Tourney time for Penguins

It might have been the best game of the season before the biggest crowd of the year, but the YSU men's basketball team just couldn't find a way to pull out the victory.
The Penguins lost an 87-84 overtime contest to Loyola before 4,789 fans at the Beeghly Center, but anybody who watched the first 10 minutes thought it was going to be an easy win for the Ramblers.
Trailing 32-8, the Penguins outplayed Loyola the rest of the way, but couldn't stop Blake Schib when they needed to and the Penguins wound up with another 20-loss season, their fifth in a row, but first for coach Jerry Slocum.
The Penguins, who split with the Ramblers this year, winning at Loyola, will get another shot at them Tuesday night, when the two teams play in the opening round of the Horizon League Tournament at the Gentile Center in Chicago.
Senior Domonique Crawford made his final performance at the Beeghly Center his best as he scored a career-high 37 points, hitting 12-of-20 shots from the field, including 6-of-8 from 3-point range, and 7-of-8 at the foul line.
Junior guard Quin Humphrey followed with 23 points and 10 rebounds for his 10th double-double of the year and wrapped up the Horizon League scoring and rebounding titles.
Senior Derrick Harris won the league assist title averaging 5.5 per game.
The Horizon League was a really tight battle this year. After league champion UW-Milwaukee and runner-up Butler, the next five teams all tied with 8-8 records.
Women openin Green Bay
The YSU women, as expected, finished in seventh place in the league standings, and will play in the league's quarterfinal round at UW-Green Bay Thursday night.
The Penguins' victory Thursday night over Loyola moved them out of eighth place and the tournament's play-in game against Cleveland State.
YSU lost twice this season to Green Bay, but they have won there, as recently as last season.
The Penguins are the designated host for the Horizon League's semifinal and final rounds of the tournament, but they must win in the quarterfinal game in order to host the semifinals at Beeghly Center.
YSU is 8-19 overall and another defeat would send them to their third 20-loss season in the past four years, the second for coach Tisha Hill.
Post-game policyneeds changing
The university has to do something about their post-game press conferences next season.
YSU is the only Division I program in the country -- it might be the only one in the country, period -- to hold its post-game press conferences open to the public, in this case, Penguin Club members.
The press conferences are held in the Roundball Room at the Beeghly Center, which was built for the Penguin Club members to enjoy pre-game, halftime and post-game.
The room is beautiful and nobody deserves to have a room like that more than the Penguin Club members, who are the life-blood of the YSU athletic program.
It's their room, but post-game press conferences belong somewhere else in a professional setting.
There has to be all kinds of other rooms in Beeghly where these conferences could be held, for that matter, what's wrong with outside the team locker room, where it was held for many years before the Roundball Room was built.
It is just not a professional atmosphere to have fans cheering in the background during these press conferences where television crews have cameras rolling.
It is even worse when the Penguins play double headers and the room is filled to capacity between games. With all the talking and eating going on you can barely hear what is being said.
The Penguin club members deserve their room, but the media doesn't belong there for a post-game press conference and something needs to be done when next season rolls around.
Pete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.