Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Ethan Faulkner, the Youngstown State men's basketball head coach, calls out instructions to his team in the first half of Tuesday's Horizon League championship game in Indianapolis.

INDIANAPOLIS — Whether Youngstown State won or lost in the Horizon League championship game on Tuesday night, it was another historic milestone for a Penguins program that has had many of them the past few years.

In Ethan Faulkner’s first season as head coach, he has been able to maintain and build off the Penguins’ recent success, which started when he was an assistant coach on former head coach Jerrod Calhoun’s staff.

For the third straight season, the Penguins reached the 20-win mark, a first in program history. Then after making it to the semifinal for the third time since joining the conference in 2001, YSU earned a spot in the final for the first time this season..

“Just really proud of the job that he’s done,” athletic director Ron Strollo said in indianapolis. “I think he’s put a great staff together, and they’ve clearly done a great job. We’re not only excited about the type of play that we’ve had, but we’ve got great kids. This college basketball season has been an extension of what we’ve been able to build here. We need to continue that, and that’s not surprising to us. The type of program that he’s running, both on and off the court, is what people in Youngstown would expect.”

What Faulkner has been able to do is exactly what Strollo and YSU’s administration knew he was capable of when he was hired last April.

“Externally, to our fans, a lot of our fans knew him because he was a very familiar face,” Strollo said. “For us, I don’t think we needed to validate anything. We knew what type of coach he was going to be, which made the move for us so much easier.”

With Faulkner having success so soon, the next possible step for Strollo and YSU’s administration would be to explore the possibility of a contract extension for Faulkner.

When Faulkner was hired last year, he signed a five-year deal through the end of the 2028-29 season.

“We evaluate that stuff all the time. Those are conversations that myself, the board and the president are going to have,” Strollo said. “We want all of our successful coaches to be around for a long time. We want to support them in their careers here.”

ALONG FOR THE RIDE

It’s been a bittersweet year for Penguins senior guard EJ Farmer.

He’s been the team’s leading scorer for most of the season, but he missed three games with a lower leg injury in January.

Then, after returning from the injury, he went on a tear, scoring at least 20 points in four straight games. Only five other Penguins have scored 20-plus points in four straight games since YSU joined the Horizon League.

However, after YSU’s road victory at Cleveland State on Feb. 16, Farmer contracted a staph infection, which effectively ended his season and has caused him to miss each of the Penguins’ last six games, including all three Horizon League tournament games.

In Farmer’s absence, each of the Penguins has lifted their game to compensate. Nico Galette had 20-point games against Green Bay and Purdue Fort Wayne, while Ty Harper had back-to-back 20-point games against Green Bay and Northern Kentucky and Siem Uijtendaal led the team with 13 points against Cleveland State.

“I think everybody stepped their game up,” Faulkner said. “That’s something we talked about when EJ went out. We knew we weren’t going to have him for awhile, and we just talked with our group that everybody’s gotta step up.

“Everybody in the country’s got injuries, and the injury for us was pretty significant with our leading scorer. We know when we’re playing without our leading scorer, our defense has to be what carries us, and I think that’s what happened to us the first two games in this conference tournament. Our defense has really stepped up and given us a chance to win games.”

In order to deal with his illness, Farmer took some time away from the team to recover, which included having to miss YSU’s Senior Day festivities on Feb. 23 against Green Bay.

Since then, Farmer has rejoined the team, and was at Zidian Family Arena for YSU’s quarterfinal home victory over Purdue Fort Wayne and traveled with the team to Indianapolis for the semifinal and final.

Even though he isn’t able to be on the floor, Farmer is grateful to be along for the ride with his teammates.

“It’s been amazing, just to bring that great vibe and energy back to my guys,” Farmer said. “I was away from them for a minute, but it’s amazing to be back with them. They’re showing and improving, and they’ve been looking really good these last couple games.”

The team also rallied around Farmer’s presence in Indianapolis.

“We just gotta pick everybody up,” Harper said. “Him being here to give us every motivation and all the enthusiasm we need. Just seeing him getting healthy and better just makes us believe that anything is possible and we can (overcome) anything.”