Fresh off first league title, YSU looks to confound expectations with new roster
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YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown State men's basketball team is coming off its best season in program history.
During the 2022-2023 season, the Penguins won their first-ever regular season conference championship, while also tying the program record for most wins in a season (24) and setting the record for most conference wins (15).
After getting picked to finish fifth in the preseason media poll, the Penguins are hoping to confound those expectations.
"You have to embrace expectations and you have to raise expectations. We're picked fifth, so there's not a whole lot of respect for us. That's okay. That's other people's opinions," head coach Jerrod Calhoun said as he begins his seventh season leading the Penguins. "But you have to have championship DNA. ... To win a (conference) championship, you have to have a lot of the right pieces all moving in that direction. That's how it was last year. So I think there's a lot to learn from that championship DNA."
After losing all but three members of last year's Horizon League championship team to graduation or expiring eligibility, Calhoun and the Penguins' coaching staff had to rebuild the roster.
They brought in 12 newcomers consisting of a mix of young and veteran players to add to the team alongside returners: fifth-year Brandon Rush, sophomore John Lovelace Jr. and sophomore Tommy Fryda.
"We're a totally different team, but there are some similarities," Calhoun said. "I think we can score the ball and we can shoot the ball. We're skilled at all five positions. We've gotta rebound the ball better, to be honest. So there are some differences from year-to-year, team-to-team. ... You gotta have great cohesiveness, great execution, great toughness, but you have to be lucky. There's no doubt about it. You have to be injury free, and we start our journey on Monday."
Even with new players, Calhoun says YSU has the most depth it has had since he arrived in Youngstown. Nine, 10 or maybe even as many as 11 players will be part of YSU's regular rotation.
"This is the deepest team I've ever played with," fifth-year and Northern Kentucky transfer Bryson Langdon said. "Coming off the bench, there's no drop off. So we can really get guys in and out and get a quick breather and it's like we're still at the same level, if not, even higher. So I think that's scary. When it gets late and in tourney time in March, I think the deeper your bench is, the better your team is going to be."
The product that the Penguins want to put on the floor won't look any different this season, even though the faces will be.
YSU averaged 81.9 points per game last year, fifth-best in all of Division I. The Penguins want to continue to build on that offensive identity that they've established.
"We want to score 85-90 points again -- we want to be on the attack every single possession. Whether we see man or zone, it doesn't matter," Calhoun said. "This group has been really good against zone. Sometimes that takes a little time, but we've gotta get better in certain areas, that's for sure. But that's our whole offensive philosophy and it's worked. We've been one of the better offensive teams in the country the last four years. Last year, we were top five. We want to have that same philosophy year-in and year-out."
The summer trip to Spain, where the Penguins went 3-0, helped the newcomers learn the offensive system, but now, even though it's taken time and reps, they've begun perfecting it.
"It's a lot of free flowing, pushing the pace, getting in transition -- that's how I like to play," Langdon said. "It wasn't a hard adjustment at all. Just learning the concepts and stuff like that and making sure all the guys are on the same page. It's been fun."
The Penguins open their season tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET on the road at Louisiana, before traveling to Ann Arbor to face Michigan on Friday. After a 26-win season, the Ragin' Cajuns are coming off a Sun Belt Conference tournament championship and an NCAA tournament appearance, in which they lost to No. 4 seed Tennessee 58-55.
The Wolverines need no introduction. They are coming off a down year by their standards, after going 18-16 and playing in the NIT. Head coach Juwan Howard had heart surgery in September, but associate head coach Phil Martelli has been serving as interim head coach in the meantime.
"Both teams we start off with are tremendous programs -- got a lot of respect for Louisiana and Michigan," Calhoun said. "Louisiana was undefeated at home last year -- NCAA tournament, played for their conference championship -- (head coach) Bob (Marlin) does a great job. Then Michigan, Coach Martelli, he's there filling in, but Juwan Howard has done a tremendous job there -- Elite Eight, Big Ten program."
Calhoun has high hopes for his new squad this year, and is looking forward to seeing just what the Penguins have on the court against tough competition.
"We're excited to go play somebody else -- it's one thing to play scrimmages, but we've gotta see what we do," Calhoun said. "Till we see what it looks like against those caliber teams, I still don't really know what we have. But so far, I like our energy, I like our cohesiveness and I like our talent. I think we have a lot of talent."
nmadhavan@tribtoday.com