Mark Macon is out the door in Binghamton. The teams has also lost two of its best players. Binghamton University Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott said a national search is underway for a replacement. The problem is, on the last day of April, with recruiting going full steam and many prime candidates already gone, who can Binghamton bring in to run the show? Are any big names even willing to step in to run a program that is in such bad shape it could take two or three years to build a average program? Bingo does have a solid fan base and facilities to use in finding a replacement, however it seems that the administration made a move way to late in the game.

Let's look at who the Bearcats could go after:

Bobby Gonzalez - Should be the first call that the program makes. He was an assistant for Bingo back inn the late 1980's and is a native of Binghamton. He has a solid win percentage and knows NY and Northeast Basketball. However, with a program that is trying to paint a new image of itself, are they willing to go with a guy who didn't exactly have that clean image with Seton Hall?

Eric Eaton - The former UAlbany assistant and current Quinnipiac assistant could be a solid pick-up if he is interested in a coaching gig. He knows the conference and is highly regarded in the Northeast and the Mid-Major circuit. He knows the AE and is a fresh young face.

Jayson Gee - A highly regarded assistant coach, Gee has been solid for Cleveland State. He knows the NY landscape, spending time at St. Bonaventure as an assistant. He has head coaching experience and was very successful with Charleston. However, is Binghamton worth leaving over being part of a program that is getting national attention that could lead to an even bigger job?

Orlando Antigua - The Kentucky assistant is new to the game. However, a fresh young face maybe exactly what Binghamton needs. What do they have to lose? He has strong basketball connections, is a NY guy and is said to be a great recruiter. However, winning titles as an assistant at Kentucky with a top-notch coach maybe a lot more fun.

Don Anderson - Do the Bearcats rolls the dice and give Macon's assistant a shot? The guy has a solid coaching resume, knows the AE and Bingo. Many Bingo and AE fans know he has the ability and is a hard worker.

Did we miss someone? Probably. Give us your take on who Bingo should look to get or you think will be interested.

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.

Continue reading this post »

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!

It's the million dollar question that all fans of the America East are asking themselves: can the winless Bearcats finally get that elusive first victory? Tonight, if there ever was a night, is it. It has to be. Yes, technically speaking, there are at least six more chances for Binghamton to get a win (four remaining America East games + BracketBuster + the play-in game for the America East Tournament), but none will be as favorable as tonight's match-up in Vestal against the 3-22 UMBC Retrievers. Look no further than KenPom, whose formulaic predictions have given the Bearcats a 53% chance of topping the Retrievers. My gut instinct isn't quite as optimistic.

Binghamton is coming off a 62-60 loss at Hartford, but the game was never as close as the final score indicates. Javon Ralling had a career-game as he connected on 7-13 shots for 15 points while grabbing 5 rebounds in a tiring 39 minutes of work. Ben "Dirty Dick" Dickinson has continued his strong play, converting over 50% of his field goal attempts since sitting out against Maine four games ago. Sophomore Robert Mansell is 4th in scoring during conference-play with an average of 15.6 points per game. Local product Jimmy Gray has also stepped up his game during the America East portion of the season, where he leads the league in thefts by a considerable margin with 2.6 per game. The junior point guard also checks in at 5th in 3FG% (.417), 6th in assists (3.8/game) and 6th in A/TO ratio (1.6). Binghamton will need big performances from all three of Dickinson, Mansell and Gray if they hope to get in the win column tonight, as UMBC does have some firepower of their own.

Projected lineups after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Binghamton now has the honor. Not exactly the honor you want, but it is an honor. The Bearcats now have the longest losing streak in the nation. A streak of 22 loses (21 this season and the loss in the conference tournament to end last season). Towson, who set the NCAA record for 41 straight losses ended their run this weekend with a win over UNC-Wilmington 66-61. The previous record was 34 loses by Sacramento State.

So now, the AE and Bingo have the honor. Here is a breakdown of some of the events:

Last Victory: March 3, 2011 - UMBC 91-65 (AE Tournament)

Last Home Win: January 12, 2011 - UMBC 83-75

Last Road Win (non-AE Tournament): February 16, 2011 - Hartford 77-47

Start of the streak: March 5, 2011 - Vermont 46-57 (AE Tournament Quarterfinals)

States traveled during streak: 8 (NY, NJ, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maryland, Maine, Missouri)

Despite all the loses, you have the admire how Bingo is trying to rebuild their program. They are academically coming back and are still getting fans in the seats (had over 3k in the stands in their last home game). UnrankedAE.com is hoping to see the streak end soon. We wish Mark Macon and his team all the luck in breaking the streak. Next up for the Bearcats: Stony Brook (on Long Island) and home against BU.

Last Sunday, for the second time this season, freshman Ben Dickinson was tossed from a game. In the loss against Hartford, Dickinson nailed Andres Torres and was ejected after being given a "flagrant 2" foul. The actions by Dickinson, described by Lynn Worthy of the Press & Sun Bulletin, led to harsh criticism and a call for a strong punishment from the AE by One-Bid Wonders columnist Sam Perkins (a video of the foul is shown in the article). Across the AE Message Boards, debate has been raging over the issue. Many have said action should have been taken against Dickinson and should not be tolerated by the conference.

BU coach Mark Macon did make a statement on Thursday when it came to Dickinson. In a loss against UMBC, Dickinson, for the first time this season, did not start. However, he did finish with 16 points and 7 rebounds.

It is clear that Dickinson does have amazing talent to compete in this conference. However, Macon and others know he is starting to get a bad reputation (from other AE coaches as well according to Perkins). Earlier this season, Dickinson was tossed for a hard foul against Canisus (video of that foul also shown in One-Bid Wonders article). You have to think that one more actions like this will lead to a suspension.

What do you think? Did the AE make the right call in not suspending him. Has Macon done enough to deal with this "situation"?

Long time, no see! I've been feeling a bit of the blues lately as Binghamton can't seem to get anything right. They wrapped out out-of-conference with a 43 point loss to a mediocre Manhattan team and fell short in their attempt at overcoming a 13-point halftime deficit to Maine in their America East opener. Still winless at 0-13, even the silver lining, freshman Ben Dickinson, has lost some of it's luster.

Tonight, they welcome the Stony Brook Seawolves into town. SBU is coming off three straight wins against Cornell, Rider and Vermont. However, Stony Brook is also 0-5 on the road this season. Judging from the second half against a high-scoring, highly-efficient Maine team, the Bearcats could be in store for their first win. No one on SBU is as talented offensively as any of Maine's top three scorers (McLemore, Edwards or Fraser). For a team as defensively challenged as Bingamton, this bodes well. Defensively, SBU may very well be the best in the conference, but Binghamton doesn't put many points on the board against anybody, so if they can match Stony Brook's defensive intensity for 40 minutes and keep the score low, they just may pull off an upset and notch their first win of the season.

If the Bearcats do miraculously wind up the victor tonight, it will be the 10th straight home victory over Stony Brook. It would also even the all-time series up at 26-26.

Projected lineups and more after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Ben Dickinson came into Saturday averaging 15 points a game. He was the leading scorer for the Bearcats and was vital if Bingo wanted to beat a Hofstra team playing its weakest basketball of the season. Well, Dickinson isn’t going to want to remember Saturday. The freshman finished with seven points and seven turnovers as he was hounded by the Hofstra Student Section all night, missing shots (3 for 8 from the field) and receiving both a technical and flagrant foul as Hofstra ran away with an 82-62 victory. It got so bad for Dickinson that the students (be it not many) were screaming "pass it to 14". When he made his first basket of the game, five minutes into the second half, he received mock applause from the section.

It was a great game for Mike Moore of Hofstra. He nailed down 32 points, shooting an insane 7 for 11 from three point range. Hofstra was on fire from behind the arc, shooting 11 for 20 from the outside. He tied the Hofstra record for three pointers in a game. He also collected seven rebounds.

More on the Binghamton loss after the jump

Continue reading this post »