Recaps - Part I

My apologies for falling a couple of days behind with the blog. I'm going to make it up to you with two separate and complete posts, because what happened last night completely changed all my thoughts about the season.

So here's part I - a look back at Binghamton's four-point loss to UMBC on Saturday:

I thought the Bearcats showed a lot of heart in fighting back and erasing the huge deficit they dug themselves into. Apparently Laz has a few minor injuries that he's battling, the revelation of which changed my mind significantly about what I wanted to scream -- er, write calmly -- about him and his effort lately.

But even without their best player, the Bearcats put up a valiant effort against the Retrievers. After a number of clutch shots and big defensive stops, the 'Cats put themselves in a position to win the game -- until the last minute of the game, when they had an opportunity to clamp down on defense and, in my mind, seal the game.

And then, in what felt scarily reminiscent of the Al Walker era, the Bearcats simply failed to box out. Despite a long, arduous fight to get all the way back from 20 points down, they failed to perform one of the simplest tasks in the game of basketball -- boxing out -- and it cost them the game. Because, at least in my mind, after that monumental collapse, the Retrievers were TOAST if they did not score on that possession.

So, the bottom line was, although their shot at the top seed was officially out the window, I thought the UMBC game was a good way for the Bearcats to turn things around ...