Chinedu Nwachukwu (pronounced “chin-a-do” “wan-chu-koo”) is in his third season as an assistant coach with the Youngstown State men's basketball program.
Last season, he helped the Penguins to their second straight winning season by posting a 15-12 overall record. It marked the first consecutive winnings season since the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.
The Penguins continued its strong play at home by winning 10 games at the Beeghly Center. YSU averaged 76.6 points and 13.1 assists per game at home. Since Feb. 7, 2019, the Penguins own a home court record of 27-9.
Senior Naz Bohannon, a 2020-21 All-Horizon League Second-Team selection, led the Penguins with 16.5 points per game and second with 8.2 rebounds per game while shooting 52.6 percent from the field. He ranked fifth in the Horizon League in field-goal percentage, sixth in rebounding, eighth in scoring, and 15th with 3.2 assists per game. The Lorain, Ohio, native scored in double figures 20 times, had 10 20-point performances and five double-doubles. Last season, Bohannon became the 39th player in school history to score 1,000 career points and became the program's Division I all-time leading rebounder. He ranks 21st with 1,236 career points and fifth all-time with 990 career rebounds. He needs just 10 more rebounds to become the YSU player in the Division I era to record 1,000 career rebounds.
Freshman Shemar Rathan-Mayes, who started 22 games, was named to the Horizon League All-Freshman Team and averaged 10.4 points and 3.5 assists per game and shot 82.4 percent from the free-throw line last season. He ranked third in the league in free-throw percentage and 11th in assists per game. He scored in double figures 15 times.
Senior Garrett Covington became the 40th player to score 1,00th career points and ranks 26th all-time with 1,172 points. For the third consecutive season, Covington was named to the Horizon League All-Defensive Team. He also turned in his best offensvie season averaging 12.5 points per game and shooting 49.8 percent from the field. Covington scored in double figures 19 times and scored a career-high 30 points against Oakland on March 2, 2021.
In 2019-20, Nwachukwo helped the Penguins to one the most historic seasons in the prgram's Division I history. YSU finished the season with an overall record of 18-15 and placed fourth in the Horizon League with a 10-8 league mark. The Penguins' 18 wins were the most since 2012-13 and ranked tied for the fourth most in YSU's Division I era. The 10 league wins tied a school record for most wins in Horizon League play. YSU's 17 regular season wins were the most since 2000-01 and the most since joining the Horizon League.
Youngstown State went 13-3 at the Beeghly Center and set a Division I mark for most wins at home. The Penguins averaged 76.9 points and 14.6 assists per game at Beeghly Center.
For just the second time in history the Penguins accepted a Division I postseason berth to the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the tournament was canceled.
Darius Quisenberry was named to the NABC All-District 12 Second-Team and the All-Horizon League First-Team. He averaged 16.6 points, 3.6 rebounds 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He also ranked fifth in the Horizon League in scoring and assists per game, fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.5), sixth in field-goal percentage (.422), steals per game and free-throw percentage (.792), and 13th with 1.5 3-pointers made per game. He became the fourth YSU Division I player to score at least 40 points in a game and his career-high 41 points against Wright State on Feb. 20 rank as the sixth-highest single-game total. Quisenberry is the first player in school history to earn all-league honors in his first two seasons.
Naz Bohannon posted a career-best 11.2 points per game and averaged 8.6 rebounds per game, which ranked third in the Horizon League. He shot 51.7 percent from the field and averaged 12.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game against Horizon League opponents. Bohannon's 284 rebounds were the third most in YSU's Division I history and the most since Jerome Sims had 327 in 1991-92. He also grabbed seven double-doubles on the year.
For the second straight year, junior Garrett Covington was named to the Horizon League All-Defensive Team. He is just the third YSU player to earn consecutive all-defensive team honors. He also averaged 8.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in 2019-20.
Nwachukwu spent the previous two seasons as the Director of Player Personnel at Michigan under new Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach John Beilein.
Prior to his time in Ann Arbor, Mich., Nwachukwu spent the 2016-17 season as the Director of Operations at Milwaukee with current Butler head coach LaVall Jordan. With the Panthers, he coordinated team travel, budget, practices and other program functions.
He also spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Saginaw Valley State from 2012-16. After going 21-30 during his first two seasons at SVSU, Nwachukwu helped the Cardinals go 46-17 during his final two campaigns. In 2015-16, SVSU posted a school-record 25 victories (25-8) while claiming the program’s fourth GLIAC championship and the first since the school transitioned to the Division II level 25 years prior.
The Cardinals added their first Midwest Regional Championship and a trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, all coming in the team's first NCAA Tournament appearance. Additionally, SVSU notched a school-record 18 GLIAC wins en route to the team's first title since the 1984-85 season.
In the 2014-15 season, SVSU posted a 21-9 overall record, including a then-school record 16-6 mark in the GLIAC. The Cardinals qualified for the 2015 GLIAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed, where they defeated Findlay for the team's first victory in the tournament and berth in the semifinals since 1996-97.
Before joining the SVSU staff in 2012, he served as an assistant coach and head coach of the junior varsity team at the University of Findlay for two seasons. Before heading to Findlay, Nwachukwu spent three years as a student manager with the Michigan basketball program under Beilein.
A native of Ypsilanti, Mich., Nwachukwu graduated from Father Gabriel Richard High School in 2006. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Michigan in economics in 2010 and followed with his master's degree in business administration from Findlay in 2012.
