Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes. YSU guard Brandon Rush goes up to the basket for a drill during a Penguins summer practice on July 7. Rush is one of three returners.

YOUNGSTOWN — With only 28 days remaining until Youngstown State opens its season at Louisiana, the Penguins returned to practice on Sept. 25.

After its 10-day summer trip to Spain in July, YSU was “ahead of the curve” coming into preseason. The trip was particularly helpful with the extra practices and three games that it afforded the team — especially for integrating a dozen newcomers into the program. Now, the Penguins can hit the ground running.

“I think certainly offensively you’re a little more ahead of where you’d like to be,” head coach Jerrod Calhoun said Friday. “Defensively, we’ve gotta get up to speed, but as far as my impressions of the team, I think we’re very deep — deepest team I’ve had in seven years, (and) very talented, most athletic team (I’ve had). (We) can play a lot of guys, and we’re experienced. We have a lot of older guys. Then, we have some really talented freshmen, so it’s a good mix.”

Returning fifth-year guard Brandon Rush, who averaged 13.9 points per game last season for YSU, echoed Calhoun’s sentiments about the Penguins’ defensive focus in practices so far.

“We’re trying to get our defense better and work on moving without the ball, and moving and playing with each other,” Rush said. “Just making sure we execute plays better.”

On the offensive end of the floor, last season, YSU was one of the top scoring teams in all of Division I. The Penguins were the fifth-best scoring team in the country, while also leading the Horizon League with 81.9 points per game.

With the increased depth of this year’s group, as well as its versatility offensively, Calhoun said he expects his team to continue to play a similar style that replicates what they were able to do last season.

“Our offensive system, I think it’s one of the best in the country,” Calhoun said. “I put it up there with anybody. It’s very free-flowing and I give my forwards a lot of freedom.”

Depth is the key word for this Penguins team, especially for what they want to do on both ends of the floor.

“I would say last year, we had four or five guys that we knew what you were getting out of them,” Rush said. “This team, I think we have at least nine or 10 that can go out there and do a lot of big things.”

One of the keys this preseason for the Penguins is integrating almost an entirely new roster.

After graduating six players and having a handful of others transfer out, YSU welcomes 12 new players for the upcoming season that consist of a mix of upperclassmen and underclassmen transfers, as well as freshmen.

Some key names to look out for include: DJ Burns (Murray State), Jaylen Bates (Florida A&M), Bryson Langdon Northern Kentucky), Brett Thompson (Tennessee Tech), EJ Farmer (Toledo) and Ziggy Reid (Merrimack) — all of whom are seniors or fifth-year players and have a plenty of prior playing experience at the college level.

“We recruit old, so I recruit guys in the portal that are older players that have come from winning programs,” Calhoun said. “So these kids know how to win. …We have a really good variety, from the point guard position to the forward position of different guys. It makes practice very competitive. We’re going to play probably 10 guys.”

YSU opens the season at Louisiana on Monday, Nov. 6.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com