A former Youngstown State University men's basketball coach was irked by a simple question following a last-minute home loss.
"Coach, where did it go wrong?" the coach was asked in the postgame news conference.
"Where did it go wrong?" the coach snapped back. "Weren't you watching the game?"
There's no harsh words, but just reality smacking the YSU men's team after losing three straight in the Legends Classic at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
The Penguins played an unprecedented three straight games in three days early last week.
YSU began by losing in overtime to North Dakota State.
Then, the Penguins led James Madison, a team they beat in their two previous meetings, for 99 percent of the game. The final one percent is what bit the Penguins as the Dukes took the lead with eight seconds left and beat YSU.
The thing YSU will take out of both of those games is the starters all scored in double figures during the James Madison game and three out of the five scored 10 or more in the North Dakota State game. The other two had eight points each.
The downer was the bench scored a combined eight points in the two games.
Against Duquesne, these Dukes dominated YSU, but the Penguins' bench scored 23 points - led by Bobby Hain's 13.
This is a 3-3 YSU team that started 3-0 to begin the season with wins at George Washington and at Georgia, and one more against St. Francis (Pa.). After that game, Blake Allen said YSU would not use being tired or playing three straight games as an excuse.
That said, YSU deserves a pass on the Duquesne game. Three straight games in three straight days. Yea, pretty grueling, no matter who you face.
Ask the Penguins, they won't accept that pass.
The Penguins need to reharness what got them to 3-0 and become one of the Horizon League's best teams, even though YSU won't start league play for at least another month.
There's no panic at 3-3, but you can bet the Penguins are thankful they had a week to recover from that three-game span.
It doesn't get easier as YSU hosts Kent State (4-2) Wednesday and are at Bowling Green (2-3) Saturday.
A 4-4 or 5-3 mark is a heckuva lot better entering December than 3-5.
The Golden Flashes' only setbacks are at home against Temple and Valparaiso, while the Falcons have dropped games against Cleveland State, IUPUI and Robert Morris.
Kent State won its last game against Nebraska, the first win against a Big Ten school on the road since 1970.
The last victory YSU had against the Golden Flashes was Dec. 22, 2006, in Kent, while the last win against Kent State in Youngstown dates back to Dec. 15, 2001, when the Penguins handed the Golden Flashes a rare loss en route to their eventual Elite 8 run.
Put the three-game series at Duquesne aside and YSU has can play Kent State even up on Wednesday. The Penguins have the size and talent to play with anybody in the Mid-American Conference. The unfortunate part for YSU is it has been its own worst enemy lately. That said, the Penguins will make a couple of adjustments that I'm sure coach Jerry Slocum and his staff addressed in length.
So the question of where it went wrong for this year's YSU team at Duquesne could be a non issue.
It depends if YSU provides the right answers when the it faces the Golden Flashes.