YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — The Youngstown State University men’s basketball team is in uncharted territory.
“This community has supported the Penguins, we’re the city’s team,” YSU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said.
“It’s a special thing for our team, for Youngstown, for the whole city and the community,” YSU senior Dwayne Cohill said. “So I just can’t wait for Thursday to get here and it will be fine.”
Sitting at 20-7, and tied with Milwaukee for first place in the conference, the Penguins are chasing history as well as a Horizon League title.
“It means a lot, I think it shows you how long or how far we’ve come,” Calhoun said. “These kids will look back at this one day and you want them to have great memories and that’s really what the college experience in college basketball is about.”
With this being the latest in the season the YSU men’s basketball team has been tied atop the Horizon League standings, a win against Milwaukee would put the team that much closer to history, something Coach Calhoun said they’re not shielding from the players.
“I’m big on history. You know, I played for Rollie Massimino and coached with Coach Bob Huggins, those are two Hall of Famers and those two guys were very up front,” Calhoun said. “You come to these schools as a player and as a coach to make history, you know, can we do that? It’s, you know, it’s yet to be seen. Have we done it yet? No. Are we right there? Yeah.”
And they will continue to look to add to the best Penguins start since joining Division I and keep proving people wrong in front of another packed red out at the Beeghly Center.
“A lot of people didn’t think we would be here, we always believe in ourselves, we believed in our work, so I’m glad that our work has shown and we’ve gotten to this point, but we’re not done yet,” Cohill said. “I just can’t wait to see what happens next.”
The Penguins tip off against Milwaukee in a battle for first place at 7 p.m. Feb. 16.
