“We are pleased to add Julius Smith to our coaching staff,” interim athletics director Jim Norris said in a press release.

“Julius has a wealth of experience and will be a nice addition to the solid staff we’ve formed this summer. Everyone on the search committee was impressed with Julius and confident he will be an outstanding teacher/coach for our program.”

Source: BUBearcats.com

“We are very excited to get a person with Ron’s experience and credentials,” Interim Athletic Director Jim Norris said. “Everyone on the search committe was very impressed with Ron in a variety of areas, including his commitment to educating young people and his passion for basketball. We’ve been told he’s a first-class person, a solid family man and a real people-person. We think he’ll be a great fit for our program.”

Interim Head Coach Mark Macon told the Press & Sun Bulletin that Brown’s first duty would be to “hit the [recruiting] trail.  We need players.”

Sources: BUBearcats.com; Press & Sun Bulletin

Sources: Press & Sun Bulletin, BU Pipe Dream, YNN

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.

• Press & Sun Bulletin: “BU (12-17, 7-7 America East) is currently in fifth place in the America East and can clinch the fifth seed in next week’s conference tournament with a victory over the Hawks.  With a loss, there is the possibility of BU falling all the way to the seventh seed. Conference seeding, however, matters little to  Macon right now.  ‘I just want us to get better each game,’ Macon said. ‘This has nothing to do with the conference tournament. We not going into the conference tournament until it starts. I don’t want to jump the gun.’  The positives that BU displayed in its decisive victory over UMBC — good ball movement, rebounding proficiency — were severely lacking during its four-game losing streak, which occurred exclusively on the road and included losses by 42 points at Boston University and by 20 points at Stony Brook.”
• WICZ (Video): “If Binghamton University’s Student Association has their way, Basketball Coach Kevin Broadus will no longer coach at BU.  The association’s president says after reading about Broadus’ coaching conduct in Judge Kaye’s report, students no longer want him working at the university.  Therefore, the S.A. is formally calling for his immediate resignation as head coach.”

• 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.’”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.