• According to the NY Times, murdered Binghamton professor Richard Antoun was a men’s basketball season ticketholder and was suppose to go to the game on Friday: “Dr. Antoun held season tickets to the Binghamton men’s basketball team and had plans to attend Friday night’s game. “I had just talked to him a couple of hours earlier; we ran into each other in the mail room,” said Dr. Versaggi. “We both have tickets to the basketball game and he said he planned to go to the game. Even though the team is rebuilding, he said they were showing some promise. He was just happy as usual, just a good-humored man.”  My thoughts are with his friends and family after this senseless act of violence.

Bucnkell Recaps:

• Press & Sun Bulletin
• The Daily Item
• AP
• Williamsport Sun-Gazette
• Video: WICZ
  

Marshall Previews:

• Press & Sun Bulletin

This was the first game I got to see Umur Peten, and he looks like a nice inside-outside threat at 6’9. He has force Kryie Sutton to the bench, even though Kryie had put up double figures against Rider.

The important thing is that offensively and defensively the team looks like they are developing chemistry. I think the 3 games in 3 days at the CBI Classic really helped in that department.

What the Bearcats did best last game was control the ball. Bucknell is a very high-tempo team and Macon did a great job gameplaning by slowing the game down and getting back on transition defense. The Bearcats were very assertive on the offensive end. Dylan Talley and Greer Wright did a great job attacking the basketball and drawing fouls.

The Julius Allen story got picked up by the AP and a couple of other papers.  It has to make you wonder why they did it now.  They either made this move way too late or they found something type of smoking gun.  Most America East fans know Allen by reputation when he was an assistant at Northeastern.  Something tells me that this move wasn’t made to make the coaching staff more heart healthy.

• Congratulations to Dylan Talley (and sorry I missed this earlier this week) on his Rookie of the Week award: “Talley led all America East rookies by averaging 11.8 points in four games last week. The freshman guard averaged 14.3 points per contest at the CBE Classic West Carolina Sub-Regional, including a career-best 21-point effort in a win over Arkansas-Monticello Wednesday. Talley, who had 11 points in each of the tournament’s first two games against Duquesne and Western Carolina, also averaged 3.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.3 steals and shot 49 percent from the field.”
• Pipe Dream has a preview of the games this weekend: “ Coming off a 58-50 loss in a close game to the talented Rider University Broncs, Binghamton University men’s basketball team (2-5) will look to redeem itself in its next two games. In a three-day span, the Bearcats will be hosting the Bucknell University Bison of the Patriot League and Marshall University Thundering Herd of Conference USA in front of an always-supportive Events Center crowd.”
• Press & Sun Bulletin has an article on the Bucknell game and on Macon’s lineup changes which include Kryie Sutton and Moussa Camara coming off the bench: “‘We’ve shaken up the lineup a little bit, and we’ve done well in that area in trying to get units in the game that play well together and bringing guys up off the bench to keep the ship moving.’ The shake-up Macon referred to was the insertion of center Umur Peten and forward Mahamoud Jabbi into the starting lineup prior the game against Arkansas-Monticello, with opening-night starters Moussa Camara and Kyrie Sutton now coming off the bench. Jabbi, a high-energy guy, has averaged six points and seven rebounds in his last two games. Peten, a 6-foot-9 junior transfer from Middle East Technical University in his native Turkey, is coming off a team-high 14-point effort in the loss to Rider.  ‘Umur brings understanding, he brings a fundamental set to the game,’ Macon said. ‘He’s a basic guy, he’s not the most athletic guy, he’s not the best shooter, but he gets the job done because he knows how to play.’”

On to the news:

• Julius Allen, who doesn’t have the cleanest past, is no longer an assistant coach for the team: “The Binghamton University men’s basketball program is down another coach.  Julius Allen, an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team since 2007, will no longer serve in that capacity.BU interim athletic director Jim Norris announced in a statement Wednesday that Allen will be given an alternative assignment within the men’s basketball program. That role is currently being discussed and could be finalized by next week, according to BU spokeswoman Gail Glover….Macon, however, refused comment on Allen’s departure from the staff and grew agitated when pressed further about the situation.”

• Brian Steinhauer testified in Serbian court yesterday: “Belgrade’s Municipal Court said a judge questioned Bryan Steinhauer, 22, of Brooklyn, for approximately two hours about the bar brawl in May 2008 at the Rathskeller bar in Binghamton during which he was severely beaten, allegedly by fellow BU student Miladin Kovacevic. Steinhauer awoke from his coma in August, three months after the beating that left him with skull fractures and a severe brain injury.”
• PipeDream has a good recap of the games over Thanksgiving break: “During a stretch of five games in nine days, which included three games on three straight days, the Binghamton University men’s basketball team went 1-4 but showed marked improvement by the end of the road swing.  This past Saturday the Bearcats traveled to Rider University in a non-conference matchup, and despite holding the lead for most of the game, fell to the Broncs 58-50.”