineups, figuring out what shots you could shoot, figuring out how to get your shots in the offense, because we weren't the best passing team at the beginning of the year."
Calhoun added, "I think it took Bryce a little bit longer than some of those other guys, and that's OK. ... He's getting real comfortable out there. It's really how he finishes, and I think he's got such a good work ethic, he's going to continue to get better."
As McBride has settled in, the passing simultaneously has gotten better.
Once a source of frustration for the Penguins, the team's assist-to-turnover ratio has dramatically improved in recent weeks. YSU continues to dish out plenty of assists, but has reduced its giveaways to a more palatable level. All the while, the Penguins' offense averages 85 points per game and statistically ranks among the nation's best units.
It also has kept the YSU defense from precarious positions in the transition game.
"We've been able to collectively pass the ball more, and we've been able to create for one another," McBride said. "It's making everything easier for one another, and we're able to score more points and play better defense."
That's yielding wins and momentum, as the Penguins (15-5, 7-2 Horizon League) are riding a five-game win streak into a battle for first place at upstart Milwaukee (13-6, 7-2 Horizon League) tonight (ESPN+, 570 AM WKBN). Tipoff at UWM Panther Arena is slated for 7 p.m.
As the victories roll in and the consequences magnify, McBride says the Penguins continue to take things one day at a time.
"You stay focused on what it is you want to achieve," McBride said. "We want to achieve a Horizon League championship, we want to go to March Madness and make some noise in order to let everybody know that Youngstown is a basketball school as well. We also all know where we want to end up -- we all want to play professional basketball. So we know the first step in doing that is to take care of business every single day in practice and to take care of business in every single game."
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com