Vermont at Binghamton, Saturday, 2:30 p.m.

I know that I'm not the only person in Binghamton who doesn't want to see UVM in the playoffs.

2005 and 2006 were both vastly different stories, but both ended the same way: with the Catamounts wiping the floor with us.

The former of those two contests was over, really, before it started, as Binghamton was the first step in UVM's journey to toppling Syracuse in the NCAA tournament. In fact, nobody in the America East really had a shot to bring down those damn Catamounts, a dynasty that featured, probably, the two best players of the past four years in the conference, in Taylor Coppenrath and T.J. Sorrentine. The Bearcats were actually praised for their valiant effort in the loss, even with the pressure beginning on Al Walker to mount a real run deep into the tournament. Everyone in the league knew there was no stopping coach Tom Brennan and his twilight run, and so you can't really blame the Bearcats for the '05 loss.

The following year was quite different. In the playoffs, there should never really be blame pointed toward the refs, but that game was one where the following picture of me appeared on the front page of the Press & Sun-Bulletin, the local newspaper:

I can't really describe the game any better than the face I'm making in that picture. We were already without the man I considered the league MVP that year, Sebastian Hermenier, who was hobbling around on crutches for months after the game.

But there was one call in particular that really, I think, killed us. In fact, it was a non-call:

GOOD! FT SHOT by Heard  03:20  52-58  V 6
GOOD! FT SHOT by Heard  03:20  53-58  V 5
                      03:14              TURNOVR by Duell, Josh
MISSED 3 PTR by Milne   02:40
REBOUND (OFF) by (TEAM) 02:40
MISSED 3 PTR by Heard   02:25
                      02:25              REBOUND (DEF) by Trimboli, Mike
FOUL by Heard, Andre    02:01

I wish I had a video of it. The so-called "rebound" by Mike Trimboli was a ball he caught, probably, four or five feet from the basket, stage left, after a UVM defender literally landed on top of Andre Heard. And I'm not typically one to whine about the refs -- read this blog end-to-end if you need proof -- but that was the most memorable missed call in Bearcats history. Heard was a terrific free-throw shooter, and three free throws there would've cut the Vermont lead to just 2. From that point forward, with under two minutes left -- especially when Heard fouled out -- the game was essentially over:

                           02:01              MISSED FT SHOT by Klimes, Martin
                         02:01              REBOUND (OFF) by (DEADBALL)
                         02:01              MISSED FT SHOT by Klimes, Martin
REBOUND (DEF) by Milne,    02:01
FOUL by Heard, Andre       01:48
TURNOVR by Heard, Andre    01:48
FOUL by Hailey, Troy       01:35
                         01:35  53-59  V 6  GOOD! FT SHOT by Trimboli, Mike
                         01:35  53-60  V 7  GOOD! FT SHOT by Trimboli, Mike

The 2006 UVM team was nowhere near as good as the 2005 team. That was a game we certainly could've won, and another game I could point to as a potential job-saver for Mr. Al Walker.

Last year, of course, we crapped the bed, losing to a bad Boston U. team in front of the weakest "home-court advantage" possible, in Boston. I don't even want to talk about it.

This year, though, things are again vastly different, as much as they are the same. The Bearcats again feature a split personality: either really good, or really bad. UVM has the early pick for Player of the Year, not to mention a tried-and-true Bearcat slayer at point guard.

Say what you will about Mike Gordon -- read tomorrow's Press & Sun-Bulletin for a genuine hometown-hero slobber piece -- but he has not been the same magician he was last year. That may be because teams focus so much on him, but I beg to differ because most teams' gameplans have centered on stopping Laz in the middle.

Mike's been much more reluctant to shoot all year long, save for one record-setting, Jekkyl-and-Hyde performance at Albany. It's almost certainly because Broadus encouraged him to set the table more, move the ball around and milk the shot clock (when the fast break doesn't work), but whatever it is, he's just not the same player he was in '06-'07.

Instead, Laz has broken out to become the Bearcats' best player. And it's time to face the facts: our best player is less than 100% going into Saturday. Broadus said earlier in the week that Laz is 50/50 to play, and although that's obviously a lie, it doesn't bode well that he missed two of the last three games with an injury.

The top few teams each year have that one marquee player, that one guy that you can point to to and lean on in crunch time. The best teams, the champions, have two.

Our top guy is injured. Our other top guy is a shadow of his former self. And we're facing the conference player of the year and a bona fide star point guard with a reputation of destroying us -- in the playoffs -- at the Events Center.

Oh yeah, and if we win? We play the undisputed top team in the conference, with five prospective All-Conference players.

I can't even give us the karma edge here. Kevin Broadus brought a lot of hype and promise to Vestal, but he's also bringing a punk reputation, with two guys kicked off the team mid-season (!!) and a one-game suspension of his own for shoving someone in a handshake line. He's the coach of the immediate future, but the administration won't be upset, considering this is still mostly Al Walker's team, with a first-round loss, as long as it's relatively respectable.

The Events Center still boasts its annual attendance record, but the Bearcats did not really embrace that advantage this year. I simply have to predict a failure -- albeit a respectable one -- for Broadus and his boys.

There's always next year.

Vermont 67, Binghamton 60.

Odds & ends

Look for that aforementioned Pipe Dream column as a web exclusive, as I've been cut from the print edition. Great success!

- - - - -

I'm putting up some new polls about the weekend.

Mike Gordon sighting

Ran into Mike Gordon tonight at the Events Center, before the women's game -- always good to see Mikey.

Mike Gordon: "Chris Strub, how you doin' man?"
Chris Strub: "What's up Mikey?"
Mike Gordon: "Not much man, not much."
Me: "You excited for this weekend?"
Mike Gordon: "Yeah, man. Just gotta beat my (boy) one time."
Me: "How's Laz doin'?"
Mike Gordon: "He'll be alright. He'll be aight."

(Can't say I'm not excited about my first exclusive interview of the year ... Thanks again, Sean Tainsh.)

Farewell, Milos

Quote of the night goes to Mark Macyk:

"There's no I in team, but there are several I's in Milos Klimovic."

Apologies

If you've ever played the game Rock Band, you'll understand why even though this is the most important week of the year for the Bearcats, I haven't been able to put down the guitar since Sunday night, when I discovered that my apartment-mate had bought a copy of the greatest Xbox 360 game ever made. (Yes, I'm blaming my posting impotence on a video game.)

I also have to blame my lack of motivation on how upset I am at the draw. No joke, we're royally screwed this weekend, and if somehow we made it through, we're still screwed. (I guess I'd also put at least a little bit of blame on work-related stress and Sean Tainsch, the AE communications guy, who is no doubt ignoring my ill-fated credential request for this weekend ... considering I started this blog several months ago with the intention of getting a credential and blogging through the tournament and now it's not going to happen ... but anyway ...)

Vermont is built for the playoffs, if only on the backs of their two stars. Mike Trimboli's late-game struggles this season worry some UVM fans, but like Andy Pettitte, or Robert Horry, or Peter Forsberg, or (insert your favorite post-season specialist here), he's been a star in the playoffs, especially against the Bearcats. You can make a great case for Blakely as player of the year, and there's really noone on Binghamton who can match up with this developing big man.

Vermont knows how to win in the playoffs, and it's obvious that Binghamton does not. Be it skill or karma, or a mixture of both, the Bearcats' quarterfinal loss to Boston -- a team that sucks in the postseason -- was, well ... I mean, it was enough to get Al axed. (Say what you will, but in retrospect, if they get through BU, I think they win the Albany game and probably save Al's job.)

I said all along we'd be alright in the playoffs as long as we avoided UVM. And now, we're playing UVM. In the afternoon session, which I project is likely to attract less students. And when Bing loses, the night session will resemble a women's game, crowd-wise. Don't even think about 2,500 folks for Sunday without the Bearcats around. Basically, from a Vestal, N.Y. standpoint, the whole tournament is screwed.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the staff will do a great job hosting. John Hartrick, Dave O'Brian and company do a terrific job coordinating interviews and everything, and I'm sure on their third try, the tournament will be the best yet. (But please give me a media pass!)

But. Friday will be a bomb, as usual. The first session on Saturday will likely sell out, although the crowd would be bigger if Albany -- which I expect to bring the biggest contingent of traveling fans, aside from UVM -- were in that session as well. But Saturday night, when the Bearcats are long gone, when Moritz is trying to hammer out a positive spin for Sunday's cover, the crowd will be dead. Sunday will be dead.

And the Bearcats will have, once again, failed to get out of the first round; an obvious disappointment, even for a first-year coach just getting his feet wet in the Southern Tier.

- - - - -

In other news, and I'll write more about this soon (no, I actually will this time), I fully expect UMBC to get through and host next weekend. I also expect Albany to take care of Boston, and I'm going to take UNH to upset Hartford as my only upset pick. Of course, Maine will beat Stony Brook, but that's not an upset because SBU doesn't really count as a team, in my eyes. So in short, here's the picks:

Maine d. SBU
UMBC d. Maine
UVM d. Bing
UNH d. Hartford (Christine will not be happy to read that)
Albany d. Boston
UMBC d. UVM
Albany d. UNH
UMBC d. Albany

I'll come up with scores next time.

- - - - -

Might have some news about my prospective PSB blog later in the week; also, I'm probably going to write a guest column for PD's Friday issue, assuming Eric (my supervisor) OK's it. (He might actually be reading this blog before he checks his e-mail; in that case -- hey Eric, is it ok if I write a guest column for Friday's Pipe Dream? Thanks, Skippy.)

- - - - -

If any AE fans coming from out of town want to come hang out and do something on Friday night after the PIG, leave a comment or something. There's not a ton of stuff to do in Vestal, but I live around the corner from the bar scene and took two nights off from work ... leave a comment and I'll get you my number or something.

Worst possible situation

I don't think I could imagine a worse situation: Binghamton, seeded fifth, will play Vermont in the quarters, and the winner of that game will face the winner of UMBC vs. ... well, ok, they'll play UMBC. Tack on the fact that unless Hartford loses to UNH AND Boston beats Albany, there's zero chance Binghamton could host the final ... well, there's no worse situation for a Binghamton fan than everything that happened today.

Plus -- and this isn't official yet -- I'm pretttty sure we're in the 2:30 p.m. game.

Sorry, Bearcat fans ... there's always next year.

Binghamton 49, @SBU 44

To be honest, I don't have much to say about today's "win" at Stony Brook. Coming off an embarrassing full-scale beat-down on Senior Night, and with honestly very little to play for, Binghamton put on one of its worst performances in recent history. They played without two starters, without their suspended head coach, and still laid the smackdown on a completely miserable Stony Brook team.

A couple years ago, Northeastern left the America East for the CAA, dropping the league from 10 teams to 9. One can only hope that Stony Brook will soon leave the America East for Division II, because they're genuinely an embarrassment in every way to what some consider an up-and-coming conference. SBU makes me ashamed to say I'm from Suffolk County.

Richie Forbes played alright, nothing to call home about. Jaan Montgomery got the start for the injured Laz Trifunovic, while Chretien Lukusa also missed this game (huh?) with an injury.

Congrats are in order for Mike Gordon, who reached a pair of milestones today: 1,000 points and 400 assists. For the record, I'm glad he hit that last "pointless" free throw, because the last thing our senior leader needs is meaningless questions about needing 1 point for 1,000 going into the tournament.

I've got all kinds of thoughts about the upcoming tournament, of course, but it doesn't make much sense to speculate tonight, with three games tomorrow that will determine the soft, chewy middle of the seedings. Suffice it to say that I have no clue how the seeding will work out, because of all the complicated tiebreakers, but if I had to choose, I'd most like to play Hartford, followed by Albany, Boston and a distant last, Vermont. I'll put up much more on this tomorrow when the games are set.

BTW, I will certainly be at the 8/9 game on Friday night, and am looking for people to tag along. Let me know if you want to be a part of the "Zoo" for the first session.

I will be posting a full guide of who the Zoo should be rooting for later in the week, complete with an idiot's guide to who we can heckle at each and every game.

- - - - -

A few quick hits, because I'm watching Sportscenter:
*I can't believe Texas lost.
*I can't believe that kid from Seton Hall hit a 3/4-court shot to tie it, only for it to be negated because there was a timeout called.
*My friend Kyle Kowalski has called it all season: Sometimes Paul Harris is awesome, and sometimes he sucks.
*Congrats to Cornell (and subsequently my co-worker Chris Feaver, a big CU fan) on their perfect Ivy League season.
*Did anyone else notice that Michael Beasley still had 39 points tonight? The kid's going to be a great NBA player in about 5-6 years.

Breaking: Broadus suspended by BU

... and he deserves it.

The following is from the Press & Sun-Bulletin:

Broadus suspended by BU for one game

Binghamton University men's basketball coach Kevin Broadus has been suspended for one game by the school for his role in a post-game altercation with a University at Albany assistant coach on Wednesday.

Broadus will miss the Bearcats' game against Stony Brook University on Saturday. He will also be issued a formal reprimand by the school for shoving University at Albany assistant coach Chad O'Donnell following the Great Danes' 74-62 victory over BU at the Events Center.

Assistant coach Lawrence Brenneman will act as the Bearcats head coach in Saturday's game. Broadus will be traveling with the team but will not be on the floor for the game.

Honestly, if it's true that he shoved one of Albany's assistants -- which, by many accounts, is true -- he obviously deserves to be suspended. Let's just rejoice that it's against a Long Island high school JV team.

(And on a related note: How do the majority of the voters so far think that Bing will actually LOSE to SBU? I almost didn't even include that option!)

SBU sucks.

If we can't beat the good SUNY school ... at least we can beat the bad one. You suck, Emanuel Neto.

The outcome of Saturday's game is pretty much inconsequential. I'm actually sort of hoping for the six seed, because if we're the 6 and Albany's the 3, I'll at least appreciate having another shot. If we're the 6 and Vermont's the 3, at least we'll lose to a good team. If we're the 6 and Hartford's the 3, I like our chances. And if we're the 6 and Boston University's the 3, we'll be playing on Sunday.

What's so great about the 6? At this point, post-crapping-the-bed against Albany last night, the 6 is as good as the 3 because 1) you can make the argument that Hartford/Boston/Vermont/Albany/Binghamton could all beat each other on any given night, and 1a) The 6 would give us a chance to play the victorious 2 seed (or UNH) on Sunday afternoon with an "upset" victory over one of the aforementioned four. The winner of the 4/5 game will at least put up a good effort against UMBC in the semis at the Events Center, and if the Bearcats are in the other game in the Sunday afternoon, UMBC's opponent will have a built-in home-court advantage if it matters to Bing, and I wouldn't consider them a shoo-in to the finals.

The Bearcats as a 4 or 5 would mean a semifinal showdown with UMBC -- at the EC. However, it would guarantee, IF they made it that far, a road game for the title. I know I'm building in a heavy homer bias, but again ... this is Bearcat Country.

You suck, Emanuel Neto.

But even if the Bearcats slipped up against SBU, guaranteeing Bing the 6 seed ... I'd have to rescind my previous statement that the Bearcats are guaranteed a quarterfinal loss in the tournament. (Although I'll still hitchhike home when Maine beats SBU next Friday night.)

Fans at least in part to blame

After some time to think it over, I'm clearly disappointed in tonight's craptacular performance by every single Bearcat. Kevin Broadus, if you're reading this, you should be taking responsibility for letting your guys get out of control and get overly emotional for a game that I should have predicted would've gotten out of control. I should've guessed that the Bearcats would crap the bed tonight, especially with a pathetic BU Zoo that was 80% filled with students who had never bothered to come to a game before, and subsequently got down on Bing when we went down 8-4 and never bothered to cheer again.

In fact, I largely blame the Bearcat team and the crowd for tonight's loss. We were soft, much as our players were soft. Mark Macyk sent me a text message halfway through the first half indicating that he could hear the Albany fans more than the BU fans, which is utterly embarrassing, and I don't use that lightly, to a program that brags about its consistent ability to draw the biggest crowds in the conference. When you sit on your hands and leave with 12 minutes to go in the 2nd half, that doesn't really count as being a 'fan.'

Courtesy of Ben Masur

More coming on this later.

benmasur08 (10:24:34 PM): will brown down played it: "oh nothing, just two coaches competeting against each other. theres nothing more to say or get excited over...i wasnt paying attention. i was anxious to get back to the locker room...it's not about will brown and not about kevin broadus not aout anyone else, its about the kids wearing the uniform."

Broadus: "I said please dont talk about my players and my program in the media to you guys and thats all that was said. In this profession, everyone has to undertand as coaches sometimes you have to hold back your anger and bite your tongue, but i just dont want guys to take shots at my program and saying that this that and the other stat or a guy is not this. i just wanted to make sure he understand that ya know im gonna protect my guys and that was it at the end. He [Assistant coach on Albany O'Donnell] got up in my face and he said back up and i was like no no no dont touch me. simple as that. i asked him to back up off me. theres no war between me and will brown. this is binghamton-albany."

Albany 74, Binghamton 62

Obviously I'm disgusted. I really think the game was over at this point in the first half:

GOOD! LAYUP by Forbes  03:01  16-21  V 5
FOUL by Trifunovic     02:48
REBOUND (DEF) by Gordon02:36              MISSED 3 PTR by Wilson
GOOD! JUMPER by Gordon 02:27  18-21  V 3
                      02:12  18-24  V 6  GOOD! 3 PTR by Iati
                       02:12              ASSIST by Wilson
TURNOVR by Olomo       01:52
                       01:35  18-27  V 9  GOOD! 3 PTR by Iati
                      01:35              ASSIST by Wilson
MISSED 3 PTR by Forbes 01:19              REBOUND (DEF) by Lillis
                      01:09              TIMEOUT 30sec
                      00:58  18-29  V 11 GOOD! LAYUP by Connelly

I really thought Dwayne Jackson was going to deck someone, and I'm actually sort of glad he fouled out and wasn't on the court for the last few minutes.

Apparently KB shoved one of the UA assistants on the handshake line. I didn't see it happen.

Prediction

Albany 67, Binghamton 65.

This will be a dogfight. Don't forget this game's on TV, if you can't make it.

Signs

I gave up on "SHUT UP WILL."

Biggest game of the year?

(WARNING: THIS IS GOING TO BE A LENGTHY POST. GET OVER IT.)

Perhaps that's a bit of an overstatement, but for any fans of Binghamton basketball, it's hard to imagine a better setup for the last home game of the season.

There's a bit of a media firestorm today about Kevin Broadus' response to Will Brown's controversial post-game comments after the Bearcats beat Albany last month in the state capitol.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, the following is courtesy of Mark Singelais's blog:

"Brown’s opening statement: “I thought coming into this game Binghamton was very talented. Like I said earlier, I thought (fired coach) Al Walker left the cupboard fairly full. (Lazar) Trifunovic and (Vermont’s Marqus) Blakely are the best frontcourt guys in our league and Gordon is the best point guard in our league. They’ve got a lot of talent. I thought we came out flat. We let a good player in Gordon get in a rhythm. It’s probably a career night for him shooting. I don’t think he’s ever shot that well. If you look at his percentages, that’ll prove it. But he’s a good player and he got into a rhythm. And when you let good players get in the rhythm, the basket looks bigger and bigger and bigger. Even down the stretch when we did a decent job on him, he made tough shots. We were very soft tonight. Very soft. That’s the best way to put it. We’ve got great kids. It’s tough to teach toughness. And I’m not so sure how much toughness we have right now. We’ve got some nice kids. We’ve got some solid players. But tonight, in my mind, we lost because of a lack of toughness on both ends of the floor.”

On his team’s tentativeness around the basket: We’re playing against (Binghamton forward) Reggie Fuller, not Dikembe Mutombo. I mean, come on. Fuller’s a decent player at this level. He had six points and three blocks. We’re pump-faking and hesitating like we’re trying to score over Mutombo. It’s not a knock on Fuller. He’s a solid player. But why not go right through the guy. Pump-fake. Go right through him. We were soft. I’ve got no problems saying it. We were soft.”

On UAlbany losing at home to a team that didn’t have a road victory: That’s their problem. They’re talented. Like I said, I think Al left the cupboard full with some of those guys. They have good experienced players. I’m an Al Walker guy. I thought he did a good job. We knew coming in they were really good … talented, I should say, really talented. What happens with talented teams, regardless of their record, if you’ve got good personnel, it doesn’t matter what their record is. Binghamton always has a lousy record heading into conference play. It’s just disappointing that we lost at home, and i thought our fans had more energy than we did, and that’s disappointing.”

It's been well-documented that Brown's comments were out of line, and reportedly, he tried to call Broadus the week of that game and apologize. Broadus contends that he is waiting to talk to Brown face-to-face, as he fired back at Brown today to PD's Ben Masur:

"These guys will be hyped up. And I will be hyped up. The guy put something in my system that will not go away. You just do those things. I would never talk about Albany. I have two dear friends there. I would never say anything negative they’ve had some success. Its classless."

Perhaps even more interesting in this saga is that Broadus himself is the one who started this whole thing back up again -- this is Mark Macyk's intro to that post:

"As if Wednesday's Binghamton/Albany game wasn't big enough, I got an e-mail today from the athletic department saying that Kevin Broadus wanted to pass along a link of what Albany coach Will Brown said after UAlbany's loss to Binghamton last month. It said to "take it for what it was worth."

After Pipe Dream's men's basketball beat writer Ben Masur gave Broadus a call it was clear that this was all Broadus' doing, and that even if he did do it to fire up the crowd, he's still not too happy with Brown. "

Alright. Enough back story. Broadus thinks Brown is a jerk, we've got that much. So what does it mean?

First of all, of course, every single BU basketball fan needs to be at the game tomorrow night. And every BU basketball fan needs to back up Kevin Broadus for taking such a -- pardon my French -- ballsy stance here.

I've always thought that there's too much coddling between coaches, too much fake niceness, trying to cover up true feelings, and it turns out that we've hired a man who is not afraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve and say how he truly feels.

Good for him. I am sick of coaches constantly slobbering each other and slathering each other with "respect" to try and build up the overall image of a league that, you know what, everybody realizes is not that good. In four years of closely following the conference, it appears that every year, every team gets better, every team is scary, every team is a threat, etc., and that's not true. It's usually our job as journalists (well, I guess I'm not really a journalist anymore [tear]) to set those things straight, and it's really refreshing to see a coach say it straight.

In a way, I'm sort of defending Will Brown and his original comments here. The difference is, this is Bearcat Country, and I'll bleed green 'til I die. My journalistic integrity (or what's left of it) aside, this is exactly what the conference needs to drum up a sorely needed rivalry between two schools that really should be at each other's throats. And after years of symbiotic slobber, the battle lines are being drawn. I couldn't be happier.

That's not to say there's no history between these teams. My journey to the Big Purple Growl last year was a small taste of what the rivalry can turn into, but there was never a real passion behind it. Now there's passion. Now, there's a reason to watch. And now, as stupid as this is going to sound, I'll say it anyway: There's incentive to win the game. Because if Kevin Broadus is going to talk a big game, his players better back it up.

So let's turn from the crowd and the back story to the game itself.

I'll be honest; I haven't seen Albany play this year. I have, however, seen Brian Lillis play many times, and he is an impressive player. Whether he deserves to be POY is a whole separate discussion (that Will Brown has also drawn plenty of crap for) -- I personally would lean towards Blakely, for the record, (that's my pro-Vermont agenda speaking, right?) -- but this is certainly not the UAlbany teams of old that featured Jamar Wilson with a side of Lillis. 8-6 is a pretty good indication of Lillis' leadership abilities, I'd say -- pretty good, but certainly not close to the domination that he and Jamar together could provide. (Of course, you could also chalk that up to the overall strength and growth of the league as a whole; right, every coach? /sarcasm)

Let me try and remove homerism for a moment: I think the Bearcats' depth is fairly impressive in this year's league. I legit think DJ is a third-team all-conference player, and he can't even crack our starting lineup. Chretien Lukusa has certainly given us way more than anyone could've expected, and Reggie Fuller is bringing back the ghost of Sebastian Hermenier in a good way (not the ghost that lives in my roommate's room [clarification: I live in the apartment where Andre Heard, Sebastian Hermenier and Duane James lived last year].) Richie Forbes has been a bit of a disappointment, at least in my eyes, but the real emergence of Laz Trifunovic has really made up for Forbes' shortcomings.

Post-game comments-gate not withstanding, I've always thought Brown was a good coach, (that that for what it's worth -- I liked Ted Woodward for a while) and I think he's good at working with what he's got. But if Mike Gordon can play a solid Mike Gordon game -- he does not need to explode for 8 threes again -- I legitimately like our chances tomorrow night.

In the middle, Reggie Fuller will be back tomorrow night. He deserves at least a 45-second-or-so chant in the pregame.

Laz Trifunovic is reportedly a game-time decision, but I will personally guarantee that the kid will play. Short of amputation, there are no circumstances that will keep LT out of this game.

- - - - -

Back to the wacky stuff. If anyone from the BU administration is reading this: Please realize that I appreciate you letting Moe play 'The Horse' again, but it doesn't really work if you don't embrace it completely. Thus, please, PLEASE pass along the word to Moe that 'The Horse' should be played as the Bearcats take the court at halftime ... followed by a full-blast version of 'The Hey Song' as the halftime clock ticks to zero. That's how the BU Zoo rolls, and that's where that song is best utilized -- especially if you're only going to want it played once.

- - - - -

Apologies in advance if I get emotional tomorrow night. (Commence making fun of me.) I teared up when Nick Billings hugged Mike Gordon a few years ago, and now it's all coming full circle as Mikey will be the one celebrated tomorrow night. I also lost it a little as Troy Hailey played his last game, and with this being my sort-of senior year (I consider 2003-04 a redshirt year for me), I suspect I'll feel it even more tomorrow, as I've really developed a personal connection to the area and especially this team. (/making fun of me)

- - - - -

I'm going to go work on a few signs I'll be bringing tomorrow night. Perhaps I'll post pics of them later tonight, so stay tuned.

- - - - -

Also, as a few people have asked, I don't have any real information on what my Press & Sun blog will entail, but I'll let you know when I know more.

Pipe Dream site down

I regret to say that I sort of saw this coming.

- - - - -

With all the Will Brown-Reggie Fuller-Dikembe Mutombo rhetoric swirling around, did anyone else realize that the real Dikembe Mutombo is still in the league?

Bing 66, @Manhattan 56

Just briefly on the Manhattan game -- again, I don't think it was that big a win. I think both the Jaspers and the Bearcats have more important things on their minds than a pointless late-February OOC game that means nothing. (Moritz makes a few good points about the system's flaws.)

A lot of people are making a big deal out of winning a game sans Reggie and sans Laz. Sure, it was nice to see Mike and Richie step up big, but I don't see that being a good formula for success against UA tomorrow night or in the conference tournament. (As for Stony Brook, I think we could send 5 Gio's out there and eke out a victory ...) Hooray -- we won without Laz -- but take a look at what's actually happening: Laz's body is falling apart. As I'd been writing for weeks (weeks!) Laz should not have even suited up for the Manhattan game. There was no point. Then he goes out and hurts himself in warmups?

Kevin: The kid was hurt! The Manhattan game means nothing! And don't give me the New York Giants argument about momentum -- this, by comparison, would've been like the Bearcats playing a CFL or semi-pro team right before the playoffs. Just completely pointless.

Tomorrow night's game will be the one that really matters, and the point where you can bring momentum back into the discussion. If the Bearcats lose to Albany, I certainly don't see them making it past Sunday afternoon, if they even make it that far. If the Bearcats BEAT Albany -- and of course squash SBU -- there may be three postseason games in their near future.

As a fan, I certainly hope that Reggie Fuller returns to the team tomorrow night, but you have to feel for the kid and his situation with his sick mother. If Reggie Fuller needs more time away from the team, he should feel ZERO pressure to return, from coaches, teammates or fans. Family comes first.

- - - - -

In other news, I may have an officially sponsored Press & Sun-Bulletin blog within a month or so. (It won't be a Bearcat blog.) Lots still to figure out with that, but we had a meeting this afternoon and things are, presumably, in the works.

Binghamton 66, @Manhattan 56

Sorry, fell a little bit behind this weekend.

I refuse to describe yesterday's win in any spectacular way, despite the extenuating circumstances around Reggie and Laz. I'll post more tomorrow, but temper your feelings about this OOC triumph.

Year-defining game Wednesday night. Get ready.

Binghamton @ Manhattan, today at 4

Got to be honest with you: with all the insanity going on in the America East right now, I haven't looked much into this contest. So I'm going to switch it up a bit tonight and sum up my feelings with a series of text messages from this evening:

Pipe Dream beat writer Ben Masur to Chris Strub: "Manhattan -4.5"
Chris Strub to Pipe Dream beat writer Ben Masur: "No Reggie = no chance"

For the love of god, give Laz a bit of rest too. The kid deserves it.

If you really want to read a well-thought-out preview of the faux Bracketbuster tomorrow, read Macyk's analysis. Very good, as you'd come to expect.

I'll take Manhattan in a relatively close game. Should be a surprising BU contingent, with plenty of Bearcat grads currently living in the city.

And I promise I'll be back with more than a copout "preview" for the Albany game.

- - - - -

BTW: still no word on the media pass. What's up, America East?

Etienne Brower

Just saw an Etienne Brower highlight on Sportscenter. Didn't he used to be a Terrier?

For the record ...

... the new Pipe Dream Web site looks awesome. It's much cleaner, much more visually appealing, and would make people want to keep coming back. It looks great. I especially like the ESPN-like graphical interface out front, and I'm glad they brought back the .pdf's of the covers.

However -- the functionality of it seems to be up in the air. I hope the web guys over there didn't dig themselves in too deep with the non-working widget on the right side of every story. The photos linked to stories seem to be shoehorned into the little rectangle. The big "media" thing on the front doesn't seem to do anything; I'm on Firefox, maybe it's different on IE.

And I think the aforementioned big interface is perhaps the biggest worry. The site can work great if you put sufficient manpower into it, but expecting, say, a photo editor to have to configure all of those interfaces for each issue will inevitably become overwhelming.

Of course, I wish them best of luck. It's great to see the paper looking to get better, and although I don't read the other sections as much as I probably should, Mark Macyk and his sports gang are doing a bang-up job. I'm especially looking forward to whatever he has planned for the tournament.

Separated at birth?

Today's Press & Sun-Bulletin tells me that Snoop Dogg -- aka Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr. -- is coming to Binghamton on Sunday, which led me to wonder: were the Broadus brothers, perhaps, separated at birth?




... ?

Albany @ Binghamton looms even larger

From a Binghamton standpoint, last night's results made Wednesday night's Bing/Albany Senior Day showdown an even bigger deal.

It was known from the day the schedule came out that Mike Gordon's final home game, against Bing's biggest rival, would have heavy postseason implications. But now, with two weeks to go, Wednesday night's game could determine the number one contender for a Championship showdown with UMBC.

First things first: After an overtime win last night at the RAC, I'm putting the Retrievers in the final. UMBC has just two stumbles this season: one against a Bearcats team that quickly returned to Earth shortly thereafter, and one against ... um, Maine?

The Maine loss, of course, is much more baffling. I'd simply chalk it up to a bad night; every good team loses focus once in a while. You can't win them all, and UMBC just happened to have an off evening against a subpar team. Remember that Ted Woodward and Randy Monroe have coached against each other plenty of times, and a confusing in-conference loss, in a mediocre conference like the AE, is less devastating than a bad out-of-conference loss.

(Of course, it's still a loss to Maine. Ouch.)

The loss to Binghamton is curiously paired with a home win where the Retrievers watched a 20-point lead evaporate in the final minutes. Those two close games perhaps show a soft spot against the Bearcats, and in examining their schedule, one could make the case that the Retrievers, despite their first-place record, are not as dominant as 11-2 would indicate.

But I see it the other way. All nine head coaches in the league describe it as filled with parity, yet one team has separated itself from the pack. Wins and losses are what matter, and even though they might not have been especially convincing triumphs, the Retrievers have repeatedly escaped with W's, both on the road and at home. With strong senior leadership, the Retrievers have clearly demonstrated they know how to win, and so I don't see them stumbling against a lesser team in the tournament's early rounds -- even against an inspired host team.

So what does that mean for Wednesday night?

If Binghamton wins, they'll avoid the 4th or 5th seed and any meeting with the Retrievers before the final, and set up a probable Binghamton/Hartford semi -- as I've mentioned before, a very winnable game. (And for the record: I'm just as confused as everyone else, if not more confused, about this huge four-way tie [actually more like a five-way if you pencil in a Hartford a loss in their season finale against UMBC] -- I know that Hartford's in second place now, and has a tiebreaker over the Bearcats ... and I've got UVM losing at New Hampshire, keeping them out of the two ... but I don't dare make widespread predictions a la Mark Macyk -- at least yet.)

If they lose, the Bearcats will lose all momentum before the tournament, lose any realistic shot they have at running the table, and end up destined to crumble under the Sunday afternoon pressure against the Retrievers at the Events Center -- if they even make it that far. (Although I think if it somehow shakes out that Bing gets another postseason shot at Dennis Wolff, the results will be different this year.)

There's no excuse for the Events Center to not be sold out Wednesday night.

A gem from the Black Bears Pit

How glad I am to not be a Maine fan:

"Little known fact:
Thursday's loss likely has assured the Black Bears program a fourth straight losing season for the first time since 1988-91. For UMaine to finish .500 or better, they'll have to win 11 in a row (five regular season, four AE tourney, 2 NCAA tourney)." (LINK)

(Kudos, again, to the Leaster for finding that blog.)

Mark Macyk temporarily loses his mind

Of all the bloggers out there, (and if you have not perused my list of favorites over on the right there, you're really missing out), Mark Macyk might be doing the best job this season -- until today. And I quote:

"The game at Stony Brook no longer looks like a gimme, especially since the Seawolves could go on a run and play their way out of the play in game (more on that later) and because it’s Senior Night for Mitchell Beauford, Ricky Lucas and Emmanuel Neto." (LINK)

Quote me on this: If the Bearcats lose to Stony Brook, they will lose in the first round of the tournament, I guarantee it.

And this: If the Bearcats lose to Stony Brook, perhaps the worst basketball team I've ever seen, I will WALK home from their inevitable 8/9 game in two weeks.