At first it looked like a blessing that we had a coach with Big East credentials, however in his first year coaching Al Walker’sleft over players, the team lacked any on the court discipline and was essentially a .500 team. Last year, they played great after bringing together a lot of transfers and giving athletes a second or third chance at college ball. It blew up in their face. Broadus brought thugs to the campus and tarnished a school that been known for its quality academics and successful alumni. Since the 80s has been considered one of the dozen “Public Ivies” (in company such as UVA, PSU, UMichigan, etc). Every since he first brought his thugs onto campus there have been reports coming out of misconduct, and it was a slow boiling process that blew up this summer. Absolutely embarrassing for the university.

They didn’t have to go this route either of bringing in risky transfer talent with questionable character backgrounds. Let us not forget that in the 2005-2006 season they were an American East semi-final away (on their home court) from making the NCAA Tournament, were it not for some very controversial second half referee decisions, with a roster of student-athletes and international students.

Broadus has lacked any discipline from the beginning. He himself didn’t demonstrate it on the sideline, and his players sure didn’t. In 2008, Milosevic (yes he was an Al Walker recruit) beat a senior, three weeks away from graduating, into a 6 month long coma in a bar.

Binghamton can turn it around over the next three years if they bring in a disciplinarian and recruit state talent, something they haven’t done enough of. NYC’s public and catholic school league are some of the best high school basketball leagues in the country, and its only three hours away. Forget the Serbians (Al Walker’s problem) and forget major school castaways with character issues (Broadus’ downfall). Its a matter of Binghamton returning to its core values and following the example of their soccer team. The soccer team, with the exception of this year, has been a powerhouse since stepping up to division I less than a decade ago, reaching five American East finals in that time span, by recruiting student-athletes with great character who are involved leaders on campus and were local talent. Not many programs can claim that they broke into the top 25 rankings in their seventh year of division I existence, the soccer team did such last year. Will the basketball team achieve that? No, that’s a pipe dream and Binghamton knows Pipe Dreams.. but it is an example to follow: recruit student-athletes with character and who are in-state talent or at least neighboring state talent (northern PA, Vermont) and who commit to the team concept.

After college, I lived in California for a time. There, I was exposed to Al Davis’ “just win, baby” philosophy. I didn’t like it then, and I don’t like it now. Let’s win the right way, or not at all.

For the record, it appears as though the call on this came from far on high–with the new Chancellor of SUNY. She got rid of Huggins at UC and cleaned things up there prior. Apparently they were waiting for one more thing, then dropping the hammer on Binghamton. Word was the Broadus was virtually speechless at the presser, which tells you he likely had his head handed to him and is lucky to still be employed.

my prayers are with the Brodaus family And the Binghamton Universtiy basketball team. This was an unfortunate happening. STAY STRONG(:

JMCT–
I agree that all of these guys have some level of baggage, but given the circumstances of their dismissal (seems more like a program-wide cleansing rather than all 5 guys getting in trouble at once) I can see them having a legit claim to petition the NCAA for leniency. That said you may be right about Rivera and Alvin ending up in Europe. Chandler could go the Europe route, but he has 2 more years of eligibility left and if he could turn it around he could try to convince himself that he is a NBA prospect (not that I think he would be, but these guys can believe what they want) since he did average 11 PPG in the Big East as a freshman, which is pretty solid. I agree that Crosby’s options are limited, but it only takes 1 program desperate for a 6′8″ guy to keep him in D1.

1. Rivera goes to Europe soon.
2. Alvin goes to an NAIA school or D2/3, or possibly a low-level European team.
3. Chandler likely goes the same route as Alvin, but he could possibly emerge at a D1 school (maybe 50% chance).
4. Crosby at best will end up at and NAIA school or D2/D3.

The AD who gave Kevin Broadus the extension should be fired for lack of managerial competence. If the president of SUNY Binghamton knew of the AD’s extension plans, and/or encouraged it, then he should get the boot too for lack of leadership.