REGULAR SEASON CONFERENCE CHAMPS

[ytownchief22]

Congrats to Coach Calhoun, staff and all the players for a great achievement! First time in school history! Not done yet though, lots to accomplish! Let's keep it rolling boys!!

[BushwoodCC]

Congratulations Coach Calhoun. Doing something for the first time in school history is an amazing achievement. However, this is just the first goal. We now have to string together 3 more wins in a row to win the conference tournament and to get into the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever!

GO YSU!

[YsuPride]

Congratulations COACH CALHOUN.   

[ytownchief22]

Amazing accomplishment by everyone involved. Not done yet!!

[PENS16]

From 2003-2015, the Horizon League regular-season champion hosted the quarter-finals and semi-final rounds of the tournament. Then the highest-seed team remaining hosted the championship game. Can you imagine how great that would be to have three games, all at home, to get the NCAA Tournament?

[Penquin68]

That format would have really given us an edge.

The top four teams are really competitive with one another in my opinion and some of the other teams have their moments so we are in for a battle. Everyone knows everyone and some of our weaknesses have been exposed as have others. Our inside defense seems to be vulnerable as we have not been substituting inside players as of late and to avoid foul trouble we are playing a bit soft inside. Bryce has had trouble hitting 3's like he did in the mid part of the season which has hurt our offense. Fortunately the other starters seem ok and John Lovelace is coming along nicely as our 6th man. We need to work to our strengths and avoid 3's by players not hitting many like Miles and Malek unless they get on a streak. Garrett and Shemar can be great to get us over the top. At least we have a team that has the talent to compete with anyone in the league for the 1st time ever in my opinion.

[ucfpengbuck]

Coach C has come a long way since that initial 2017-18 season.  He came in late and brought in Naz,Covington and Akuchie which was the core building blocks.   Had a few leftovers from from Slocum and picked up some juco guys.  That first game they were blown out at Kent 111-78 and I think he had to change his coaching philosophy that he brought from Fairmont during his 8 win season.

Year two he brought in Quisenberry and added some transfers that produced 12 wins but there was a point where they won 6 in a row in the horizon and finished 6th which was better than 8th the year before.

Year three Penguins go 18-15 and finish 4th in the league plus one win in Horizon tourney.  You could see the growth with the 3 original recruits and DQ .

Year four was 15-12 and 6th in the Horizon and one win in the tourney.   DQ was our go to guy but he was injured and limped through 15 games played . With him injured the season was a little set back but it was still back to back winning years that YSU didn't experience at d1 level.

Year 5 was going to be the year. The original core was supposed to be back but Naz transferred to Clemson,DQ bolted to Fordham and Garrett Covington blew out his achillies.  Coach added Dwayne Cohill and Tevin Olison along with Michael Akuchie back for his fifth season and the Penguins had another winning season going 19-15 and making the post season with a win over Morgan State and dropping  one at Fresno State a game where YSU was in there late.
A lot of Big ifs.  If Naz,DQ stayed.  If Garrett didn't get injured .   Add those three with Cohill and Akuchie that team was a contender.

Year 6 .   No need to go into .  We know this was the year of the transfer portal and coach C added four vets that all put up decent numbers prior to YSU.   AS of today coach Calhoun led YSU to their first ever conference championship going 23-8  with still a lot of work to go.

Thank you coach Calhoun it's been a fun ride so far.  You have restored YSU basketball as I knew it back in the 70s when coach Rosselli was in charge.   You have lifted expectations and yes we're going to b**** and moan when thing don't go as we want but for me I will always feel gracious towards what you have accomplished in Youngstown.

[YsuPride]

DQ plays for Fordham this year and is putting up decent #'s.  Just saying

[PENS16]

DQ is Fordham’s leading scorer at 17.2 per game. Fordham is 23-6.

[YsuPride]

Just think if he would have stayed here.

[ytownchief22]

Just think if he would have stayed here.

Then we wouldn't have Cohill...

[ucfpengbuck]

Just think if he would have stayed here.

Then we wouldn't have Cohill...

DQ played point and Cohill  plays off the ball so I think we would of had both.

[Double ET]

Just think if he would have stayed here.

Then we wouldn't have Cohill...

DQ played point and Cohill  plays off the ball so I think we would of had both.

If the guys would have stayed, which one do you guys think would be a better team (assuming Covington didn’t get hurt and the guys didn’t transfer out)

DQ, Covington, Naz, Ackuchie, Mays
Cohill, Ross, Green, Nelson, Covington

[guinpen]

Hey they wanted to leave so have a nice day. No way to know what might have been, doesn't matter.

We are where we are, enjoy the ride.

[YsuPride]

I would take this years team because they actually won the league title.  If's and when are a dream.