Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Former Youngstown State forward Naz Bohannon handles the ball while being defended by sixth-year forward Vlad Salaridze during the Penguins’ alumni scrimmage on Wednesday at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center in Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — The past collided with the present on Wednesday afternoon inside Zidian Family Arena at Youngstown State.

The upcoming season’s iteration of Penguins had the chance to scrimmage against a handful of notable former YSU players who were back in town for a couple days, including Kendrick Perry, Naz Bohannon, Dwayne Cohill, EJ Farmer, Bryson Langdon, Brandon Rush, Tevin Olison and Adrian Nelson.

“I think it just speaks to the relationships that we have with our players,” second-year head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “As I told our team, these guys get about four or five weeks in the summer to do their own thing, and it shows how much Youngstown means to them to be back here and spend a week with us. So we were really excited to have them.”

Each of the alumni players showed flashes of what Penguins fans may remember from their college days.

Perry, who graduated from YSU in 2014 as the program’s all-time leading Division I scorer after a decorated four-year career, showed off the handles, passing ability and scoring ability that have since helped propel him to an illustrious 10-plus year professional career.

At the end of the scrimmage, Perry imparted some words of wisdom with the current crop of Penguins, speaking about the discipline that is required day-in and day-out in order to work towards a goal.

“My job now as an older guy is to come in and help the next generation of Penguins however I can,” Perry said. “Whether it’s sharing my experiences with them or just supporting them. Whatever the program and the university needs from me, they know they can always count on me for support.”

Meanwhile, Bohannon, who was a part of former head coach Jerrod Calhoun’s first few teams at YSU from 2017-21, was in “awe” of some of the physical renovations that have been completed at the Beeghly Center since his departure.

Those improvements to the facility are the result of the program’s run of success over the last few years, something that Bohannon’s early teams with Calhoun helped lay the foundation for.

“Seeing the vision that we talked about when I first came in, that first era with Calhoun, come to fruition is sweet for me,” Bohannon said. “It’s kind of a full-circle moment from early in my career. … For me, just to know that the program got to where we wanted it to, that’s all the thanks I need. It’s the best feeling possible. It feels good because we put in a lot of hours here. We had a vision that a lot of people didn’t see. We built it into what we believed in. To get other people to believe in it, it’s like watching your child grow up.”

For Cohill, being back in the Beeghly Center gym brought back all the memories from his final season in 2022-23, when he helped lead the Penguins to their first Horizon League regular season championship.

“It’s just a surreal feeling,” Cohill said. “This is a place I called home for two years. I met some of my closest friends here, some of my favorite teammates, made history and met some incredible people. Still got great relationships with the fans, so any chance I get to come back and just kick it with my teammates or the coaches or the fans is always a great time. It’s always love and happiness. We just reminisce about our great history that we have and the things we did in the past. It’s just never a dull moment.”

As they continue to build chemistry between four returners and 11 newcomers, the scrimmage gave the current YSU players an opportunity to test their mettle against someone besides themselves — something they won’t be able to do again until the team’s two closed-door preseason scrimmages in the fall.

“Obviously we’re like everybody else — we’ve got a lot to work on,” Faulkner said. “Offensively, we’re trying to really emphasize our concepts that we’re trying to get to. Still a lot to learn in terms of how to execute those at a high level.”

But in addition, the scrimmage provided the Penguins with the opportunity to learn from their alumni players, each of whom are playing or previously have played professionally overseas.

“Sure it’s about competition and trying to do well against those guys, but more than anything, today was about just getting those guys back and letting our players see what a professional basketball player really looks like because those guys are all thriving and doing well at that level,” Faulkner said.

The current players had the scrimmage circled on their calendar since they returned to campus in early June for summer workouts and practices.

“We were all looking forward to it,” sixth-year transfer forward Vlad Salaridze said. “It’s just a testament to Youngstown having that brotherhood. Not many schools have that — an alumni group of pros to just come in and play against us, share their wisdom and get to see ourselves against another group. It was great. We’re so thankful. We thanked every one of the guys and they’re tremendous players.”