PERSPECTIVE: Terriers Won't Make Bearcats Mistake

by Seth Orensky

As the cold begins to creep back into the Northeast and the calendar turns to October, fans at colleges without powerhouse football teams know what time it is: basketball season. Last year’s results are forgotten and optimism leaves fans eager for the season to start. But the 12,000 undergraduates at Binghamton University foster no high hopes for this year, all anticipation has quickly drained away for this year’s campaign. A team and campus that celebrated its first trip to March Madness last year, easily the high point in Binghamton Bearcats athletic history, finds itself without six of its top players, its athletic director, and any hope for a repeat performance.

The whole story behind the recent events on Binghamton’s campus is still unknown, but the effects of the release of six student athletes are quite clear. First, it was Emmanuel “Tiki” Mayben, a former top player for his age group and Syracuse recruit. He was arrested on September 23rd on charges of possessing and selling crack cocaine. Then, head coach Kevin Broadus cut five more players Saturday morning, including senior leaders and starters D.J Rivera and Malik Alvin, citing actions not becoming of Binghamton athletes. These supposedly unsuitable actions, that still have not been explained, come after three arrests under Broadus’ short reign of 30 months. Only one of those players were dismissed.

Although Broadus is at the center of this drama, the focus should be on the players. Mayben has no case here, but losing the team’s best passer who set a single-season program record for assists and finished third on the team in scoring is a huge blow to the Bearcats. Even Malik Alvin’s dismissal makes sense; last fall, the transfer stole condoms and ran over a 66-year old woman in his attempt to escape. But his loss comes at a price too; the senior guard finished tied for third in points per game last year with Mayben at 11.5 and formed the best backcourt in the entire America East conference with Mayben and D.J. Rivera by his side.

Rivera is where the story gets sticky. Another star, another transfer student and another question mark, why Rivera lost his spot on the team can’t be answered as easily. He was “the man” on campus last year, leading the team with 20 points per game and nearly seven rebounds. Off the court, the scrappy guard from Philadelphia had no prior arrests. Yet Rivera, who easily was the second best in the conference last year (behind Vermont’s Marquis Blakely), was not voted on to the America East First Team by opposing head coaches because of questions about his academic eligibility. He even entered the NBA draft this summer, and although he rescinded his name for the draft before the deadline, Rivera was looked at by NBA teams as a serious prospect. That is why this story is so sad. Rivera was supposed to be the senior leader on this Bearcats squad. His senior campaign was supposed to be a chance to boost his resume in an attempt to make the NBA. His senior season was not supposed to end like this, not before it started not before he played a single minute.

Binghamton is left with just 13% of their scoring from last year, with no seniors and currently just ten players on the roster and coach Kevin Broadus. Gone are all but six of the players from last season’s defending champs and left is a shell of the team that rocked the “other B.U.’s” campus last year. What is left in the void of happiness and anticipation-questions about why this happened and what will happen next? Every player with any past criminal record or academic eligibility question is gone but can these actions really cover the stench that is Binghamton Basketball right now. Can Kevin Broadus really reform a program that in just thirty months under his watch has completely blown up?

Every day, more allegations and shifts in the story leak out. On September 30, a lecturer announced she was being released by Binghamton for criticizing the basketball program and saying they forced her to give the players fair treatment. An official at the Binghamton Zoo wrote into the local paper earlier this week and criticized Joel Thirer, the now-former athletic director of the Bearcats, for calling the entire program a “zoo,” she cited the fact that none of her bears do cocaine or steal condoms.

But what does this mean for Boston University? To begin with, it means the Terriers immediately have one less tough competitor for dominance in the America East Conference. The Bearcats fall from a top-four team to a cellar dweller and the Terriers get to set their sights on the one team they couldn’t beat under former coach Dennis Wolff: the Vermont Catamounts. More importantly, it shows how important the example Athletic Director Mike Lynch and new head coach Patrick Chambers have set is to BU’s program.

While other coaches are searching for their chance at one trip to the annual Dance, Chambers stepped foot on campus and declared he wanted to make the Terriers the Gonzaga of the East. His plan is not a short term goal, but a goal for the future that includes a high standard of academic and personal excellence to go along with athletic success. Coach Chambers appears to genuinely care about his players and their families as more than just assets, a coach can only afford to do that when he feels safe about his job security. Normally, coaches are private and content on focusing on the goal of “winning now,” but Chambers sees the big picture. Just after he arrived on campus he started a blog and at the end of each post says “And remember have a great attitude.” A simple statement that can make a world of difference for a program like Boston U’s who have underachieved for the past two years. Although some will take that end signature for granted, think what that could’ve done at Binghamton. While Binghamton struggles this year and likely for the next few years, the Terriers are likely to succeed. Basketball fans you can thank previous coach Dennis Wolff, current coach Pat Chambers and Athletic Director Mike Lynch for that and for keeping your team and school’s name out of the papers for all the wrong reasons.