The Globe has learned that Point Park will not host the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Tournament this season despite being in-line after Midway dropped out from hosting the event.
KIAC Commissioner Bill Melton stated that previous KIAC bylaws for women’s basketball, the conference rotated the host of their postseason tournament and uses alphabetical order to determine who hosts. Last year Indiana University Southeast hosted and this year it was Midway College’s turn to host. Midway elected to pass this year, meaning alphabetically, it was Point Park’s turn to host.
Melton further stated that it was the athletic directors who elected to skip Point Park hosting and allow the next team alphabetically, Alice Lloyd College, to have the tournament because Point Park is in its second year in the conference.
The news upset women’s basketball head coach Tony Grenek when he was informed of this decision and confirmed all of the above information to be factual.
“I think it’s unjust that the Point Park men’s and women’s basketball teams were not allowed the opportunity to bid for hosting the KIAC Conference Tournament when it was our turn to host by league rules, which goes in alphabetical order,” Grenek said. “Midway was originally supposed to host the men’s and women’s KIAC Conference Tournament, they declined their opportunity, which normally means it would be Point Park’s opportunity because we were next in alphabetical order. It was brought to my attention that the league decided to pass over Point Park because of an unwritten rule saying that a team needs to be in the KIAC league for at least two years before they can host a tournament.”
Melton discussed how the final decision was made.
“The KIAC had a policy that when new schools came into the conference that they would not be eligible for hosting the tournament until it came back around in the alphabetical order to them,” Melton said. “Most of our tournaments are hosted by member schools based on alphabetical order. A school can pass if they want to and it goes on to the next one, the policy said the new schools were bypassed the first time around in the alphabet, so Point Park was passed over.”
“Since the decision was made and it went back to Alice Lloyd, the KIAC has changed that policy and in the future any school that came in would fit right into the rotation and if it came to them the very first year they would be eligible. We changed it after the decision was made that Alice Lloyd would host the tournament, the other policy was still in effect. The policy was changed after the decision was made.”
When asked how much time elapsed between the new bylaw and the decision for Alice Lloyd to host the tournament, Melton stated that he was not sure.
Hosting a tournament automatically provides a home court advantage assuming your team wins its quarterfinal game since both the semi-finals and finals are played on one court. This season, the Alice Lloyd women are 9-2 at home and 7-5 away from Pippa Passes, Ky. The Eagles have lost just one conference home game this season, which was to Point Park which proves that home court in the KIAC is a very important factor.
Looking at KIAC results through Monday, home teams were 43-21, a 67.2 percent success rate in women’s basketball, so if you don’t think Alice Lloyd which currently is atop the conference has a large advantage hosting, then you are sorely mistaken.
Hosting the KIAC tournament is an honor in itself because the conference has 10 teams currently meaning you can host and then it may be a nine-year wait. If Point Park hosted the tournament, fans that support Carlow also win because should their team make the quarterfinals and win, it would be a 20 minute drive to watch their team play. So not only would hosting be a win for Point Park, Carlow would benefit as well.
There will be new teams joining the KIAC for women’s basketball next season meaning the wait could be that much longer. Currently, Asbury is slated to host the tournament next year should they accept.
To me, it seems as though something suspicious is going on, with Point Park undeservedly missing out on hosting and I’m not the only one who feels this way.
“I find it peculiar that the new teams in the conference last year, were going to have the opportunity to host if the alphabetical listing came their way,” Grenek said. “All of a sudden the opportunity came Point Park’s way this year and this unwritten rule came out of nowhere and was put in effect immediately.”
With the change, Point Park now has to wait for years to host, and that is not fair to the 10 seniors that comprise both the men’s and women’s teams this year. It doesn’t matter whether the Pioneers were first or 10th in the KIAC, what matters is that it was Point Park’s turn to host and for a reason that is being debated, that right was taken away.
