Youngstown State University

Shortly after Bob Boldon told program supporters and the newsmedia that becoming Youngstown State's head women's basketballcoach was a dream opportunity, a reporter asked him how confidenthe was in his abilities to turn the program around.

Boldon's response was simple, direct and convincing. "Very," hesaid.

Two years into Boldon’s tenure, the program has showndefinite signs that it is headed in the right direction.

Boldon, a Northeast Ohio native, inherited a proud program thatwas among the nation's top mid-majors during the 1990s. ThePenguins won 196 games and went to the NCAA Tournament three timesduring that decade, and Boldon has his sights set on at leastmatching that success.

From the first day he was on the job, Boldon has not detractedfrom the task he's been assigned - turning a program that stumbledfor most of the 2000s and went 0-30 the year prior to his arrivalinto a Horizon League contender. Behind a motion offense that isgeared toward shooting open 3-pointers and driving for lay-ups, YSUhas become a very dangerous team in the conference just two seasonsinto his regime. The Penguins convincingly beat second-placeDetroit in 2011-12 and took the other teams that finished in thetop four to overtime. One of those teams was Green Bay, whichfinished the season 31-2 and was ranked No. 11 in the nation whenYSU lost a heartbreaker in overtime.

Evidence of Improvement

Perhaps the most obvious indicator of YSU’s improvement isits scoring margin. The year prior to Boldon’s arrival, YSUlost games by an average of 25.8 points and lost 16 Horizon Leaguegames by double digits. In 2011-12, YSU’s average margin ofdefeat was one possession - 2.9 points. That is a 22.9-pointimprovement from what Boldon inherited. To support what the numbersshow, Boldon received votes for Horizon League Coach of the Yearfrom his coaching peers in 2011-12.

Most importantly, Boldon has created a feeling in the lockerroom and in the stands that had not existed for years prior to hisarrival - the Penguins can win every time they step onto thecourt.

The 2011-12 campaign was YSU’s best on the offensive endin several seasons. The Penguins’ 38.4 percent field-goalshooting was its best in six years, and their 33.7 percent shootingfrom 3-point range was its highest in seven years. Their scoringaverage of 64.6 points was the highest in 10 years and 18 pointshigher than it was the year prior to Boldon arrived.

YSU showed a definite improvement on the road in Boldon’ssecond season. After having just one road win combined in the pastthree seasons, and the Penguins had six in 2011-12. They won fivestraight road games for the first time since the 1997-98 season,and they won five straight non-conference road games for the firsttime in school history.

The Penguins started to really show signs of their developmentat the end of Boldon’s first campaign in 2010-11. They wonthree of their final seven games, which matched the program’swin total from the previous two seasons combined. YSU also hadshots in the final 20 seconds in three of those losses that wouldhave tied the game, including one in the opening round of theHorizon League Tournament. The Guins shot better than their seasonfield-goal percentage in 15 of its final 18 games. They upped theirscoring average by 9.9 points and made 205 3-pointers despite notbeing rich with outside shooters.

The most telling stat of Boldon’s immediate impact wasYSU’s improved scoring margin. With only one differentstarter and largely the same roster as the year prior toBoldon’s arrival, YSU improved its scoring margin fromminus-25.8 to minus-10.6. That 15.2-point improvement was thesecond-best in the country.

Setting 3-Point Records

With Boldon on the bench, YSU has broken almost every one of theprogram’s 3-point shooting records. In 2011-12, the Penguinsset school and Horizon League records in 3-pointers made (275) andattempts (828) for the season, and their 16 3-pointers at Loyolaset a new school mark and tied the league record. YSU made 1883-pointers during conference play, which shattered the previousHorizon League record by 58. The Penguins finished the seasonranking fifth in the nation with 9.2 3-pointers made per game, andthey were one of just 10 teams in the country to make at least 163-pointers in a game during the year.

Player Development

In Boldon’s two seasons at the helm, Brandi Brown hasdeveloped from a promising low-post player to one of the best comboplayers in YSU’s history. She has earned Second-TeamAll-Horizon League honors in each of the last two seasons and is onher way to finishing among the top three in school history in bothpoints and rebounds. She was a Horizon League All-Newcomer Teampick as a freshman in 2009-10 when she averaged 11.4 points and10.6 rebounds playing almost exclusively on the low block. Boldonunharnessed her, and Brown has averaged 17.9 points in his system.After not attempting a 3-pointer as a freshman, Brown has made 71buckets from beyond the arc her last two seasons.

Brown had one of the best seasons in school history as asophomore. Boldon's spread-motion offense allowed Brown to set upon the wing, and she was able to drive past slower defenders andshoot over smaller ones. Brown finished the regular season as theleague's top scorer, becoming just the third player in schoolhistory to capture a conference scoring title. Brown averaged 19.9points overall, one of the top 20 averages in the country, and 22.6points during league play. She followed that up by averaging 15.9points and 9.3 rebounds as YSU got better contribution throughoutthe lineup. The high-point of her junior season came when shebecame the 17th player in YSU history to score 1,000 career pointson Nov. 25 at Loyola Marymount. Brown reached 1,000 points in her65th career game, which is the third-fastest in school history.

Kenya Middlebrooks may have shown an even bigger improvement,developing from a driving guard to one of the best 3-point shootersin the Horizon League. As a senior in 2011-12, Middlebrooks made 763-pointers for a Horizon League-leading 2.5 treys per game. In thefirst 66 games of Middlebrooks’ career - her first twoseasons and six games under Boldon - she made 0.4 3-pointers pergame and shot 20.1 percent from beyond the arc. In her final 54contests - all under Boldon - she averaged 2.5 3-pointers and shot36.5 percent from distance. Middlebrooks was one of four YSUplayers who ranked in the top five in the Horizon League in 3-pointfield-goal percentage during league play in 2011-12.

Not only upperclassmen have shown prowess from beyond the arc inBoldon’s system. In his two years on campus, three differentfreshmen have made at least 25 3-pointers. Only four YSU freshmenhad made at least 25 since the 3-point arc was instituted for the1986-87 season. Liz Hornberger and Monica Touvelle both surpassed25 as freshmen in 2010-11, and Heidi Schlegel sank 27 as a redshirtfreshman in 2011-12. Touvelle doubled her output to 53 with anotheryear in Boldon’s system under her belt, and her 40.2 percenteffort from 3-point range was third-best in the conference.

YSU’s players have developed in plenty of other places inaddition to 3-point shooting. Point guard Macey Nortey led theHorizon League with a 1.54 assist-to-turnover ratio, which was abig improvement from the 0.83 ratio she registered the year priorto Boldon’s arrival. Melissa Thompson increased her scoringtotal by more than seven times from her freshman year to hersophomore year, going from 18 points to 128 in 2011-12. TiearaJones led the conference in blocks with 1.3 per game inBoldon’s first year, and Kelsea Fickiesen adjusted quickly tothe college game in 2011-12 to become the first freshman guard inschool history to lead the team in field-goal percentage.

In the Classroom and the Community

The Penguins have also had highlights in the classroom and thecommunity during Boldon’s tenure. The team posted a combinedGPA of 3.51 during the 2011 fall semester, and four players earneda perfect 4.0. In the 2010-11 academic year, the program wasrecognized on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Top25 Team Honor Roll for the first time in school history. ThePenguins had a combined GPA of 3.395 during the year, which ranked17th in the poll. On the individual level, Brandi Brown earnedAcademic All-Horizon League honors in 2010-11. She was the firstPenguin to earn conference academic accolades in three seasons.

Through its reading program, the team read to approximately3,500 second through fifth graders at 11 different schools in theYoungstown area in Boldon’s second season. Other communityservice projects included serving at the Our Lady of Mount CarmelChurch spaghetti dinner in Youngstown, walking in a non-violenceparade, participating in the Holiday Parade and Tree Lightingceremony downtown, and donating soap, shampoo and canned food tostruggling families and a homeless shelter.

A History of Success on the Bench

Boldon came to Youngstown with an outstanding resume as a playerand an impressive track record as a collegiate coach for 13seasons. He was introduced as the sixth head coach in schoolhistory on April 14, 2010. Prior to his arrival, Boldon spent threesuccessful seasons as a collegiate head coach and 10 years as acollege assistant. Five of those 10 years were at the Division Ilevel, including two seasons at Akron. Two of the coaches he workedwith – Jerry Scheve and Karl Smesko – have been votednational coaches of the year.

In his most recent head coaching stint prior to YSU, Boldonorchestrated the best season in school history at LambuthUniversity, an NAIA school located in Jackson, Tenn. He led theEagles in 2008-09 to school bests with 29 wins, a final No. 3national ranking and an .853 winning percentage. Lambuth was therunner-up for the national title, and Boldon was recognized as theAssociation of Independent Institutions Coach of the Year after theregular season and A.I.I. tournament.

At the University of Arkansas at Monticello, Boldon showed hecan rebuild a program as he helped lead a major improvement for theDivision II Cotton Blossoms in the Gulf South Conference. Heinherited a team that went 1-15 in GSC play the year prior to hisarrival, and he immediately brought them up to an 8-8 mark, whichwas the school's best conference record in five years. In his twoseasons at UAM, the Cotton Blossoms finished third in the GSC eachyear, made consecutive conference tournament appearances and earnedthe school's first conference tournament victory since 1998.

Although Boldon was an assistant coach at seven differentinstitutions, he served with only three head coaches and movedalong with them as they received better opportunities. He spentfour seasons with Smesko, the current head women's basketball coachat Florida Gulf Coast University, and five with Jodi Kest, who isthe head coach at Akron.

Boldon and Smesko teamed up for a combined record of 85-34 overfour seasons, which includes one year at FGCU, two years at IPFWand another at Walsh.

In 2009-10, FGCU went 24-7 and earned an invitation to competein the WNIT. The Eagles were 17-3 in the Atlantic Sun and went aperfect 14-0 in home contests. Boldon and Smesko were part of amassive rebuilding project at IPFW as the Mastadons competed at theDivision II level. IPFW was 2-24 the season before Boldon arrivedon campus, and the Mastadons went 13-14 and 19-8 in the two yearshe was on the bench. Boldon and Smesko first worked together in1997-98 at Boldon's alma mater, Walsh. The Cavaliers won the NAIADivision II National Championship that season behind a 29-5 record,and Smesko was recognized as the national coach of the year withBoldon's assistance. That Walsh team was part of the 2012 OhioBasketball Hall of Fame induction class.

With Kest, Boldon was the top assistant coach at Akron for twoseasons from 2006 to 2008. There, he helped lay the foundation forAkron to be competitive again in the Mid-American Conference. TheZips had won eight games combined in the two years before Boldonand Kest arrived on campus, and they won 10 games in the firstseason with Boldon on board. With some of Boldon's recruits, Akronwent 18-14 in 2009-10 and advanced to the MAC Tournamentsemifinals.

Boldon also spent two seasons with Kest at Texas A&M-CorpusChristi from 2002 to 2004, leading the Islanders to a combined34-21 record as a Division I Independent. Boldon and Kest firstworked together at Gannon in 2001-02 when the Lady Knights went20-8 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Boldon was an assistant at Wilmington College with Jerry Schevein 1998-99, helping to lead the Quakers to a 20-4 record andregular season and tournament titles.

Playing and Personal Life

Boldon, a 36-year-old native of Louisville, Ohio, graduated fromWalsh in 1997 with a bachelor's degree in elementary education. Asa student-athlete, he was a two-time All-America selection as apoint guard and helped lead the Cavaliers to the Final Four of theNAIA Tournament. A four-year starter, he remains the school recordholder in assists (775) while also ranking fourth in scoring with1,694 points. Boldon was a 2008 inductee to Walsh's Wall of Fame,and his accomplishments were celebrated as one of theprogram’s top 50 players in its 50-year history in 2012.

He earned his master's degree in liberal studies from Indiana in2003.