Colgate 73, @Binghamton 55

Boy, was that ugly.

I'm almost speechless, but that's more a product of this stupid Brit Lit paper I spent all night writing than the miserable performance we put on tonight.

My apologies, right off the bat, to anyone who sat down and watched this game because of my suggestion earlier. Sorry, I'll know better next time.

Basically, we got outplayed, outhustled, outrebounded and simply dominated tonight by a team that's not all that good. This was certainly a game we could've won, as were CCSU, Chicago State and St. Bonaventure. Instead, we've lost them all.

And contrary to what we've seen in the last few games, there was absolutely no improvement tonight at all. Richie Forbes continues to give a good effort when his shots drop, and a half-hearted effort after his misses. And in both instances, he's often caught out of position. There was one three-pointer Colgate had tonight where the shooter could've stood there and counted the dimples on the ball before knocking it down.

Colgate's three-point shooting certainly seemed worse than 6-for-11. They shot lights out, and it was not luck-based -- the Bearcats were often found out of position, and the Red Raiders could simply step up and drill threes at will. At will!

Alex Woodhouse's monstrous block on Reggie Fuller with about 7 minutes left was, perhaps, the best block I've ever seen live -- and I saw Nick Billings in his prime. Fuller was up with two hands on the ball, moving forward, when Woodhouse got his arm up and cleanly just threw Fuller, via the ball, to the ground. I'd love to see a replay of it if at all possible -- it was just a straight up embarrassment, of a guy going up for the most energizing play possible.

(Well, scratch that -- Gordon's alley-oop to Fuller in the first few minutes of that first half was pretty sweet and very energizing ...)

If you're just looking at a box score, don't read into the 16 offensive rebounds the Bearcats had. Many of those were third- or fourth-chance tallies after the Bearcats hit, say, the bottom of the rim on a lay-up.

Jaan got into the game tonight and threw a pretty sweet forearm shiver at a guy. He also had a nice block, but showed a lot of the same rust on the offensive end that we've come to know from Jaan. (And if you think Mountie Monty's offense is awkward, just wait until you get Minja back on the hardwood.)

Fuller's defense in the full-court press was encouraging, and it shows in the box via his 5 steals.

Milos is a bust. I'm done with him. He doesn't do anything or move at all. He's like a svelte Schafer Jackson. Stick him on the bench between Lawrence Brennaman and manager Jake Altman.

Laz has to situate himself within 12 feet of the bucket to produce. When you give him the ball outside the arc, that's just too far for your big man to go, no matter how quick you think he is. That was really exposed tonight as Laz spent much of the end of the game on the bench after tallying 5 ugly turnovers.

I'm ready to see Richie Forbes coming off the bench again. The guy just costs you too much on the defensive end.

No matter what anyone says, the refs did not cost us this game, at all. The officiating wasn't great, but it wasn't awful, and it's not like we didn't get our share of calls, too -- most memorably, a CU player was called for traveling after being bearhugged by Milos.

Again, the important thing to take from this game is that Binghamton just came in and completely laid an egg in the second half. No matter what the newspapers tell you, there was no improvement at all tonight, on any front -- save for, possibly, Reggie Fuller's full-court press.