The Youngstown State basketball team has never made it to the NCAA TTournament at the Division I level. They are coming off a tough loss at Robert Morris (83-64) on Tuesday, February 21.

Throughout the 30 games the Penguins have played, they averaged 83.1 points per game while letting opponents average 72.5 points per game.

The Penguins have been dominating the glass averaging 35.2 rebounds per game. In one game against Westminster (PA), they had a season high of 58 rebounds in 1 game.

“I can just tell from the beginning of the season to know just how our fan base has grown just every game. It’s really just amazing to see how everyone is really loving Youngstown basketball right now, so the more fans we have at games, I feel like that helps us bring our energy levels up,” says Adrian Nelson.

The Beeghly Center has been packed every game since the nationally televised game against Oakland. That game had a little over 5,600 fans.

The Penguins are 22-8 in the season. They are looking to push through the end of the season and make it to the march madness tournament.

“Focusing on defense. That’s what really got us to a championship for so many years at Northern Kentucky, where the final four is just defense and I feel like we’ve really been picking up in the area recently,” says Nelson.

Dwayne Cohill is leading the team while shooting 47 percent from beyond the arch.

Nelson is leading the team in rebounds with 9.7 boards per game.

“It’s a blessing, this is showing that our hard work is paying off. We’re just seeing that it’s showing really and just really just staying in the momentum. Of course you know this is gonna come but we’re just really taking it a day at a time not trying to get too ahead of course, it’s exciting,” the senior forward.