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.

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.’”

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 great stat to see was the Binghamton eFG of nearly 55%. The hot offense was lead surprisingly by Turkish walk-on Umur Peten, who was 6 of 8 from the field for 14 points including one from downtown. Mahamoud Jabbi was 3-3 for 6 points and 8 boards and Kyrie Sutton, who once again only played 15 points, was 6-6 for 12 points and 6 boards.

However, looking at the other three metrics of the Four Factors you can see some problems. The Bearcats turned the basketball over 19 times, include 9 from Dylan Talley. The Bearcats only drew 8 fouls while giving up 19. Finally and once again, we couldn’t keep Rider off the offensive boards. With all of those turnovers and offensive boards, Binghamton was lucky that Rider was having a bad offensive day or this could have gotten ugly.
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