Binghamton

[Bishop]

Good Lord... this is the leader for this years fall from grace award.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4504739

[DeSmetBilliken]

When you first labeled them as the "leader for this year's fall from grace award", I questioned that statement, simply because I had never really associated Binghamton with having a high level of grace from which to fall in the first place. After reading the articles, it appears they did have some success recently from which they could fall.

In one of the articles a professor at Binghamton said something to the effect of "every 5 years a program implodes in college basketball", and apparently Binghamton is it right now, just as Baylor was the program imploding a few years back.

It appears that Broadus, the head coach, chose to make Binghamton the last resort program for the troublemakers and malcontents that were leaving higher profile programs in the northeast. Tiki Mayben was apparently a problem at UMASS for a year, and it was the same deal with DJ Rivera at St. Joes. They apparently have a player who had been dismissed at Rutgers joining the team this year.

I would be a bit surprised if Broadus is coaching Binghamton when their season begins. Most coaches with this much upheaval in their program fail to survive. Another thing to note is that the president of the State University of New York system, of which Binghamton is a member, is Nancy Zimpher. For those of you who don't know, Zimpher was the president of the University of Cincinnati when Bob Huggins was axed from there, so we know she doesn't have a high tolerance with this kind of stuff.

EDIT- Also wanted to add that Broadus was an assistant at GW from 2001-2004, which was around the time that they got the players that went to the NCAA's a couple times, though I believe a player or two had their academic background question later in his career.

[thetorch]

There was an article on Binghamton last year in SI. You are correct, to become a better program the coach started bringing in kids with academic and criminal issues. They had one successful year on the court but the fallout from this could last more than a decade. They play in a league which considers itself academically a step below the Ivy league and the other coaches and admins were very upset about Binghamton's about face in recruiting tactics.

The coach was just trying to a make a name for himself at a small NE school. The admin at binghamton should be held responsible for allowing the coach to bring in such suspect student athletes.

[rhagolf]

I fully expect these 5 to be given tryouts by Bill Self in Lawrence.