After nine seasons at the helm in Vestal, Tommy Dempsey is out as the head coach of the Binghamton Bearcats men's basketball team, according to a Tweet from Kevin Sweeney of CBB Central.
Dempsey signed a two-year contract extension in November 2018 that kept his pay steady at $215,000 a season.
In the nine years since Dempsey was hired, Binghamton twice missed the America East conference tournament by finishing last, in 2018 and 2020. The team's only postseason win came in a major upset in 2019 at No. 2 Stony Brook.
Dempsey's .271 winning percentage in Binghamton (72-194) actually represents a stark increase from the 2-29 record of the 2011-12 Bearcats, who were coached by Mark Macon. The Bearcats' sweep of NJIT in the last weekend of the 2020-21 regular season wasn't enough to elevate them from Dempsey's fourth ninth-place America East finish, but because of changes due to the COVID pandemic, the Bearcats were deemed eligible for the conference postseason, losing at No. 4 Hartford.
In 2015, the America East conference altered its men's basketball conference tournament structure, giving the top four seeds the opportunity to host (at least) a first-round game. Binghamton never hosted a postseason game at the $33.1M Events Center in front of the famed 'BU Zoo' student section.
Throughout Dempsey's tenure, both Athletic Director Pat Elliott -- who hired Dempsey in May 2012 -- and University President Harvey Stenger have repeatedly deflected questions about the team's on-court performance.
“When he first came in, his mandate was to get us to where we’re a quality program with high academic standards and good citizens,” Elliott told Binghamton affiliate WBNG in 2018. “And that’s what we were working for from the get-go.”
It's unclear what the University will prioritize in its upcoming search for a new head coach, although previous searches have always included King Rice, a Binghamton native.
The Binghamton basketball program has floundered in obscurity since a cascading scandal rocked the University in 2009. A series of arrests and misconduct, including condom theft, led to the firing of Head Coach Kevin Broadus, and, after the release of the 99-page Kaye Report, the departure of AD Joel Thirer and President Lois B. DeFleur.
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Chris Strub is a former Binghamton basketball blogger and Pipe Dream Sports Editor, who covered the men's basketball program from 2005-2008. You might notice he hasn't posted to this blog in a decade. Nine years with one playoff win will do that to a guy. Go Bearcats.
