YSU seeking ‘connectivity’ on and off the court

YSU seeking connectivity on and off the court YOUNGSTOWN Throughout the course of last season, the Youngstown State mens basketball coaches and former players stressed the importance of connectivity something the team often lacked and kept it from consistently reaching its full potential.

The Penguins shortcomings, particularly defensively, often stemmed from being disconnected at times on the court, which led to late rotations or mismatches that opposing teams exploited.

As a result, head coach Ethan Faulkner has continued to emphasize connectivity this summer, as YSU looks to build chemistry amongst its reconstructed roster of 13 new players.

Nothing that we do is going to give us a better chance to win than building the connection of our team, and thats something thats going to be really, really important for this group, Faulkner said.

Its going to be important for any team in the country.

The most connected teams are the teams that are going to give themselves the best chance to win.

Thats what were trying to build.

Finding that connection starts off the court, which is why after their on-court workouts on Tuesday, the Penguins watched the NBA Draft and ate pizza together that evening.

We got a young team, trying to switch it up a little bit, play fast, play to our advantage everybody got legs, sophomore guard Jaiden Haynes said.

Its fun.

I like the group of guys.

Weve been spending a good amount of time with each other.

Im really excited.

Im really enjoying myself.

In the transfer portal era, especially at the mid-major level, most teams undergo significant roster upheaval each offseason.

YSU was no exception.

The Penguins underwent significantly more roster turnover this offseason than in years past, returning just one player from last season, while adding 13 new faces.

Part of being a connected team is having team-first guys, and thats something weve certainly tried to do our research on in terms of going through the recruiting process with each and every one of these guys, Faulkner said.

With a limited window for a new team to build connectivity before the start of the season in November, that amplifies the importance of summer workouts and the time the Penguins have together in the coming weeks.

YSU broke things down into smaller groups for the first two days of workouts earlier this week, then joined together for the first full-team practice on Thursday, as it works to install its offensive concepts and defensive principles.

Weve been doing a ton of teaching, installing our offensive concepts, Faulkner said.

Wanted to, No.

1, get our group together for the first time, and continue to try to build connection with our team, but also see how much progress weve made over the first three days of really understanding what were trying to accomplish.

Weve had great energy, great pop.

Again, were not looking for perfection right now, were looking for progress day after day, and I thought weve had a good first week.

Faulkner said the Penguins are breaking the summer down into two-week increments and will follow a similar format next week, before then diving deeper as they get further into summer.

Well build that up into more and more practices as we go through, he said.

But early in this first two weeks, really trying to get our offensive concepts installed, well build up into defense in week three and four and culminate in week five and six, where well go eight practices in a row, obviously trying to develop on both sides of the ball.

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