ysupenguins.com ...fan home for YSU Sports
YSU Penguin Athletics => YSU Penguin Athletics => Topic started by: Double ET on May 20, 2022, 06:01:08 AM
-
From today’s Tribune/Vindy:
Youngstown State’s Garrett Covington to return for 6th season
LOCAL SPORTS
MAY 19, 2022
JOEL WHETZEL
Staff writer
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com
Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes YSU's Garrett Covington shoots a three-pointer. After entering the transfer portal, Covington is returning to YSU for a sixth season according to head coach Jerrod Calhoun.
YOUNGSTOWN — Garrett Covington will return to Youngstown State for his sixth season with the program, head coach Jerrod Calhoun said Thursday.
Covington was part of Calhoun’s original recruiting class, and began with the Penguins in the 2017-18 season.
He had entered the transfer portal after this past season concluded, but after some time decided to return, Calhoun said. Covington played in just three games in the 2021-22 season before suffering a season-ending achilles injury.
“We’ve been talking the last couple days, and he really wants to be in Youngstown,” Calhoun said. “He had a chance to go home (to Indiana) and looked at other universities, and he wants to come back and finish his career at Youngstown State.”
Covington has averaged 9.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in his career at YSU.
The Penguins originally were planning on not having Covington and took in four transfers and a freshman recruit as part of this offseason’s recruiting class. But, YSU still had one scholarship to give.
The incoming class includes transfers Bryce McBride (Eastern Michigan), Adrian Nelson (Northern Kentucky), Malek Green (Canisius), Brandon Rush (Fairleigh Dickinson) and freshman John Lovelace Jr., a native of Milwaukee.
“Our recruiting class was terrific, and Garrett and I talked about that,” Calhoun said. “He’s willing to accept any role he has. We built this team thinking he wouldn’t be back, but he provides us one of the best on-ball defenders in our conference, if not the country. He’s played a lot of basketball, understands our system and wants to go out a winner. He gives us that veteran presence.”
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com
-
Love that Garrett is back. This team is veteran with a lot of fire power.
-
This is outstanding news for both YSU & Garrett!
-
We will be a team to beat in Horizon for sure now.
-
Still need some inside presence!
-
We have some inside presence through the transfer portal
-
Hill and Jacori?
-
Still need some inside presence!
Malek green & Adrian Nelson.
-
will that be enough?
-
will that be enough?
Will Dunn 6-8
Jacori Owens 6-9
Josh Irwin 6-7
Mattia Ucunzo 6-8
Not saying they're all post players but a little more beef than we have seen.
-
So, we did get Acunzo! Cool! I didn't see him included with the other five recruits! I was wondering about that because I didn't know if we lost him with Omari Bodarick and the other 6-6 wing! Can't remember the name! They were true freshmen1
-
Adrian Nelson 6-8 portal NKU
Malik Green 6-8 portal Canisius
Don't forget these players as well
-
Plus Covington! This could be a very special season!
-
This is tremendous news. I know during last season there was talk it was a possibility Garrett would return. I was a little surprised he entered the transfer portal , but figured he wanted to do what Naz did and held out hope maybe he'd reconsider.
I still wonder how many more wins YSU would have had this past season if he hadn't gotten hurt. I feel like all those close losses could have swung the other way.
Have to wonder now if anyone else transfers out?
-
The only one I could imagine would be Shelton! But I hope not!
-
From today’s Tribune/Vindy
Sixth-year senior Garrett Covington discusses rehabbing Achilles, decision to return to YSU
LOCAL SPORTS
JUN 18, 2022
JOEL WHETZEL
Staff writer
jwhetzel@tribtoday.com
Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes YSU forward Garrett Covington, right, drives against St. Thomas’ Will Engels during their matchup on Nov. 19. Covington suffered a season-ending injury later in the game.
YOUNGSTOWN — It’s been an unusual, even difficult, past seven months or so for Garrett Covington.
Between rehabbing from an Achilles injury and opting to return to Youngstown State for a sixth season after exploring options in the transfer portal, Covington has found himself in a position he’s never experienced before.
On Nov. 19, Covington and the Youngstown State men’s basketball team were hosting St. Thomas on Day 1 of a three-day multiteam event.
With about 5:41 to go in the first half, Covington dropped to the floor and subsequently exited the contest with what wound up being a season-ending Achilles injury.
“I had never really been hurt before,” Covington said Friday. “So right when I did it, I could see the emotion in my dad’s eyes, and I didn’t really understand it. But talking to him, he was so worried because of how stressful and how long this process is.”
It’s a process that’s ongoing, even now, as the Penguins go through their summer workouts. Covington still hasn’t been cleared to return, though he is optimistic that it will come in the next month or so. He visits a doctor on Monday, he said.
Post-surgery, Covington was non-weight bearing for a couple months, and couldn’t do much in terms of rehabbing while he was in a cast.
Once that cast was removed, he had a “little cup” in his shoe, but it wasn’t until about month four that he began rehabbing, he said.
“It was a long process before I could actually get in there and do anything,” Covington said. “It’s been a very slow process, and a very long one.”
Once he could begin rehabbing, it was a gradual, step-by-step process. In the beginning, Covington said some sessions were as short as 10 minutes.
“I would come in and warm up with a heating pad, and then I would transition into holding onto something and just kind of shift my weight onto my torn Achilles,” he explained. “It was very minor stuff … but it’s just all stuff to kind of reintroduce the functional movement or my foot and the Achilles.”
Now, with an eye toward his return, Covington says he’s focused on the mental side of things.
“I’ve gotten through the physical aspect. Now it’s all mental at this point. I haven’t done something as simple as jumping in so long, so I kind of have to train myself to do it again,” he said.
In addition to rehabbing that injury, Covington also put his name in the transfer portal March 25. Still, he always had Youngstown in mind, he said. On May 19, YSU head coach Jerrod Calhoun told local media Covington would be returning.
“The portal for me … I think where I’m at in my life is just trying to figure out how to create new experiences,” said Covington, who’s scored 1,203 points in 123 games as a Penguin. “My decision to enter the portal initially wasn’t a decision that was based on me wanting to leave (YSU). I was based solely on trying to bring forth different opportunities.
“(At) Youngstown, we had accomplished everything but a Horizon League championship, and I felt like that was the missing piece for me. So naturally, in my head while I’m in the portal, I’m still thinking about Youngstown. So coming back was strongly based on the fact that I’m super competitive and I want to win, and Youngstown — we say this every year — but we want to do something that hasn’t been done here and put a banner up here.”
So between that and his relationship with the YSU coaching staff — which he describes as “family members” — he opted to return.
Now that he’s gotten his first glimpse of much of the upcoming season’s roster, he likes what he sees.
The Penguins added a lot of firepower in the transfer portal this offseason, picking up forwards Adrian Nelson from Horizon League foe Northern Kentucky and Malek Green from Canisius. They also added guards Brandon Rush (Fairleigh Dickinson) and Bryce McBride (Eastern Michigan) through the portal and signed freshman forward John Lovelace Jr., a Milwaukee native.
“I think the coaches have done an incredible job at kind of finding the things that we’ve been missing, and kind of putting that together with the people we had coming back,” Covington said. “The new guys, they’re fourth- and fifth-year guys, so there’s a lot of older guys with a lot of experience. There’s things that we go through in practice that they’re getting down (immediately), and we’re doing it in live action in a couple of minutes. It’s good that you have so much experience along with people that have already been here.”
He highlighted the balance this year’s team should have, and added, “Our guard play this year is going to be a lot of fun to watch. … They’re great additions because they’re all aggressive. They put pressure on defenses, and it’s really going to be hard to combat that.”
He concluded, “It’s great when you have a group of guys that are all alike. You never know what you’re going to get.”