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Jerrod Calhoun spent part of Tuesday's news conference thanking coaches who molded him throughout his career -- a career that now finds him at Youngstown State.
The new Penguins men's basketball coach, who began his career at the University of Cincinnati as a student assistant in 2003, learned from one of the best in the business -- Bob Huggins.
Calhoun, who later was an assistant coach at West Virginia under Higgins, learned what allowed him to become one of the best young coaches in the country -- a coach who would be desired by schools like YSU and Cleveland State, among others.
He is steadfast in the belief that Huggins helped him become the coach who transformed a Fairmont State team into a Division II powerhouse -- leading the Falcons to five straight 20-win seasons and a recent D-II national runner-up finish.
Now, Calhoun takes over a YSU program which has had 11 20-loss campaigns in 16 seasons in the Horizon League. He takes the lessons he's learned from the WVU coach into this challenge.
"Coach Huggins means the world to me," Calhoun said. "I worked with him for six years. Talked to me about toughness. Talked to me about grinding. Talked to me about work ethic."
Calhoun also looks to Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll for core values his teams have.
The new YSU coach speaks about appreciation, grit, accountability, purpose to name a few. It's not only about basketball. It's about life.
"Not only do we want to win games, we want to win forever," Calhoun said. "We want people to chose Youngstown State forever. This place has to be a part of their life forever."
Huggins said Calhoun's success isn't surprising.
Mississippi coach Andy Kennedy, who coached at Cincinnati, and Jeff Young, at Walsh University, saw Calhoun's mentoring prowess as well.
"He did a great job recruiting, great job developing contacts. Heckuva job on the floor," Huggins said.
The WVU coach said being a top-flight recruiter isn't easy.
"I think you have to be lucky to a degree," Huggins said. "I was a great recruiter when I had Danny Fortson and Kenyon Martin, Ruben Patterson (at Cincinnati) and all those guys. When you have a bad year, you can't recruit at all. You have to get the right guys, but that's hard to do. It's hard to do all the time."
Huggins said Calhoun invests himself into his program and builds relationships with his players. Calhoun also makes himself visible in the community.
"He'll be great in the community, first and foremost," Huggins said. "When he was at Fairmont, he absolutely won that community over from a financial standpoint, a commitment standpoint, attendance, the whole deal. He'll get out in the community and work. He'll put time in. He does the right things."
Calhoun couldn't sleep Monday night going into Tuesday's news conference. He kept thinking about what YSU meant to him.
The East Liverpool native thought about toughness and Penguins football coach Bo Pelini.
Then there was pride, the Mahoning Valley, football, Pelini again and YSU president and former Penguin and Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel.
Calhoun wants YSU to be more diverse in people's thoughts, like basketball being mentioned in the conversation.
"These are all the words that came to my mind," he said. "One key word was missing, basketball. The Valley is dying for a basketball team to be proud of."
Pelini is good friends with Fairmont State football coach Jeff Woodman, who highly recommended Calhoun when YSU had a men's basketball coaching vacancy.
"He comes highly recommended and his success speaks for itself," Pelini said.