Assistant Coach Byron Thorne is in his seventh season with theYSU program. A veteran of the collegiate ranks, he is entering his16th year as a collegiate assistant coach.
For the Guins, he handles scheduling, assists in scouting andrecruiting, while working with the perimeter players.
Last season, the Penguins set school single-season records formost 3-pointers made (235). Ashen Ward became the first playersince 2006-07 to make 50 3-pointers and six players made at least20 3-pointers.
Vytas Sulskis averaged a team-best 13.1 points per gameand made 43 3-pointers and Blake Allen led the team with a .3923-point field-goal percentage.
In 2009-10, DeAndre Mays also became the first player since RyanPatton to record back-to-back 100-assist seasons. Mays posted 207assists in two years. Patton accomplished the feat in 2000-01 and2001-02.
In 2008-09, Vytas Sulskis led the team with 39 3-pointers whileTom Parks ranked seventh in the Horizon League with a .403 3-pointpercentage.
During the 2007-08 season, Sulskis set a YSU freshman recordwith 46 3-pointers and was named to the CollegeInsider.com FreshmanMid-Major All-America Team.
In 2006-07, the Penguins won 14 games, their most in six years,while finishing in a fourth-place tie in the Horizon League. GuardQuin Humphrey became the first player in school history to earnfirst-team all-conference honors in consecutive years.
Thorne joined Coach Jerry Slocum’s staff after serving asthe head coach of the Maryland Elite AAU 17-and-under team. He wasan assistant coach at Loyola (Md.) from 2000-01 through 2003-04.For the Greyhounds, he handled recruiting, scouting, on-floorcoaching and worked with the guards.
He was an assistant coach at Albany for three seasons(1997-2000) before moving on to Loyola. He had similar duties onthe Great Danes’ staff working on recruiting, scouting andon-floor efforts. In his initial year in 1997-98, Albany finishedthe season with a 19-8 mark. The school was in the NCAA Division Itransitional phase in 1999-2000, his final year.
His first assistant coaching position was with Division IIIElmira College from 1995 through 1997. For two campaigns he was amember of Coach Terry Zeh’s staff. In 1997, Elmira reachedthe Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Division III Upstate NewYork Championship Game and the ECAC quarterfinals in 1996.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., he went on to have ahighly-successful playing career at Penn State-Behrend from1990-94. He finished his career ranked first in steals (171),second in scoring (1,386), third in assists (321), fourth infield-goals made (543) and fifth in free-throws made (259) whileplaying in 102 contests. As a senior, he was named theschool’s Male Athlete of the Year scoring 568 points. He wasnamed to the Division III All-America team by the Basketball Newsbecoming the first player in school history to earn all-Americaaccolades.
In 2004, he was inducted into the school’s Hall ofFame.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in management informationsystems from PSU-Behrend in 1994 while he received hismaster’s in Education from Elmira in 1997.
Byron and his wife, Lisa, have a son, Brayden. Lisa playedbasketball at Pittsburgh from 1989-93.
