The BU Zoo Blog

The hammer came down last night.  Binghamton has “elected” to withdraw from this year’s America East Tournament.  All the best guessing points towards pressure from SUNY.  This is personally quite disappointing to me.  The America East Tournament has always been one of the highlights of the year for me.  Two friends and I have been going to every America East Tournament since the Event Center opened (except last year at Albany, but 2 of us made it to the championship game).

I feel worse for the players.  The only thing that I can lose from this is money (give it back Hartford!).  The kids playing this season lost a whole lot more.  The 8-8conference record that Macon and his boys turned out was quite an accomplishment considering how many players they lost and the few scholarships they had.  They lost their reward for putting up with the crap all season which they weren’t involved with.

And just like that its the off season.

The Bearcats finished up the season yesterday with a 79-68 loss to Vermont.  Binghamton is still locked into the 5th seed which means that we will play Boston (4 seed) for the right to play the Stony Brook v. Play-in-game winner.  I would have selfishly loved Stony Brook on the other side of the bracket for a Binghamton-Stony Brook final  (that I could attend at Stony Brook!)

• Press & Sun Bulletin: “Binghamton University’s men concluded their America East Conference basketball season with a 78-69 loss to Vermont on Sunday.  The Catamounts’ Marqus Blakely, two-time conference Player of the Year, contributed 17 points, five rebounds, five assists and three blocked shots on Senior Day in what may have been his final game in Patrick Gym.  Binghamton (13-18, 8-8 America East) was within four of Vermont with 3:24 remaining before committing three turnovers in a 36-second span, leading to seven consecutive Catamounts points and a 74-63 lead.  The Bearcats drew no closer than eight through the conclusion.  Fifth-seeded Binghamton will oppose fourth-seeded Boston University in an America East Conference Tournament quarterfinal, scheduled for a 2:45 p.m. tip-off Saturday in Hartford.  Freshman Dylan Talley had a game-high 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting and added a team-high four assists in 29 minutes. Junior forward Moussa Camara added 17 points, the 11th straight game he’s reached double figures. Sophomore center Kyrie Sutton chipped in 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting.”
• Burlington Free Press: “‘Greer Wright is one of the best offensive players in the league: He’s 6-7, he can shoot, and Garvey took him out of his game,’ UVM coach Mike Lonergan said. ‘That was a big key to the game.’  Binghamton erased a 10-point halftime deficit and took a 49-48 lead on Moussa Camara’s long 3-pointer with just less than 13 minutes remaining in regulation, Vermont rattled off the next seven points to regain control.  ‘They got a lot of offensive rebounds on us today; the last few days that hasn’t been happening,’ Binghamton coach Mark Macon said. ‘They have a lot of size in there; their big guys were getting the ball in there and laying it up.’”

Everyone and their mother had Binghamton picked last this year.  With a victory over Hartford last night, the Bearcats clinched at least an 8-8 conference record and the 5th seed in the AE Tourney.  At of things to be proud of on this basketball team.  Can’t say the same thing about the people in charge.

• Press & Sun Bulletin: “Kyrie Sutton delivered his best performance in a Binghamton University jersey, scoring a career-high 18 points as Bearcats cruised to a 66-53 victory over Hartford in an America East Conference men’s basketball game on Wednesday night at the Events Center.  Greer Wright added 16 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, with Dylan Talley adding 15 points for BU (13-17, 8-7 America East), which prevailed in front of 4,791 fans in its final regular-season home game this season.  The victory clinched the fifth seed for BU in next week’s America East tournament in Hartford.”

Usually Tuesdays are Monday-less sucky cousin but today I feel very happy to get back into the flow of things.  A lot of work to do, but its not the end of the world.

• Pipe Dream: “If you read the statement looking for anything like an administrative apology, you would have been extremely disappointed. In fact, the review was barely mentioned. The only quote DeFleur included to sum up the 99-page report, which implicated her and key University administrators as playing main roles in the scandal, was Judge Judith Kaye’s comment that BU was “one of the nation’s premier public universities” – one of DeFleur’s favorite phrases, and hardly Kaye’s own words.  We’re pretty sure that’s not the message Kaye’s team of lawyers was trying to send.  This kind of evasion seemed to be the real, and only, purpose of the statement. Instead of accepting the blame that so obviously lies at their feet, DeFleur and Swain made a mockery of themselves and the University by throwing around hollow rhetoric of honesty and commitment to values; we’ve all seen that their actions indicate otherwise. Honor and integrity are nowhere to be seen in this mess.”
• Pipe Dream: “The Bearcats’ star junior Greer Wright had an off game, converting on only one of eight shots for seven points while also turning the ball over four times. However, junior forward Mahamoud Jabbi, who has been hot of late, and freshman guard Dylan Talley picked up the slack and then some for the Bearcats. Jabbi and Talley scored 20 and 25 points, respectively – both career highs for the first-year Division I players. Jabbi also grabbed 11 rebounds in the game while Talley dished out five assists to only two turnovers. ‘We were just hitting on all cylinders today,’ Macon said.  Leading by just eight points, 20-12 with 11 minutes to play, the Bearcats caught fire and pushed out to a 46-29 halftime lead. Jabbi had 14 points and five rebounds in the first half.  Binghamton tallied a total of 18 assists, its highest output of the season. ‘I had them doing things in practice where I wouldn’t let them shoot the ball,’ said Binghamton interim head coach Mark Macon. ‘It showed today with how they shared the ball.’”
• Press & Sun Bulletin: “‘We wanted Judge (Judith) Kaye to lead the review and investigation, we wanted to begin immediately and contracting through the state takes a long time, and we did not want tuition or taxpayer dollars used,’ SUNY spokesman David Henahan said in an e-mail Monday.An Albany news Web site Monday raised questions about whether SUNY should have used a competitive-bidding process instead of directly hiring the law firm that employs retired New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye, who headed the investigation. The probe cost $913,381, which is to be split between SUNY and BU.”
• WBNG (Video): “Noticeably absent on the Bearcat bench Sunday was assistant coach Mark Hsu.  He was prominently featured in retired Judge Judith Kaye’s 99-page audit of the program, named for assisting former player Malik Alvin pay his court fees after being arrested for stealing condoms at Wal-mart, and then again for helping Alvin fix a plagiarized school assignment.  Hsu did not travel with the team on their recent road trips, and after the game interim head coach Mark Macon was asked about his future with the program. Macon would only  say that he could not answer those questions.  Following that press conference, the university released a statement. ‘After consultation with America East commissioner Patrick Nero, interim director of athletics Jim Norris has determined that assistant coach Marc Hsu will not be coaching in practice or games until further notice.’”

It’s Monday and the official end of my vacation.  My vacation wasn’t a really good one but that doesn’t really matter.  Girlfriend is doing much better.  My attendance AE Tourney in Hartford still might be in jeopardy.  She is going to see her neurosurgeon on Wednesday.  If she gets the ok, she will attend a science conference in Baltimore and I will be going to Hartford.  If she doesn’t get the ok to travel, I’m probably just going to eat the tickets or give them away so stay tune.  Updates tomorrow, I got a billion things to do.

Saturday was not very good day for me at all.  After Binghamton’s thumping by Stony Brook, a friend was driving me and my girlfriend back to NYC.  To make a long story short, some young kid blew threw a light as we were making a left turn and t-boned our car.  Girlfriend ended up with two skull fractures and hearing loss (should be back in 2 weeks).  Everyone else was ok.  Both of us finally got home last night after spending most of Sunday in the hospital and Monday seeing the Ears, Nose , and Throat doc.  Could have been a lot worse!

Yesterday, I left NYC for Long Island to celebrate Papa Phyr’s 60th birthday.  Today, we are prepping for tonight’s Binghamton-Stony Brook game .  We’ve been very fortunate that the game has been usually scheduled for a weekend.  I can jet out from the city and take the train right to Stony Brook.  This game has special meaning for me because I grew up around Stony Brook in the neighboring town Setauket (along with the Town of Rich People Old Field make up the Three Villages).

My dad told me yesterday that he will be wearing his Stony Brook shirt tonight.  I can’t blame him.

• Press & Sun Bulletin: “Despite findings critical of her role as overseer of the Binghamton University’s athletic department, Lois DeFleur will be allowed to retire as president on her own terms.  SUNY officials said Friday they’ve had no discussions about the possibility of removing DeFleur before her summer retirement date, despite a spate of incidents that included suspensions and a drug arrest in the basketball program, a sexual-harassment lawsuit, the reassignment of the athletics director and the benching, with pay, of the basketball coach.  ‘We have no intention to try to alter her schedule’ to leave July 30, said Carl Hayden, the attorney who chairs the SUNY Board of Trustees.”
• Press & Sun Bulletin:”BU has won six straight games over the Seawolves (17-7, 9-2 AE), including a 64-62 victory on Jan. 12 at the Events Center when Greer Wright nailed the game-winning shot with 1.8 seconds left.  Wright, last week named the America East Player of the Week for the third time this season, is averaging team-best 15.4 points for the Bearcats.  Since losing back-to-back games at BU and Maine, Stony Brook has won five straight games to move atop the America East standings, most recently an 83-64 home victory over then-second place Maine on Wednesday.  In the win over Maine, Muhammad El-Amin scored a game-high 24 points. El-Amin leads Stony Brook in scoring with a 15.5 per game average.  ‘I don’t look at standings, but I know the other coaches and the kids do,’ Macon said. ‘I’m just worried about us getting better, but I know this game is going to be a dogfight.’”
• Wall Street Journal: “Binghamton University’s basketball program is a big deal in the America East Conference, and earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament last season. But while no one would confuse the Bearcats with a big-time athletic machine, the lawlessness and culture of entitlement, malfeasance and favoritism exposed by a recent State University of New York-commissioned report on the controversy-plagued program puts Binghamton up there among college sports’ troubled programs.”
• Deadspin: “In a report from the Department of Obviousness, Binghamton’s attempt to build a competitive basketball team resulted in numerous violations in recruiting, academics, and assorted criminal behaviors. So, mission successful if they wanted to build a real D1 program.”
• Pipe Dream: “In its final pages, the report recommends that BU establish a “more active role” in oversight and control of the athletics program, and that SUNY should consider appointment of an athletic oversight officer.  ‘At times, as this report shows, the intensity of the desire to win may undermine and compromise that primary [academic] mission,’ it reads. ‘The president took no corrective action in her role as the supervisor of the athletic director and the person charged with ultimate responsibility for BU’s intercollegiate athletic program.’ DeFleur, who over winter break announced her plans to retire this July, held a press conference with campus media groups Tuesday. Pipe Dream reporters, who had requested an interview several times, were present at the conference. In total, the reporters were allowed to ask three pre-approved questions before the meeting came to an end.  At the conference, DeFleur said she will have no administrative involvement with the University once she retires, aside from giving her support. She said she believes ‘change is good.’”
• Pipe Dream: “Despite Pipe Dream editors practically begging her for an interview, DeFleur only consented to sit down to pre-approved questions at her recent press conference, in which she gave an impressive speech and answered nothing at all. She was then conveniently out of town when the audit results were released. The hypocrisy is sickening, especially coming from the woman who has continuously touted our claim as the Premier Public University of the Northeast. All the while, she has been privately putting academics second to her NCAA dreams.  And now, after dragging this school through the mud on her quest to D-1 fame, DeFleur is leaving the premises and not looking back, leaving us to deal with the mess.  With all due respect Ms. President, we’ve been taught that it’s honorable to own up to your mistakes, not set up others to take the fall and cover your own ass. Your skeletons are coming out of your airplane hangar, and if you have any respect for the school you’ve claimed to love for the past 20 years, you should show your commitment by sticking around to help us salvage this school and its reputation.”

Yesterday, I’m in the middle of teaching my 5th period class.  The principal gets on the PA system and tells everyone that school is being preemptively canceled for tomorrow.  At the time, I was teaching my lesson on D-Day using that first scene from Saving Private Ryan.  Let’s just say that the kids were really pumped up.

Some updates on the SUNY audit.  Sounds like we are getting the report in March or April.

• WICZ (Video): “Norris doesn’t know what to expect of the audit though.  What he does know is that the review team has finished work on campus and the audit may be submitted as early as mid-March.  I guess they’re in the phase right now of writing it up and getting ready to submit,” Norris said.  Norris was appointed to the position this fall after long-time Athletic Director Joel Thirer resigned following the university’s suspension of six men’s basketball players.  Former coach Kevin Broadus remains on paid leave. The university is in the process of finding a permanent Athletic Director.  Norris says he’s focused on creating uniform standards and making sure each team complies with NCAA guidelines.”
• WBNG (Video): “Interim Athletic Director Jim Norris gave an update today during the Binghamton Rotary Club meeting at Terra Cotta.  Between players being expelled from the men’s basketball team, Coach Kevin Broadus’s suspension and a program-wide audit, the college’s athletic department has had a rocky ride over the last several months.  Norris says despite the drama, athletes have been keeping their morale up, thanks to community support.  ‘It has spoke to our student athletes, and they feel that support. We played several games over the break with no students, and the events center was 3 quarters full. So our kids, they absolutely notice that,’ said Norris.”

Congrats to the Saints and how that everyone had a Super Sunday.  My girlfriend’s parents came into the city to celebrate her mom’s birthday.  We took a little trip to the Museum of the City of New York.  It was small but had a couple really interesting exhibits including a multimedia exhibit on how New York has changed over time made by some of the folks that did the New York documentary for Ric Burns and PBS.

On the basketball front, Binghamton lost to Maine on Saturday to start a four game road trip.  The game was a lot closer at the end than the score reflects, but you still have to give Maine a lot of props.  There defense was nasty all game.  They found a way to shut down Greer Wright at least for a half.  They shot the ball better, out rebounded us, and got to the line more.  You usually don’t win games where that happens.  I wouldn’t want to play Maine in the tourney.

• Maine Campus: “The 12-point win would seem to indicate that McNally’s confidence produced an easy win for the Black Bears. What the final score does not show is the Binghamton Bearcats were within two points of the lead with possession of the ball 2:06 in the second half.  On Binghamton’s possession, they got the ball to their leading scorer, Greer Wright, who got fouled on a lay-in attempt but failed to convert on both of his free throws. Junior forward Troy Barnies ripped down the big rebound and got the ball into the hands of point guard Junior Bernal. Bernal quickly got the ball up the court and found Gerald McLemore (nine points) wide open for a three in the corner. The sharp-shooting sophomore had made just seven of his last 29 from beyond the arc, but he found his groove at the right time at the end of the game. ‘It was a big shot. I wasn’t making them all, but I kept shooting,’ McLemore said. ‘I mean, what am I going to do, sit outside and not shoot it? If I’m open, I have to shoot it ­— and luckily it went in and it was a big boost to our team.’”
• Press & Sun Bulletin: “Binghamton trailed by 10 with 4 1/2 minutes of the second half elapsed but drew within 50-49 when Greer Wright made a steal near midcourt and charged in for a layup. However, the Black Bears scored the final 11 points of the afternoon, including 6-for-8 from the free throw line. Mahamoud Jabbi had 12 points and nine rebounds for Binghamton, which shot 18-for-53 from the field and was outrebounded, 39-35. ‘They played tough, they pounded the ball inside and they rebounded,” interim BU coach Mark Macon said. ‘When you look at the rebounds and the fouls, it doesn’t look like a disparity. But from a coaching standpoint, a foul under the basket is different from a foul in the middle of the court.’  Binghamton (11-4) is 6-4 in conference play, one game behind third-place Maine. The Bearcats play their next three away from home. Next comes a 7 p.m. game Thursday at New Hampshire.”

Not much news on the Binghamton basketball front but some interesting quotes from the aftermath of the victory over Albany.  Mark Macon sings during a press conference and Will Brown thinks Greer Wright should be POY!

On a side note, NYC Binghamton fans note that the Stony Brook-Binghamton game is on Saturday Feb. 13.  You can take the LIRR to Stony Brook.  The train station is within walking distance of both the reception and the game.

• Albany Times Union: “This was a first for me covering college basketball. After Binghamton beat UAlbany 78-73 on Wednesday night, Bearcats interim coach Mark Macon opened his news conference by breaking into a song at the podium. Nobody seemed to recognize the tune, so Macon explained.  ‘You all know that song,” Macon said. ‘It’s about somebody asking somebody to dance who already has a partner. He’s not there with her. He just wants to borrow for a couple of minutes, for a couple of songs. Maybe her partner wouldn’t mind.’ Um, OK. All I can say about Macon as a singer is that he was a fine basketball player. And a pretty fair coach, too, since Binghamton is tied for third after being picked last in the preseason.”   You HAVE to love Mark Macon.
• BU Pipe Dream: “‘I don’t think anyone knew where the heck Jabbi and [Umur] Peten came from,’ Brown said. “And they’re good players; I didn’t know who they were. Jabbi killed us [in Albany] and he killed us here.’  Brown had a lot of praise for the surprising Binghamton team that is tied for third place in the conference standings.  ‘They got guys that can play one on one and get in the lane and make plays,’ Brown said. ‘They’re long and big and good and I think everybody needs to admit it. They’re gonna win a lot more games.’  Brown also praised Wright’s individual talents saying they are a key to the Bearcats’ success.  ‘Greer Wright is a first team all-league player, he’s the leading scorer in the league,’ he said. ‘I think he might be the player in the league right now, though I’m sure Blakely will win it.’”  That has to be the most praise I have ever seen Will Brown give Binghamton.