AP file photo. CBS sportscasters Clark Kellogg, left, and Jim Nantz are seen before the men’s national championship game between Butler and Duke on April, 5, 2010 in Indianapolis.

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State men’s basketball’s “Night with Penguins” fundraiser has brought a number of notable guests to the Mahoning Valley in recent years, and next month it’s back for its fourth annual iteration.

The event’s past featured guests have included Hall of Fame college coach Bob Huggins in 2022, Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla in 2023 and former Celtics legends Robert Parish and Cedric Maxwell last year.

“This event has become a staple for us,” Penguins head coach Ethan Faulkner said. “As we all know, college basketball has changed over the last several years and the support that we need continues to go up. This is something that has really impacted our program in a positive way.

“We anticipate just another big-time event. It’s become one of the premier events in the area, and that’s really a credit to Ed and Diane Reese and the staff at Tippecanoe Country Club for their support of the event, and also obviously, the people showing up and really making an impact on our program.”

This year, Clark Kellogg, a former Ohio State star and current CBS college basketball lead analyst, will be a part of the evening’s festivities on Sept. 10 at Tippecanoe Country Club in Canfield.

“We’re really excited about him,” Faulkner said of Kellogg’s participation. “Obviously a name that resonates with Ohio basketball fans with his playing career in the state, then obviously what he did at Ohio State and onto the NBA.”

A native of East Cleveland, Kellogg has long been regarded as one of the best high school basketball players to come out of the city.

As a McDonald’s All-American, he played at St. Joseph (now Villa Angela-St. Joseph) and led his team to a state runner-up finish in the 1979 state championship, in which he scored 51 points and grabbed 24 rebounds. Both marks remain an Ohio record for the state title game.

After high school, Kellogg played for the Buckeyes for three seasons from 1979-82 and was picked by the Indiana Pacers with the eighth-overall pick in the first round of the 1982 NBA Draft.

He was with the Pacers for five seasons, averaging 18.9 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. But due to chronic knee problems, he was forced to retire in 1987.

Kellogg began his broadcast career in 1989 when he joined ESPN as a basketball analyst. He then began working for CBS Sports as a game analyst for the NCAA tournament in 1993, and in 1997, he joined the network full-time as an analyst for CBS’s men’s college basketball coverage of March Madness, where he’s been since.

“Clark Kellogg is a name that resonates with every Ohio basketball fan,” Faulkner said. “He’s going to be able to speak the language of college basketball and really help educate our fans about what college basketball looks like today. He’s just a guy that we felt our fans would really enjoy being able to listen to, be able to talk to and spend some time with.”

For those interested in attending the event on Sept. 10, tickets for groups or individuals are available at various sponsorship tiers. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact YSU men’s basketball chief of staff Rocco Nolfi at rfnolfi@ysu.edu.

The money raised from the evening will go towards things like NIL, as well as operational support for day-to-day things within the program.

“Every piece of our program is impacted by this,” Faulkner said. “What we’re doing in terms of fundraising is super important. There’s an NIL piece to it, where we’re trying to continue to recruit at a high level and retain our best players. But also operational support — we really want our guys to have a first-class experience here. We want to be able to do things that most mid-major programs aren’t able to do, and in order to do that, obviously it takes financial support from a lot of different people, and our athletic department has been incredible with that.”

The evening will consist of a cocktail hour, dinner, a state-of-the-program address by Faulkner, a live auction of items and experiences and finally, a Q&A discussion with Kellogg. VIP-level sponsors will also have a meet-and-greet opportunity with Kellogg and coaches and players of the YSU men’s basketball program.

“We would love to have anybody and everybody that wants to be there,” Faulkner said. “There’s several ways to support. If you can’t be there and want to support the program, there’s ways that we can do that. It’s just going to be a really exciting and fun night to spend with our supporters, but also have a major impact on our program.”