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YOUNGSTOWN
DARKNESS swirls around. All you hear is a metronomic beat repeating and sometimes thrown in with a squeak like those of a car making a sudden stop.
Then, I realize my head is buried in my arms, trying not to watch what is in front of me.
Welcome to the Beeghly Center.
Eleven of the past 16 seasons the Youngstown State men's basketball team were 20-loss seasons -- more unbearable as the seasons progress.
This year is three straight seasons of futility. As the years go by, for me it's been 18 years covering this team, the amount of red is glaring in the arena, as far as the empty seats go.
Now the official attendance some of these recent games have read either 3,000 or 4,000, which there's no way that could be possible if not for the YSU sports marketing department doing yeoman's work on getting businesses to buy up tickets.
I say they have better things to do, like enhancing the experience of a winning team.
There's a novel idea.
I remember the 2000-01 season, the last year YSU was competitive, that was the last time I can remember the Penguins having a successful season. Yes, it ended in a first-round, Mid-Continent Conference loss to an Oral Roberts team that YSU beat twice in the regular season. This should've been a team that made the title game against Valparaiso that year. Alas, 19-11 is all the farther that team got. It's a damn shame. That team deserved so much more.
So do these current players. So do the YSU basketball fans, what is left of them.
I'd like to see more of you at games. You, the Youngstown-Warren fans. You deserve more than a great football program, which the Penguins have now.
YSU needs to have more than football discussions, talking about how good the football team was the previous season, waiting for spring practice, see the Red-White game and get into football season again.
There's a gap between January and March that basketball can own at YSU. It truly is their time to shine.
The Penguins had that fleeting moment during this year's Horizon League tournament where it upset No. 1-seeded Oakland - a team that decimated YSU during both meetings in the regular season. Social media and ESPN was a buzz for a day or so with the Penguins' improbable upset on a last-second lay-up by Jorden Kaufman on a fabulous pass from Cameron Morse.
YSU needs to widen their search to more than just previous head coaches. It's foolish to think a NCAA Division I assistant cannot do the job. Would Dayton be in their position if it went with someone with head coaching experience? You're saying Archie Miller, with his assistant coaching experience at Arizona State and Ohio State wasn't good enough to mentor the Flyers -- one of the most dangerous teams coming into the tournament. So Shaka Smart's experience as an assistant at California University of Pennsylvania, Akron, Clemson and Florida means nothing? Don't tell that to VCU, which made the Final Four in 2011. The current Texas coach had the experience to coach the Rams. I can name more instances, but I'm probably boring you with facts.
This YSU program desperately needs someone who is young, energetic and cares about this community and the development of this program. Now, that said, this coach does not need to be lifer at YSU. If this coach is here three to five years, that's fine. Being a stepping-stone program is not a bad thing. Kent State was that for quite a while and, well, the Golden Flashes are doing pretty well for themselves. (Yes, I'm plugging my alma mater. Sue me.) Hey, they've got to the NCAA Tournament. They were in the Elite 8 in 2002. When's the last time YSU can say that? NEVER!
The closest the Penguins have been to the NCAA Tournament is twice in the last 30 YEARS. That was in the mid 1980s, losing in the Ohio Valley Conference title game and in the 1998 Mid-Continent Conference title game. Geez, that's futility. No, that's just apathy by an athletic department that puts football before all else. I get it. This is a football-centric area and basketball is kind of a foreign subject. I say the two should coexist at YSU. Let's have a Penguins men's basketball program that complements a great YSU football program that you currently have.
The women's basketball team will be better next season. The track and field teams are phenomenal. Heck, the women's bowling team is nationally ranked. Things are good at YSU, except men's basketball. Let's make it better.
Get a coach who will go out in the community and promote the program. You don't need that in football. That sport promotes itself around here. It's football for gosh sakes.
Then, people might get excited and come to games.
Let's just say those people might be YSU fans and see some good basketball and, oh, see a win or two, maybe stringing together four, five, maybe six at the Beeghly Center. It's called a winning streak.
On top of that, that team starts to gain traction and win a few more games and play defense (something that's been foreign to YSU basketball the past couple of seasons).
By George, maybe this Penguins program becomes one of the best in the Horizon League.
For arguments sake, how about we say YSU wins the Horizon League Tournament and goes to the NCAA Tournament (not the Division II one the Penguins went to in the 1970s).
That means national exposure. ESPN camped on your doorstep because this goes from a program that had decades of futility to a proven winner.
Then, there's the NCAA payout that goes to the athletic department and the rest of the Horizon League teams. Oh, then your basketball team is not thought of as a leech on the most of the teams in the league that have actually been to the NCAA Tournament in the last 30 years. Northern Kentucky is only in its second year in the league made it to the field of 68 -- the first year the Norse was eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
Yes, being to the NCAA Tournament not only means better recruiting, but much-needed exposure for your university. YSU has plenty to offer.
By that time, the darkness has more than subsided. It's time to watch some high-quality basketball.
Now, will this athletic department make the move to make this a reality?