In October of 2011, when this blog started, TheMidRangeGame stated, "This site should serve as a springboard to a fan conversation about a league that draws together entering students for rising programs and the steadfast (crotchety old) alumni from the hinterlands." UnrankedAE believes that fans, the campus community (students and organizations) and alumni should all come together and be able to express their views and be involved in the conference and sport that we love. Today, we continue that goal. UnrankedAE and WCDB 90.9-FM in Albany, NY (UAlbany Student Radio Station) are announcing a collaborative effort to bring you in-depth coverage of the 2012 America East Basketball Tournament.

WCDB will provide coverage of UAlbany Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament action from Hartford, CT (you can listen on wcdbfm.com). However, they will also be bringing you coverage of ALL the action during the tournament. Jay Sanin and Jaquam Bodden will be court-side for WCDB. While court-side, they will be live, chatting and tweeting about all the action on and off the court. During the regular season, almost every day a "Game Thread" was set up for the fans and writers to talk about the action. During the tournament, every men's game will have a "Game Thread" set-up, which will provide commentary, pictures and possibly audio and video from the WCDB crew. For fans interested in the women's tournament, every round of the tournament will have it's own "Game Thread". The WCDB crew will also be in attendance and tweeting live from the Conference Award Ceremony. All of this coverage can be found on UnrankedAE.com and on Twitter (@unrankedae).

This is just one more step to bringing in-depth coverage of AE Basketball to the fans and to the nation, but also connecting the campus communities from our small conference. UnrankedAE is proud and excited to be working with WCDB on this effort.

The Binghamton University Bearcats had lost 27 straight games dating back to last season; they were the only winless team in all of Division 1 basketball. They were coming off a 14-point loss in a game many (myself included) perceived to be their best, and perhaps only, chance at victory. If you didn't notice, I used past tense in stating those facts because, at long last, the Bearcats walked off the hardwood as the victor Tuesday night.

Binghamton's opponent, the Vermont Catamounts, tied for first with a 12-2 record in America East play, entered the game on a streak of their own: ten consecutive wins. They were also the team who started this losing streak of Binghamton's back on March 5th during the 2010-11 America East tournament. Needless to say, this was not a game any followers of the America East had pegged as a likely candidate for Binghamton to record their first victory. But, as Chris Berman would say, "That's why they play the game!"

The game started off just as one might expect. Vermont controlled the tip, dribbled down court, and Sandro Carissimo handed off to Matt Glass, who pumped in a jumper from just inside the arc. Score: 2-0 Catamounts. No one in the Events Center knew it at the time, but it would be the last time Vermont held a lead all game. Jimmy Gray scored the first two for Binghamton on a layup, followed by buckets from Dickinson, Ralling and Johnston, enabling the Bearcats to jump out to an early 9-2 lead. Binghamton continued to effectively beat the lackadaisical Catamount defense and maintained their seven-point lead into the under-12 media timeout. At this time, Vermont head coach John Becker instructed his players to double-team the man with the ball, but even with added pressure, Binghamton made sound passes to avoid disaster, a few times leading to wide-open layups for junior Javon Ralling and opening lanes for Robert Mansell to attack the basket. Combined with Ben Dickinson collecting offensive rebounds and putting them back up for two, the Bearcats would hold a lead at the break for just the fourth time this season, by a score of 35-25.

Continue reading after the jump.

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Call is February Madness! All the pressure was on UVM. They had the inside track on taking the one seed in the conference tournament and at least guarantee a trip to the NIT if they did not win a conference title. However, a funny thing happened on the way to that plan...BINGHAMTON. The Bearcats forced the Catamounts to take terrible shots all night. UVM went a sad 4 for 20 from three point range in the game and under forty-percent from the field. The result, a ten point lead for Bingo at halftime. It was at that moment that fans of the AE and the nation (ESPN.com put the score on their main page) were on Vestal, NY. In the second half the Bearcats did not falter, and in the end...

Yes, a 57-53 victory for Binghamton, ending the nations longest losing streak, 27 games. Going into the game, Bingo was the only win-less team in the nation.Robert Mansell finished with 18 points. Ben Dickinson, not exactly a fan favorite in the AE, finished with a double-double (16 points and 11 rebounds).

They will still be in the play-in game for the conference tournament. However, for one night, they gave their dedicated fans a chance to cheer this season. For UVM fans, this will sting for a long time.

More on the Bingo victory to come. For now...CONGRATS BINGHAMTON

Update 9:30 p.m. - Stony Brook has won a share of the AE Regular Season Title with the Bingo victory. The Seawolves can outright win the one seed on Saturday if they defeat Maine, at home. Long Island will be jumping!

Also, UVM had a ten game winning streak going into this game...again, this is going to hurt for a while UVM fans.

Update 12:00 a.m. - Is it fitting that this was played on ESPN last week, and this was played on ESPN earlier tonight? Unreal!

This is your extremely late Bingo-UVM game thread.

UVM comes in as the first place team in the conference, on a ten game win streak. Bingo comes into the game having not won in a year. No-brainer right?

Well, Binghamton had a 10 point lead and is showing no signs of letting up.

Catamounts fans, brace yourselves.

If I had to watch a generally meaningless out of conference game right after a crushing conference loss, I want to see my boys with their nails out, hunting for blood.

Not quite what happened in Boston today... but instead I got a solidly contested game between a mid-pack CAA team and an upper tier AEC team - in other words, an even matchup.

In the opening minutes the game was back and forth. SBU dominated the paint on rebounds, earning a few 2nd and 3rd chance buckets. Tommy Brenton and Dallis Joyner wrought havoc under the basket, making it very uncomfortable for Northeastern to run any plays inside. To compensate, Northeastern resorted to 3-point shooting. Junior Joel Smith displayed impressive composure against an SBU defense that wasn't giving him much slack, sinking 3 3pt shots early in the first. He would go on to score 20 pts on 6-10 3pt shooting through the game. Northeastern successfully identified the open man on the perimeter on several occasions, allowing completely open 3-pt shooting from the suddenly hot Huskies offense.

More about Northeastern and a preview of SBU's final 2 conference games after the break!

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It is BracketBusters Weekend. However, UnRankedAE is going to rename it the MAAC-AE Challenge. That is because out of the nine games this weekend for the AE, six will be against the MAAC Conference. Two games, including what I think will be the premier game of the day, will be against the Colonial Athletic Association (Stony Brook vs. Northeastern; Towson vs. UNH). Here is a breakdown of some of the games set for the day. Boston U. will be taking on Loyola-MD tomorrow afternoon. When it is all said and done, I'm predicting either 6-3 or 5-4 for the AE. If the conference goes below .500...ouch!

The game looked sexy when it was announced. However, Northeastern has lost four of their last five games and sit 8-8 in conference play and 12-14 overall. In two games against the AE this year (BU and Vermont), the Huskies just pulled off victories. Now they play a Stony Brook team coming off a bad loss to Vermont. The Seawolves could be out for blood.

A game the AE really can't and should not lose. Niagara just got passed Canisius in OT (last place team in the MAAC) earlier in the week. The Purple Eagles won by only three against Hartford earlier in the season. However, with the talent level Niagara has, it should be a fun game to watch. I expect an epic battle between Four McGlynn and Juan'ya Green, two insanely talented freshman guards.

More BracketBusters Preview after the jump

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