The BU Zoo Blog

Regents grading went very well for me.  A good chunk of my students passed with a 65 and most of them passed with a 55.  However, its time to look on to the new semester.  I got new students, new classes, and new things to prepare.

The new semester has also been a transitional period for the Bearcats.  After their OT victory over UNH, Binghamton isn’t just looking for respect, they are looking to be a top team in the conference.  A big reason they have emerged from a potential contender is because of the play of Greer Wright.

• Press & Sun Bulletin: “Greer Wright scored 29 points as Binghamton University went overtime for a 76-73 men’s basketball victory over New Hampshire on Saturday night at the Events Center.A three-point play by Pina Guillaume with 2:01 to play in the extra session put BU on top to stay, 71-68.Wright scored the final points on a pair of free throws with 9.4 seconds to play. Chretien Lukusa added 10 points and eight rebounds for BU.The attendance figure announced was 4,811.”

Really interesting couple of national articles on the Bearcats from ESPN and USA Today on how the Bearcats are overcoming the adversities of this season.  Dana O’Neil of ESPN also suggests that Kevin Broadus might be back as head coach if Judith Kaye’s audit clears him of wrong doing.  Here is a little excerpt from one of her chats:

Chris (Binghamton, NY): Dana, loved your piece on coach Mark Macon and my Bearcats. With the news of University president Lois DeFleur’s retirement, do you project Macon as the long-term solution for Binghamton? Have you heard any other coaches’ names surface?

Dana O’Neil (1:27 PM): Chris: I don’t think he’ll be the long-term solution. In fact, there’s a decent chance Kevin Broadus will be back. Unless the audit reveals a cause to fire him, they owe him an awful lot of $$$ to buy him out

A lot of what ifs in all of these scenarios.  Binghamton basketball fans just need the Kaye report to come out ASAP, so we can stop thinking about what ifs and start think about finally putting this mess behind us.

• ESPN: “Macon, Temple’s all-time leading scorer, could just be the best man for this crazily messy job. He is a disciple of John Chaney, a man who never saw a mountain he couldn’t scale or impossible odds he couldn’t beat. Chaney made a career out of fashioning his teams piecemeal out of players no one else thought much of.  Not long after he was given the interim job, Macon reached out to his mentor, not so much for basketball advice but just for life advice. The wise old Owl delivered.  ‘He said just keep it simple and be a voice,’ Macon said. ‘I’m not a screamer by nature, but he told me I had to have a voice.’  His voice appears to be resonating. A talented player who also played with the sort of work ethic Chaney demanded, Macon is rubbing off on his team.”
• USA Today: “Binghamton is last in the league in scoring (58.0 points), free throw shooting (63.2%), three-point shooting (27.6%) and turnover margin (-3.6). But Macon has molded these Bearcats in the defensive image of John Chaney, his coach at Temple. They’re second in the league in blocked shots, have held their own on the boards and are 4-3 at home.  The starters usually include Wright (a junior college transfer), Mahamoud Jabbi (a walk-on from Division III Oswego) and Chretien Lukusa and Moussa Camara, who had a total of 19 starts last season.  Freshmen Dylan Talley and Pina Guillaume have been thrown into the fire, as has Turkish transfer Umur Peten.  ‘Most everyone I talk with thinks Coach Macon is doing a great job,’ Cheriyan said. ‘ A lot of the players are walk-ons. Students don’t blame them for what’s happened.’  Students will be back on campus when Binghamton hosts league-leading Vermont on Sunday. Almost 600 students have confirmed via Facebook that they will attend, and a crowd of 4,000 is expected.  ‘Everyone knows we’re not where we were last year,” Cheriyan said. “But we still support these guys, and we still support the program.’”

Thanks to a very caring Christmas present from my girlfriend, today is the first time that I have actually been able to drink coffee while I put up a post.  She got me one of those fancy coffee makers that has the auto-timer, so now I just have to wake up and my coffee is ready with me.

This was a great little weekend for sports.  My other green-and-white team, the Jets, thumped the Bengals again.  Chargers-Jets is going to be a very interesting match-up since the Chargers don’t really stop the run too well and the Jets have some option on where to put Darrelle Revis.   Do you match him up against Vincent Jackson?  Do you match him up against Malcolm Floyd?  Do you match him up against Antonio Gates?

In their second AE game, the Bearcats lost at home in overtime to Maine 66-61.  This was a pretty awful game to watch.  Both teams, except Moussa Camara, shot a horrific percentage from the three-point line.  Maine shot 9% and Binghamton shot 13%.  Maine won this game by getting to the foul line 20 more times than Binghamton including some crucial free throws in overtime.

This was a bad loss, but I think it also shows that Binghamton is going to be able to compete this year.  Maine has been the surprise of the AE OOC, and taking them to overtime with only 6 scholarship players and without your starting point guard shows you the type of team Binghamton has become.

Recaps:

• AP: “Binghamton clung to a 57-55 lead halfway through OT, but after a defensive stop, Mitchell made a layup in traffic to tie the score. He gave Maine the lead moments later on a pair of free throws and then extended that lead to four with 50 seconds left.”
• Video from WBNG: “Visiting Maine (9-6, 1-1 AE) made just one field goal in overtime but converted 11-of-14 free throws to outlast cold-shooting Binghamton (6-11, 1-1 AE) 66-61 Sunday afternoon from the Events Center. It was the Black Bears’ first win in seven tries at the Events Center.”
• Press & Sun Bulletin: “With Maine employing a 2-3 zone for much of the game, BU (6-11, 1-1) hit just 20 of 61 shots from the field (33 percent), including an unsightly 6-for-35 (17 percent) from 3-point range.  ‘We settled for too many jump shots (Sunday) instead of attacking the basket,’ BU interim coach Mark Macon said. ‘We hit some shots in the first half, but (Maine) kept plugging away. We have to get the ball inside, then kick it out.  We shot 35 3-pointers. That’s ridiculous.’  BU was without two starters Sunday. Point guard Dylan Talley missed his third straight game with an upper thigh contusion and center Pina Guillaume sat with an ankle injury.”
• Video From WICZ: “Maine takes out BU 66-61 in OT, and shoots 20 more free throws during game, but Coach Macon says the refs are not to blame.  Macon: ‘The ref didn’t put the ball in the basket. The ref didn’t shoot the ball for the other team, and they didn’t shoot the ball for us. We missed shots. We were twenty for 61. That’s a lot of shot man.’”

Thanksgiving, without a doubt, is my favorite holiday of the year.  It mixes three of my favorite things:  Football, Family, and Food.  Christmas, on the other hand, is quickly turning into my least favorite holiday mixing three things I don’t like: crowds and consumerism.  I hope everyone travels safely and gets to where they are going.  I will be traveling tomorrow, so this will be my last entry until after the New Year’s (going to Disney World).

The best way to go on a break is by winning something.  Congrats to Greer Wright and Pina Guillaume for winning the AE Player of the Week and Rookie of the Week, respectively.

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from TBZ.  Sure our basketball team is not doing very well, but there are a things to be thankful for.  The community has continued to show up to home games.  We got to raise a championship banner this season.  We have a couple of nice young players that could develop into nice America East players (Kyrie Sutton, Pina Guillaume, Dylan Talley).  We have a couple players, such as Mahamoud Jabbi and Jimmy Gray, that have played hard with the playing time opportunity that they have been given.  Breath deep Bearcat Nation.  It will be over before you know it.

Western Carolina Recaps:

• Press & Sun Bulletin:”Wright was a bright spot, hitting more 3-pointers Tuesday night (four) than he had over his four previous games combined (three). He struck for 17 of his points in the second half, and his 21 points overall were Binghamton’s highest single-game total thus far this season.”
• AP: “The Catamounts (3-1) dominated the first half, rolling to a 33-13 halftime score. They were 16-for-26 from the field (61.5 percent) and held Binghamton (1-4) to only three first-half field goals in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Classic.”

Robbie Allen of Statsheet.com emailed me yesterday to tell me that the Stat of the Day widget should be working again.   Check it out.  You’ll learn things that you would have never thought of.

• SUNY Research Foundation is under federal investigation for fraud.  Ironically, the Research Foundation is bankrolling the Binghamton basketball investigation.
• Yahoo has posted its Binghamton season preview.  Yahoo has our lineup slated at PG Christian Lukusa (not my typo), SG Moussa Camara, SF Greer Wright, PF Pina Guillaume, C Kyrie Sutton.  I never seen these guys before but I think that Taylor Johnson or Dylan Talley gets the start over Guillaume.  Will be interesting to see who picks up the slack after Lukusa and Camara
• Missed this article over the weekend in the Daily News on how Binghamton disgraced itself for money.  I hate how people slander the Event Center in articles like this.  Binghamton was selling out the West Gym.  The only other venue in town is the decrepit Broome County Arena.  In hindsight, I wish the Event Center bigger with the opportunity to add on ice.   That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Binghamton led the America East in attendance again this season.