We were never known for having stellar athletics. Until a few years ago.

A sea of white poured out of the Events Center bleachers in March 2009. The men’s basketball team had just won its first America East championship and clinched a berth to the NCAA tournament. School pride was at its highest.

Unfortunately for me, I was not on campus at the time. I didn’t transfer here until a year later, but have heard from plenty of friends that it was the single most memorable experience from their time at Binghamton.

The only students still on campus from that day will be graduating in a few short weeks. And when May 20 rolls around, they, along with the majority of the memories of that day three years ago, will be gone. The only remnants of that moment will be the banner in the Events Center and the America East trophy that sits in the athletic director’s suite.

The run of the 2008-09 men’s basketball team brought everything together. The school was already at the best academic standing it had ever achieved and application rates were at an all-time high.

The name “Binghamton University” was synonymous with all-around success. The basketball team’s run brought the local community and students on campus together as one. They united under one roof. Whether you were from Vestal, Long Island or overseas, you were proud to be at Binghamton.

Things sure have taken a turn for the worse in the three years since, and the athletic year that was 2011-12 may have truly been rock bottom.

It’s nothing less than unfortunate and disappointing that as quickly as that championship team was dismantled, so too did the buzz on campus surrounding the team disappear. These days, any time our Bearcats are brought up in a conversation, it’s soon followed by some variation of, “Oh, we suck at everything, right?”

Sure, we’re no Michigan, Ohio State or Duke. But brand names have never been the greatest part of college sports, at least not for me.

What people love so much about the college game is the sense of community — the sense that the fans in the crowd want to win just as much as the student-athletes on the field. It’s for that reason that such emotion accompanies every tip of the ball and every blow of the whistle. It’s the “oohs” and “aahs” that go hand-in-hand with the close calls.

But really, it’s about being able to see someone anywhere on campus and know that they take as much pride in wearing the name “Binghamton” as you do. Once upon a time, that feeling existed at Binghamton.

But our teams still take the field. The local community still fills the seats. It’s the student support that lacks these days, but that’s what makes the experience of college sports so surreal.

The pieces are all in place. They’ve been there since the glory days of 2009. You, the students, are the final ingredient in making this place all it once was and all that it can one day be again.

Although the No. 3 Bearcats (9-12) will kick off play against No. 6 University of Hartford in Flushing, N.Y., it seems as if the team’s sights are already set on the final round. Boston will all-but-assuredly be waiting yet again and will be looking to continue its dominance of the America East at Binghamton’s expense.

In each of the 10 years the Bearcats have been a Division I program, they have finished no worse than third place and have posted seven second-place finishes. But in each of the last four years, those second-place finishes have come at the hands of the Terriers.

Led by seniors Jillian Santos, Marina Bykovskaya and Emma Leibowicz, Binghamton will take to the Flushing courts in hopes that this will finally be the year that they can take home the conference crown.

“As always, we have a really good shot at coming away with a championship,” Binghamton head coach Libby McGovern said. “[Just like every year], it’s going to be a battle.”

Each of the team’s seniors will head into the weekend not only looking to eventually take down the Terriers, but also hoping to cap off impressive individual careers of their own.

Santos, who will play at No. 1 singles, sits in a tie for third place on the program’s all-time singles wins list with 86.

Bykovskaya, who has without question been the squad’s most consistent player this season, has won a team-high 21 matches and boasts 72 career victories. She was also named America East Player of the Week on April 24 following a 2-0 record last weekend against Stony Brook University and Hartford.

Leibowicz has won a team-best 10 doubles matches this season and ranks eighth all time with 65 doubles victories.

McGovern said that she could not ask anything more of her seniors and hopes the trio will continue to pave the way as it has all season.

The Bearcats have won four out of their last five matches, including a dominating 7-0 win over the very Hartford Hawks they are set to face in today’s 11 a.m. match.

“It’s always nice to go in and ride a bunch of wins at the end of the season,” McGovern said. “We’ve been playing extremely well and want to keep that rhythm and flow going.”

On Thursday, McGovern did not seem too concerned with her team’s first-round opponent — and understandably so. The bottom-seeded Hawks are a laughable 1-17 overall in the 2011-12 season and are winless in conference play, as well as against Binghamton all time.

She said that she will use that to her advantage and look to use the opening-round matchup as an opportunity to “let [the freshmen] relax and show them that it’s no different [from the regular season].”

Should the Bearcats take down Hartford, they would then face No. 2 University of Maryland, Baltimore County in Saturday’s semi-final at 10 a.m.

The winner of that match would then all-but-assuredly face the Terriers in Sunday’s 11 a.m. final.

“Everyone wants to knock off Boston,” McGovern said. “We’ve done it twice in the regular season; we’re just waiting for the one that really, really counts.”

Chris Longoria and Ben Dickinson, two freshmen on the Binghamton University men’s basketball team, will transfer at semester’s end. Omar Richards, another freshman, has obtained his release papers, usually a strong indication of an intent to transfer.

The departures present another setback in a rebuilding process that began after a wide-ranging 2009 scandal that resulted in multiple player dismissals, the retirement of University President Lois DeFleur, the resignation of athletic director Joel Thirer and the suspension and eventual dismissal of head coach Kevin Broadus.

Binghamton will be losing two, and potentially more, of its top-five scorers from the 2011-12 season — bright spots during a forgettable 2-29 bottom-of-the-national-barrel campaign. Coupled with two assistant coaches already having parted ways with the program, a complete overhaul may already be underway.

Head coach Mark Macon, who recruited the three freshmen, declined to comment for this story.

In February 2011, Macon was given a two-year contract extension by the school’s interim athletic director Jim Norris. Pipe Dream asked current athletic director Patrick Elliott by email to comment on the transfers and what they mean for Macon’s status.

“As far as transfers: For student privacy reasons, we do not comment on student-athlete transfer releases,” Elliott wrote. “If and when a student-athlete formally transfers to another institution we would make an announcement at the appropriate time.”

“In that case I could then address your second question [about Macon’s status].”

Dickinson, Binghamton’s top rebounder, second-leading scorer and an America East All-Rookie team selection, confirmed his plans to transfer in an email to Pipe Dream.

“I want to thank coach Macon for giving me the opportunity to play at Binghamton,” he wrote. “I wish the team the best.”

Longoria, a 6-foot-4-inch guard from Peachtree City, Ga., said in a text message that he would be transferring to a school closer to home.

Richards, a 6-foot-8-inch forward, confirmed that he had obtained his release papers and was “considering the possibility of transferring schools.”

The three players combined to score an average of 25.2 points per game this season on a team that averaged just 56.8 ppg. They all averaged more than 20 minutes of playing time.

Aaron Gottlieb: I was reading through the Jessica Phillips fan page on Facebook …

Jessica Phillips: Oh no …

AG: How much of that stuff is true?

JP: None.

AG: So Santa Claus doesn’t really write letters to you?

JP: No, no.

AG: That’s depressing. What’s the story behind that page?

JP: [Sophomore pitcher] Demi Laney and I were walking up to class one day and I don’t remember how we got into it, but she was like, “I’m gonna make a Chuck Norris fan page, but instead of Chuck Norris, they’re going to be you.” And I was like, “Oh, geez.” So then we’re sitting in class and she’s just laughing hysterically because she was making up all of these things. It was a joke at first and then the whole team continued to add stuff to it and it took off.

AG: And now maybe the rest of school will follow after they read this. Are you superstitious at all when it comes to softball?

JP: Yeah, I definitely am. When I was in high school I used to be really insane about it, like I used to eat the same meal the night before a game, but now I have to listen to the same song and if I do poorly one game then I have to take that song away.

AG: Are you the most superstitious on the team or are there others who are more into it?

JP: I’m not really sure, actually. Everyone does it so nonchalantly so that nobody really notices, so it’s not really to an extreme. But I used to play with people who would have to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before a game, but I don’t think anyone on our team is super into it.

AG: What’s something people would be surprised to know about you?

JP: I really like animated movies.

AG: Which one’s your favorite?

JP: That’s tough … My favorite movie of all time is “Cat in the Hat.” It’s not animated, but that’s my favorite movie.

AG: How do you feel about “Finding Nemo”?

JP: I do like it.

AG: Phew. If you had to listen to one song before a must-win game, what would it be?

JP: “To Be With You” by Mr. Big. I don’t know why I like it, but I do.

AG: How can you get on coach Burrell’s good side?

JP: Talk about her dog — she loves her dog.

AG: You were named America East Co-Player of the Year last year; what was that experience like?

JP: That was a really cool award — I definitely didn’t expect it. I think last year we had a really competitive conference, so to get that honor was pretty humbling.

AG: So are you a little more likely to expect it this year?

JP: No, I don’t like to go into anything with any expectations. My goal this year is to try to stay as consistent as I was last year and to improve on the areas that I need to work on. I’m just hoping our team can make it to the conference tournament and do a little better than we did last year.

AG: What’s your favorite part of softball been? Either one specific experience or overall your favorite part of playing the game.

JP: I think it’s when you’re up to bat and you have control over the entire at-bat. Obviously, you can’t control where the pitcher is going to pitch it, but for a split second, you have that decision.

AG: You’re an English major; what’s your favorite part about that?

JP: Ryan Vaughan classes.

AG: Least favorite part of it?

JP: Reading.

AG: What are your plans for the future?

JP: I’m a red-shirt junior so I’ll have an extra year. I’m a senior in school this year and I just got accepted into the special education program here so along with playing softball I’ll be going to grad school.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

The decision was announced by both the Binghamton and NC State athletic programs on Tuesday.

“It’s a loss for Binghamton University,” athletic director Patrick Elliott said. “But we really appreciate everything he did while he was here in building this program.”

In six years at Binghamton, Popolizio accrued an 81-53 record and was named CAA coach of the year in 2010 and 2012. During his tenure, BU produced four All-Americans and 21 NCAA-qualifiers, all after inheriting a program that finished with an 0-12 record the year prior to his arrival.

“He’s put his heart and soul into building Binghamton from literally ground zero,” senior Justin Lister said. “I’m very happy for him and what he’s done for Binghamton, and nobody can ever take that away from him.”

Binghamton finished the 2011-12 season with a 15-4 mark, setting a program record for win percentage at 78.9 percent. The Bearcats then placed 14th at the NCAA Championship — the best of any BU Division I program to date and the highest of any CAA program in the last five years — and crowned two All-Americans in junior Donnie Vinson and freshman Nick Gwiazdowski.

Popolizio will take over an NC State program that went 7-9 in 2011-12 and finished 44th out of 70 teams at the NCAA Championship in March.

“Pat is a builder of programs and of young men,” said North Carolina State athletic director Debbie Yow. “He was an outstanding collegiate performer at Oklahoma State [University] and is a proven teacher and mentor as a head coach.”

Gwiazdowski said he believes the program will continue to thrive despite Popolizio’s departure.

“Pat’s built a great mindset here and guys are going to keep that mindset no matter who’s in their corner,” he said. “He was a big influence on everyone here.”

Elliott said that a nationwide search for Popolizio’s replacement has been put into place and said the department looks forward to naming the next head coach “in the next several weeks.”

Pat Popolizio: I don’t think you ever get screwed in sports, but do you get a call you don’t like? Yeah. It definitely was our mistake so I can’t say we got screwed, we’re the ones that caused it. So I think it was a great learning experience that cost us a team title from one mistake. If he wins that match, we win the CAAs because it was a two-and-a-half-point difference and we lost by two.

AG: How has that influenced your team, how do they feel about the fact that they came so close?

PP: They’re definitely disappointed, I think this weekend will have a lot to do with how we really feel at the end of the year because if we go in and have a great national performance, the CAAs won’t mean anything and I’m hoping that’s really the big picture. For us, winning it would have been a big deal. Hofstra’s been doing it for so many years, it’s really not that big of a deal so I think they feel a little cheated because they worked so hard. This is by far the hardest-working team I’ve been around.

AG: You came to Binghamton six years ago to a less-than-stellar program. Why?

PP: The challenge that was here. Looking into it, a lot of people were like ‘You’re crazy, you can’t win there.” I know a bunch of people who are coaches now and that was their take on it, it was like “There’s no way you can win at Binghamton,” and I wouldn’t accept that. I wanted to become a head coach, it was in New York and I’m originally from New York so I knew a lot of coaches over here. The academic standard here is very good so having that, we just needed the support through the school, the state and the community. And we’ve gotten that so it’s kind of like a perfect storm coming together. Any time someone tells you you can’t do something, you want to do it that much more.

AG: The numbers now speak for themselves, how have you been able to establish winning ways so quickly?

PP: Everybody asks that question and there’s really no secret to it, it’s just a lot of hard work. It’s a standard of excellence that you can’t compromise anything, whether it’s school, in the workout room or with your personal life. And that’s what we’ve got now with these guys. We’ve mapped it out so well for them on their visits when we recruit them that when a kid commits here, I know they’re going to put 110 percent into not just wrestling, but school and taking pride in the community and just being an asset for this university. That’s the biggest thing, it’s the attitude of the kid that comes here. You run this like a company and you want guys working for you that are going to go above and beyond the average person.

AG: Pretend I’m someone like Justin Lister who’s going into his last set of matches as a Binghamton wrestler, what can you possibly say to me?

PP: That you’ve done everything you can possibly do to put yourself into a situation to win. I work these guys so hard that they have no doubt in their mind when they step on that mat. This sport is such a mental challenge so it’s great to be able to have a kid like Lister who responds to everything you tell him. There’s really not much you can say to a kid right before he wrestles other than what we’ve talked about over the last couple of weeks.

AG: Especially considering the lack of success Binghamton has had as an athletic department this year, how does it feel to be — by a long shot — the success story of the year?

PP: When you talk about the teams on campus I think there’s a lot of ability, it’s just going to take some time for coaches to find what works for them and what doesn’t here. But we take a lot of pride in the success that we’re having and I know the guys love what’s happening — not just the results but the people that are getting on board now. The president has come down here to a bunch of matches, the new athletic director for the first time is involved with wrestling, Billy Baldwin’s been to some events here on campus. There are some really high-profile people around and even the local community that comes around. I remember the first duals we had here there were 20 or 30 people and now we’re getting 1,300 or 1,400 people. So these guys see that and they know they’re the reason.

AG: When you look back and see that type of attention given to this team, how does it feel to know that you were such a big part of it?

PP: It’s exciting and rewarding, it feels good. We put so much time and energy into building this program so that’s our reward of success, just having people come out and supporting it. It means a lot, it’s kind of a special thing to know that the coaches and the guys that are a part of this are the ones building it from the ground up.

AG: Obviously you’ve had a huge season, any plans on relaxing a little bit in the offseason?

PP: It’s hard, one thing with college athletics is that it’s full time all the time, and even as a coach it’s hard to put something on the back burner. If you take a week off, there’s another program out there that’s doing something during that week you’re off. But it’ll be a well-needed week of vacation coming up after this season to relax and take some down time.

AG: If you had to put your entire Binghamton experience into one word, what would it be?

PP: I would say “exciting.” It’s been a roller coaster, but overall it’s been extremely exciting with the kind of things that I’ve encountered as a coach, just in general. Dealing with the crazy 18-21-year-old kids, nothing surprises me anymore. It’s a joy working with these guys and we’ve created a culture here now where they motivate each other, which is extremely important to the success we’re having.

The team was gutted just three short years ago, after a magical season that ended in the program’s only NCAA tournament appearance. Then-head coach Kevin Broadus, who was brought in just one year prior, had employed a strategy of taking in talented players with questionable pasts. The method soon backfired — key pieces turned convicts as quickly as they had become campus celebrities months earlier. The story is still making headlines in The New York Times.

It’s evident that the program is now moving in a different direction. With a transition out of the dark cloud and into a new era with head coach Mark Macon and athletic director Patrick Elliott at the helm, Binghamton athletics has begun its move toward becoming a character-first department.

And a necessary move at that.

But as of Feb. 20, Binghamton was 0-26 on the season and officially the worst Division I men’s basketball team in the country. It’s shocking just how far the team had fallen since its glory days, but on the long road to recovery, wins don’t come easy.

For Macon, if the character is right, athletic success will follow. There’s a right way to win, and he has a clear-cut definition of what a student-athlete should be.

“They know their jobs, they do their jobs,” Macon says. “They’re expected to come here, go to class, do their work, perform well and be good citizens.”

Last season, then-senior Greer Wright — widely considered to be the team’s most talented player — stayed home when the team travelled to take on Army. He had a test in one of his classes.

This year, senior Kyrie Sutton was dismissed from the team following a string of recent arrests. The move left Binghamton without a single senior on its roster, but what would once be swept under the rug for the sake of athletic achievement is now clear grounds for dismissal.

After all, this is the new Binghamton.

ON THIS PARTICULAR MONDAY AFTERNOON, the Bearcats gather in a room buried deep within the Events Center building that houses the team’s home court.

Mark Macon clicks play.

Binghamton is preparing to host the The University of Vermont Tuesday night, and Macon is challenging his team to play defense like No. 5 Duke, the team they’re watching.

His group of 14 stares on as Duke scurries back on defense after a made basket, all five players’ eyes locked on the basketball coming back at them. An opposing player drives past his defender and into the lane, but another Duke defender steps in. Centers jump in front of guards, guards in front of power forwards.

“They’re working for one another,” Macon says. He clicks again.

The room stays silent. All that’s audible is the distant humming of the projector.

The video flickers and changes. This time the setting is closer to home. The Bearcats watch themselves in a recent home loss to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the conference’s second-worst team.

Even to the casual basketball fan, Binghamton seems lost on defense. The team lacks what it just saw in the nation’s elite.

A UMBC player drives, loses his man and lays it up for an easy two. Again, only Macon speaks. By the sound of it, he’s the only one in the room.

“Defense is all about effort,” Macon reiterates. “It’s about giving yourself up for your teammate.”

IT’S GAMEDAY, 2:45 p.m. 15 minutes into practice, assistant coach Don Anderson sits on the sideline, yelling instructions.

Since graduating in 1982 after his college ball days at Franklin & Marshall, he’s bounced around quite a bit professionally. Anderson arrived in Binghamton five years ago under the now-infamous Broadus regime, and was appointed the team’s head of basketball operations.

Today, Anderson is the team’s central behind-the-scenes man, instrumental in running practices and formulating a winning game plan against upcoming opponents.

But it’s that last part — winning — that has eluded the Bearcats this year. It’s something they’ll have to do, and quickly, if they want to avoid joining the 2007-08 New Jersey Institute of Technology squad as the only team to go winless in a 29-game season of Division I men’s basketball.

With Vermont coming in tonight, and only two more games remaining after, time is running out.

30 MINUTES AFTER PRACTICE BEGINS, freshman and starting center Ben Dickinson clanks down the Events Center bleachers. He’s in street clothes, backpack on and headphones around his neck. As if his appearance doesn’t say it, he tells Anderson he just got out of class and heads to the locker room.

Anderson stares and takes a breath before asking the rhetorical question to nobody in particular. “You think Kentucky deals with this?”

“THERE’S A WHOLE LOT OF WORK IN BUILDING SUCCESS,” Macon says. “That’s what we’re doing with the Binghamton Bearcats.”

The importance of continuing to sell the University, its basketball program and the rebuilding process are all crucial for Macon.

And in that respect, Macon and Elliott, who took over in December, are on the same page. Elliott believes this is Macon’s first shot at a clean slate — one with a new team, his alone, with all ties to the Broadus era cut.

It’s for that reason that Elliott says he doesn’t see Macon going anywhere any time soon. For him, it’s hard to put a timer on the Macon era because it only truly started this year. He manages to think positively in a time that begs anything but.

“There’s going to be exciting times ahead for this program,” Elliott says. “When our freshmen and sophomores leave the University, they’ll look back and say, ‘Wow, it was a challenging start but look at how far we’ve come.’ That, I believe, is the true measure of success.”

BUT FOR NOW, THAT CHALLENGING START weighs heavily on Macon’s mind.

“Would I say it’s not rough?” he asks after shoot-around on Tuesday, sitting in his seat on the bench just hours before tip-off against Vermont. “Hell no, I wouldn’t say it’s not rough … I don’t have days that I’m not stressed when it comes to these guys, because there’s so much more than just the basketball thing.”

The on-the-court performance isn’t the only thing that’s been “rough.” After a long weekend trip and practice on Monday, Macon passed out at 7 p.m. only to wake two hours later, before waiting another nine hours to fall back asleep at 6 a.m.

“I’m always thinking about basketball, the team and how we’re going to be successful,” he says.

A star guard at Temple University and the No. 8 pick in the 1991 NBA draft, Macon has seen almost everything. Sure, he’s lost games and experienced failure along the way. But the way he sees it, what matters is how you learn to win from those losses.

“No matter how many come,” he adds.

AND NO MATTER HOW MANY HAVE COME already this season, fans still trickle into the Events Center slowly but surely for tonight’s 7 p.m. tip-off against the Catamounts. With 30 minutes to go until game time, a very countable 95 students have shown up — including the 15 or so that comprise the “Screamin’ Green,” BU’s pep band. An announcement promising free food with a Binghamton win echoes throughout the arena, eliciting a few laughs.

The differences between Vermont and Binghamton are clear. At 19-10 (12-2 in-conference), UVM is tied for first place in the America East and carries just two freshmen on its roster. Across the court, freshmen account for nearly half of the players on Binghamton’s squad. The Catamounts returned four starters from last year’s regular-season champion team. Binghamton returned six players total.

Statistically, Vermont ranks as one of the best in the conference in a number of categories. Binghamton ranks among the worst.

But as the game wears on, the Bearcats establish a reasonable and unexpected cushion. A lead of two builds to four, then to six, and eight and nine. Though it takes nearly the entire half, the Bearcats enter the locker room with a 35-25 lead.

In the second half, their lead holds steady as seconds start to tick off the clock. But soon, Vermont begins its uphill climb. For Binghamton, the next 20 minutes feel like 20 years. The Bearcats sustain their lead as the clock dips below 10 minutes, then five.

The Catamounts keep chipping, and with 2:15 remaining, are within two points.

But Binghamton never relinquishes the lead. And after UVM clanks a potential game-winning 3-pointer off iron, the ball bounces up and falls into the hands of point guard Jimmy Gray — a Binghamton native and one of the team’s four walk-ons, a stand-out success story for a program that needed one.

He’s fouled with 4.8 seconds to go and strolls calmly and casually across the court for two potential nail-in-the-coffin free throws.

Gray crouches low and dribbles, then spins the ball to himself. He takes a deep breath as everyone else holds theirs.

For the half-a-second between the time he releases the ball and it swishes through the net — twice — the building is gripped with silence, only to be broken by an eruption of cheers an instant later. Fans rush the court when the buzzer sounds to the tune of a 57-53 Binghamton victory.

“I didn’t know it was real until I looked up at the score,” Gray says. “Most important free throws I’ve had in my life.”

THE NEXT MORNING, a distant sound of one ball dribbling echoes through the Events Center. Gray is back out on the floor, practicing his free throws.

Players and coaches gather back in the video room where their week started. Today’s no day off, not with two games left, not with Albany coming in the following night.

Macon commends his squad for a job well done against Vermont. He pauses briefly, looks around the room and clicks play.

“OK,” he says. “Let’s get back to work.”

Binghamton led by just one point at halftime, despite missing leading scorer Rob Mansell, who was out with a torn MCL.

Down the stretch, BU led by as many as 11 points with 7:56 to go but UMBC battled back and tied the game with 57 seconds remaining in regulation. Neither team would manage to pull ahead despite a frantic final minute as the game headed to overtime.

Junior guard Jimmy Gray scored eight points in the extra period and Binghamton escaped with the 73-67 final.

“Today was a day where these guys did the job, they played a good team, a formidable team, and hung in there when they could have put their heads down,” head coach Mark Macon said. “You want to get a win like this in a game like that.”

The Bearcats are set to face Stony Brook at 12:05 p.m. on Saturday, March 3.

Midway through last year’s schedule, then-head coach Ed Stephenson resigned in protest of the University’s decision to suspend three of the team’s players. Assistant coach and former Bearcat Kevin McKeown took over as an interim head coach, leading the Bearcats to a 7-8 (3-2 America East) record (T-2nd). Binghamton would fall to powerhouse Stony Brook University in the conference semifinals.

On May 18, the University hired Scott Nelson to take over the reigns following a 2011 season in which Nelson led the Marist College Red Foxes to an 8-7 record. Prior to his three-year stay at Marist, Nelson went 211-87 as a head coach at Nazareth College and Brown University, winning Division III national championships in 1992, 1996 and 1997 with Nazareth.

But Nelson has already encountered trouble, as Binghamton’s leading scorer last year, junior Matt Springer, will be redshirting the 2012 season.

Springer, who led the Bearcats with 29 goals and 31 points in 14 games last season, underwent foot surgery last offseason and was forced to undergo surgery yet again this fall, sidelining him for all of the upcoming 2012 season. As of now, Springer is expected to return in the fall.

“[One guy isn’t going to be able to] make up for that,” Nelson said of Springer’s production. “We’re going to have to do that as a team.”

Some of the onus of carrying the offense without Springer will undoubtedly fall on junior Tyler Perrelle and sophomore Michael Antinozzi, last year’s second and fourth-leading point scorers, respectively. But even they will be without the support of David Raleigh and Frank Donlon, who graduated in May and were staples of the Binghamton offense.

To ease the transition, Nelson said he has instituted a more aggressive, fast-paced offense.

“It’s something a little different that we’re trying to add,” he said. “[We’ve] always been known for being pretty tough with great kids, and now we’d like to add a few more goals and make our team a little more exciting.”

On the other side of the ball, senior captain Ben Waldron will lead the Bearcat defense. Starting all 15 games last year, Waldron caused a team-high 30 turnovers and was named first-team All-Conference in the America East.

Waldron has already followed up that honor with being named to the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch List. The Tewaaraton Award recognizes the nation’s top collegiate lacrosse players.

The Bearcats were selected to finish tied for fifth in the six-team America East conference in this year’s conference preseason coaches poll.

Reigning AE champion University of Hartford was picked to finish first, followed by Stony Brook University, University at Albany, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Binghamton and The University of Vermont (T).

The Bearcats are set to open their season on Saturday when they welcome in Lafayette College for a 1 p.m. face-off at the Bearcats Sports Complex. They are scheduled to open America East play on March 31 at University at Albany.

As for beyond this year, Nelson said his long-term goal is to make Binghamton a lacrosse powerhouse and one of the more notable programs in the NCAA.

“We have a lot going for us,” he said. “Great school, great facilities, great location — why not make this the best place to play lacrosse in the country?”

Nelson said he understands it will be a gradual process, but he is looking forward to a bright future.

“We’re already pretty good,” he said. “We’re working to get to be very good and some day great.”

After 27 games of disappointment, struggles, frustration and failure, the Binghamton University men’s basketball team finally pulled out its first victory of the season Tuesday night at the Events Center, by topping the University of Vermont 57-53.

The Bearcats defeated one of the conference’s elite teams — UVM came to Binghamton tied for first in the America East with a 12-2 conference record and 19-10 mark overall.

“We just beat a heck of a team,” head coach Mark Macon said in a post-game press conference.

As the clock struck double-zeroes and the buzzer sounded, the Bearcat faithful poured out of the student section bleachers and stormed the court — creating a scene slightly reminiscent of March 14, 2009, the day the Bearcats won the America East tournament en route to their first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament.

This wasn’t a conference championship or even a postseason game, but for fans, coaches and most importantly the players, the context didn’t matter. All that did was that Binghamton had won.

Since transitioning to a 29-game season, only one Division-I program has completed an entirely winless campaign — the 2007-08 New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders.

BU will not join NJIT in infamy.

Sophomore Rob Mansell led all scorers with 18 points for the Bearcats while freshman Ben Dickinson added 16 and pulled down 11 rebounds.

“I’m so proud of them,” Macon said of his team. “You talk about monkeys? We had a whole zoo on our back.”

To the optimists, this was it. Finally, after 24 games and nearly three months of failure, Wednesday night brought the opportunity for which the fans, students and community had been waiting.

It had taken a while, but the stars were finally going to align for the Binghamton University men’s basketball team.

After all, visiting University of Maryland, Baltimore County was as close to an equal as the Bearcats were going to find all year.

Ninth place versus eighth, 0-24 versus 3-22. Binghamton even had the Retrievers’ number of late: 8-1 in the last nine meetings between the two squads at the Events Center.

For those still clinging to a shred of hope, especially after BU’s quick 7-0 start that rendered the Events Center student section at the highest volume and energy level in recent memory, this was to be the night the Bearcats were finally going to get off the proverbial snide.

Until they didn’t, 70-56.

Even at halftime on Wednesday, trailing by a slim margin at 24-20, Binghamton (0-25, 0-13 America East) was still right in the thick of it. UMBC (4-22, 3-11 AE), ahead despite shooting just 32 percent, was in that position only because the Bearcats countered with a meager 26 percent (7-of-26) of their own.

“If we make those shots, it’s not bad shooting,” Binghamton head coach Mark Macon said. “I equate [the first-half low-scoring totals] to good defense — from us. I don’t know what it was from them … We played extremely well; we just couldn’t put the ball in the basket.”

Neither team seemed to have that trouble in the second half, as both the Retrievers and Bearcats nearly doubled their first-half point totals in the final 20 minutes.

Junior guard Jimmy Gray nailed a 3-pointer five minutes into the second to pull the Bearcats to within two at 28-26, but it would be the last time they came within reach of the Retrievers.

From that point on, UMBC built a 12-point lead with an 18-8 run and held at least an eight-point advantage for the rest of the game.

Sophomore Chase Plummer led the charge for the Retrievers, matching his first-half total of six points in the seven-minute span that put his team up for good. He would finish with a game-high 15 points.

“They just gave the ball to Plummer and he went to work,” Macon said. “He made bucket after bucket on us. It hurt us, it really did, and we couldn’t make up for it after that.”

Macon also partially attributed the second-half differential to an increase in turnovers.

Freshman forward Ben Dickinson was Binghamton’s chief perpetrator in the turnover column (six). UMBC as a team committed just nine.

The Bearcats’ second-leading scorer this season, Dickinson, with an average of 12 points per game, followed up a 13-point performance against Boston University last week (6-of-13) and an 18-point game against University of Hartford on Sunday (7-of-12) with just eight points on Wednesday on 2-of-14 from the field.

“You hate it, but you have to live with it with him,” Macon said. “He’s learning and I’ll live and die with him going 2-14, because how many rebounds did he have?”

He had 12, a game high.

“That’s the difference in him,” Macon continued. “When he doesn’t score he does other things for us, and rebounding is something he’s been doing pretty [well].”

Nevertheless, winning is not something any of the Bearcats have been able to do well — or at all — this year.

The zero in their win column and the spotlight shone upon it grows with every game, and according to Gray, that elusive “W” is something for which the team continues to strive.

“It’s frustrating,” he said. “But it’s definitely something we want badly.”

As for the prime chance that Wednesday presented for Binghamton, Gray said the team did not feel any differently about going up against UMBC than they do about any other game.

“We don’t have any expectations,” he said. “We’re just going to go out and play hard.”

Four games remain for the Bearcats to “play hard” enough to change the zero on the left side of their record.

Their next chance will come tomorrow against Radford University. Like Binghamton, the Highlanders haven’t had much luck this season. They’ve posted a 5-23 overall record, including 2-14 in the Big South.

Game time is set for 4 p.m. in Radford, Va.

And for most students across the country it probably was, whether it be at universities and colleges that began their spring semesters just days following New Year’s or ones that kicked off oh, let’s say, hypothetically, just last week.

But contrary to the norm, the Binghamton University men’s basketball team has had a syllabus week to forget.

Only days after statistically securing the title of “Worst” in all of NCAA Division I, the Bearcats took another blow in the form of an 82-48 manhandling at the hands of Stony Brook University — one that included a 35-point halftime deficit and a gap that at times grew to as large as 40.

Now Binghamton has capped off a week to forget with what has seemingly become the expected — another loss — this time against Boston University, to extend its nation- and program-worst losing streak to 24 games.

Seniors Darryl Partin and Matt Griffin led the way for Boston (12-13, 8-3 America East) with 13 points each, helping the third-place Terriers extend an eight-point halftime lead into a 15-point victory over Binghamton (0-23, 0-11 AE) on Saturday night at the Events Center. Bearcat sophomore Rob Mansell and freshman Ben Dickinson also tallied 13 each, but Boston’s supporting cast would outscore Binghamton’s for a 68-53 final score.

Binghamton head coach Mark Macon said he was pleased with his team’s ability to stop Terrier sophomore and second-leading scorer D.J. Irving, but that a lapse allowed Griffin to make up for Irving’s production.

“We know what he can do; we know he’s a shooter,” Macon said. “Partin — he’s a known; you know what he’s going to do. The other guys just picked up. They have more guys to score than us. They had two guys with 13 [and] we had two guys with 13. [Otherwise it was] almost even, but they had one or two more guys who scored more points than us.”

Boston held a comfortable lead throughout the first half, including 14-7 at the 10-minute mark and 28-20 at the break.

The Terriers utilized full-court pressure and traps, forcing Binghamton to turn the ball over 10 times in the first half and capitalized for as many points off turnovers.

“It shouldn’t have been any problem,” Macon said. “Our press break works, it worked [in Boston], it just didn’t work here. They jumped us a couple of times in the first half as well as in the second half on dead balls, and we spoke about that coming out. We got rattled a little bit.”

An eight-point halftime deficit, certainly not insurmountable for the Bearcats, grew incrementally in the second half to as much as 20 with 5:27 remaining. Despite being the game’s only member to play the full 40 minutes, Binghamton junior guard Jimmy Gray finished with just five assists and three points on 1-of-7 from the floor.

Macon pointed to Gray’s playing time as the reason for his lack of productivity.

“He played too many minutes,” Macon said. “There’s no way he should play 40 minutes. And I take the blame for that, but I need him on the floor. He’s my general.”

Freshman guard Chris Longoria, who for all intents and purposes is Gray’s backup and Binghamton’s point guard of the future, saw only two minutes against Boston, recording one steal.

Questions about his lack of playing time in the loss on Saturday therefore begged themselves.

“That was a coach’s decision,” Macon simply replied, and continued, “but he’ll get his chance.”

None of the Bearcats will see any playing time for the remainder of the week, as the team’s next game is scheduled for Sunday at University of Hartford.

The Hawks, currently 4-19 (4-7 AE), are in the midst of a losing streak of their own, having lost five consecutive games since their 63-49 win over University of Maine on Jan. 19.

Just five days prior, the Hawks defeated Binghamton in Vestal for their second win of the season. Though the Bearcats led by one at halftime, Hartford opened the second half on an 18-5 run and eventually topped the Bearcats 69-57. Mansell led all scorers with 19 points in 38 minutes.

Like Saturday, Gray played all 40 in that contest but was more productive on offense, finishing with 12 points and four assists.

Gray said he thinks the eight-day gap between games will benefit Binghamton, which has not had more than four days off in between games since a five-day stretch from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.

“We can break down things and know our next opponent — which we already played — and get to know them a little bit better,” he said. “We’ll work on things we did poorly [against Boston] and improve on them.”

Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. in Hartford.

Congrats to Eli and Ahmad, JPP and Osi.

Congrats to the Jordan Rabinowitzs, Diana Glogaus and Megan Brocketts of the world who stuck with Big Blue all season long. You didn’t give up after a 28-14 opening day loss in Washington, nor did you after a 23-10 defeat to the very same Redskins back in New York in Week 15. To all Giants fans across campus and across the world, congratulations.

A Jets fan first and foremost, I cringed when Lawrence Tynes nailed the game-winning field goal in San Francisco a little over two weeks ago to set up the second Giants-Patriots Super Bowl in four years.

Gang Green’s divisional rival against their in-stadium rival wasn’t something I was looking forward to in the days leading up to the Super Bowl. I picked the Pats to win it all because that was my hunch, but deep down as a New Yorker I was rooting against them.

So when Tom Brady’s Hail Mary fell inches from the outstretched fingertips of Rob Gronkowski as time expired on Sunday, I exhaled. The G-Men dodged one final bullet and snatched the Lombardi trophy from Belichick and Brady once again. But that last play said more about the game than anything you’ll hear about it for years. Besides this commentary, of course.

As I watched the game from a surprisingly less-than-crowded Tully’s in University Plaza with a few friends, one thought kept creeping into my head and out of my mouth: “Jeez. That was lucky.”

From fumbles that weren’t (read: 12 men on the field negates Victor Cruz fumble deep in New England territory) to simple drops in crunch time (see: Hernandez, Welker, Branch), Big Blue caught breaks all through Super Bowl XLVI that are directly to thank for their Big Victory.

Now, now, before you get the wrong idea and come find me tomorrow (I have class in Lecture Hall 8 at 11:40 a.m., but don’t get any ideas), hear me out.

I’m not saying the Giants didn’t deserve this victory. They did their job, made plays when they needed to and are reaping the rewards. But I think the story of this year’s Super Bowl is more that the Patriots beat themselves than anything else.

A championship football team is, among other things, one that takes advantage of an opponent’s mistakes. The Giants did that and did it well.

So when that big, oddly-shaped ball was knocked away from Aaron Hernandez and fell just out of reach of both Rob Gronkowski and — yes, though overlooked, he was close too — Wes Welker, the Patriots were oh-so-close to making up for every miscue over the previous 60 minutes of play.

And as the nation exhaled, some in pain and some in jubilation, one thought consumed me one last time.

“Jeez. That was lucky.”

Scott Diamond: I stayed in Mountainview when I was on campus and then after that I moved into the baseball house which was down Henry Street. I’d be lying if I said we didn’t have any social gatherings during that time, but it was mainly about getting my school work done and then on the weekends just relaxing.

AG: Do you have any especially memorable moments from your time?

SD: I remember a couple of athletic moments, pitching performances and that kind of thing, and our team just performing at some really high levels. We almost went undefeated in conference one year. But a lot of my memories I think were just from my friends that I made with the baseball team and in the engineering department.

AG: So you mentioned you lived on Henry; did you go Downtown to the bars at all?

SD: Always, but am I allowed to say that? During the season we actually stayed away … for the most part. But in the offseason we had our fun.

AG: At what point did you start to think about going pro?

SD: When I was in high school I played on a travel team that we always had scouts around, so I always thought of it as being a possibility. But after my freshman year in college I won the Rookie of the Year Award, and that’s when I thought, you know, if I had a good summer one year and another good season at Binghamton I thought it was definitely a possibility.

AG: Can you describe your emotions when you got the call up to the Twins this past season?

SD: It’s as surreal as you expect it to be. You’re in shock because all of this work and all of the time that you’ve put into it, this childhood dream of yours is finally coming true. I just remember standing in the hallway outside a locker room and I called my dad. My mom picked up and got my dad on the phone and the two of them were just as emotional as I was. It was pretty surreal.

AG: What are the differences in the clubhouse atmosphere between your time playing for the Bearcats and now your time playing for the Twins?

SD: It’s just different stages in my career. In Binghamton, those are your best friends. Those are the guys you spend four years with and really form a bond with. When you make it to pro ball it’s a little more political, I guess. A lot of those guys are from all over the U.S. and even from all over the world, really. It’s always based on team chemistry and the Twins have a great team chemistry, but I just got to know a lot of my teammates at Binghamton a lot more. Those are a lot of the memories I have.

AG: Do you have any interesting anecdotes from your time with the Twins so far off the field?

SD: We had rookie dress up in September, which was pretty funny. I had to dress up in a pig costume and walk around downtown Kansas City in this pig costume all day on our day off.

AG: You came back and graduated in December. What was the impetus behind you coming back and finishing your degree?

SD: When I decided to leave to go pro, my philosophy was that I can’t really put off baseball because I’ll always be getting older, but I can always come back and finish school. When I made that promise to myself and to my parents it was something that I intended to keep.

AG: Is there anything notable that’s changed on campus since you left?

SD: I haven’t had a chance to check out the new engineering building but I heard it’s lights out. So I’m pretty excited to come back again and hopefully take a walk around there and see what’s new.

AG: What’d you think of the new Newing?

SD: I’ve heard the dining hall is the new place to be. Have you been in there?

AG: Yeah, it’s pretty unbelievable. They have an automated carousel to put your dirty trays on and it takes them into the kitchen.

SD: Really? Jeez.

AG: It’s Mountainview 2.0 and in a more convenient location. Anyway, do you have any inkling as to what your role is going to be come Opening Day?

SD: I don’t — we have a lot of guys competing for starting roles and always fighting for those bullpen spots. So whatever they need me for I’m going to do. If an injury comes up or if I have a fighting chance for a starting spot, then that’s fantastic. I think there’s also a good shot that I could find myself in the bullpen this year as well.

AG: Is there anything else you’d want students at Binghamton to know about your experience?

SD: Pursue. It can happen. I’m not really good at words of wisdom.

Despite BU freshman Ben Dickinson’s game-high 20 points, Bucknell University held off a second-half Bearcat surge for a 77-63 victory.

Four players finished in double digits for the Bison, including forward Joe Willman, who scored 16, and guard Cameron Ayers, who tallied 13. Bucknell shot 68 percent from the field in the first half and just over 61 percent for the game.

“You have to commend Bucknell because they’re a veteran team and they showed it in the first half,” BU head coach Mark Macon said in a postgame press conference. “I think our guys gave a valiant, valiant effort throughout, especially in the second half.”

After entering the locker room down 20 at halftime, Binghamton (0-7) nearly doubled its first-half production in the second, scoring 40 points in the final 20 minutes.

Before heading to Vestal, the Bison (6-4) had lost their last two games and sported a 1-4 record in road contests.

But as others have done with relative ease this season, they disposed of a young Binghamton squad that now sits at 0-7 on the year, the program’s worst start since the 1996-97 season when it was a member of the Division III State University of New York Athletic Conference.

“There’s no reason for us to be down regardless of our record,” junior guard Jimmy Gray said. “We’re a young team, we’re gaining experience and we’re getting better as each game goes by. We had a good effort tonight; we just have to have it in both halves.”

Bucknell jumped out to a 17-6 lead in the opening minutes on the strength of three 3-pointers. Binghamton cut the lead to as little as six with 9:34 to go, but a 24-10 Bucknell run gave the Bison a 43-23 lead at the half.

The gap ballooned to as much as 24 twice in the second half and remained as high as 20 with less than 10 minutes to go. A 19-8 Binghamton run cut the deficit to nine, but the rally proved to be too little too late.

Junior Taylor Johnston’s career-high 14 points were at the heart of the Bearcat rally.

“He’s been working hard in practice, and it showed today,” Macon said. “He wants to come out and show that he can be a part of that six or seven or eight guys. And today, that’s what he was for us.”

Johnston saw significant time due to the absence of freshman Omar Richards, who has been suspended from the team as a result of a violation of the athletic department’s code of conduct.

“It makes us one man down, but that’s when another guy has to step up,” Macon said. “And that’s what we saw in [Johnston].”

Macon would not elaborate on the nature of Richards’ violation, saying only that he would be “suspended until further notice.”

The team will not play another game before the semester comes to a close, but will continue its schedule with 14 games over winter break.

Binghamton is set to enter America East play on Jan. 2 against University of Maine. Other notable opponents in the 14-game span include Hofstra University on Dec. 17 and Morehead State University on Dec. 19.

The Bearcats are now in the middle of an 11-day break for finals. Macon stressed the importance of his players not only studying for their exams, but also watching film on Hofstra to become familiar with the Pride’s style.

“It’s imperative that we watch film, that they get a feel for who Hofstra is, who their best players are, where they get their shots and what they do,” he said.

As of Thursday, the Pride was 3-6, and through nine games this season senior guard Mike Moore led the team in scoring with an average of 19.8 points per game.

“A good student is one who studies. If you don’t study, you can’t get good grades,” Macon said. “Unless you’re a genius like me.”

The Bearcats, now 0-5, have learned that the hard way over recent weeks. They haven’t played a home game since their season opener on Nov. 12, and are coming off their worst defeat of the season, an 88-59 drubbing at the hands of now-No. 13 University of Missouri.

But with that loss now behind them, the Bearcats are set to return home to take on a 2-5 Army squad tomorrow night at the Events Center.

Like Binghamton, the Black Knights were picked as the cellar dweller of their conference in the preseason coaches poll. But not for a lack of experience.

Army returns seven of its 10 players who saw time in last season’s Nov. 23 matchup in West Point between the two teams, including four of its five starters. Army won that game 72-58.

Chretien Lukusa and Kyrie Sutton shouldered the scoring load for the otherwise offensively silent Bearcats. Lukusa finished with 22 while Sutton added 14, but no other player scored more than 10. Neither of those players are still on the team.

The team’s 58 total points may have been enough for Binghamton to win that game, if not for its defense allowing 34-plus points in each half. Army used an early 20-5 run to take the lead and never looked back.

As was true last year, the Bearcats will yet again need to play solid, consistent defense to have a chance on Saturday as the Black Knights have not skipped a beat on the offensive side of the ball.

In its Nov. 22 win over Bryant University, Army shot 15-for-36 from behind the arc, setting Academy records for 3-point attempts as well as attempts made.

According to BU head coach Mark Macon, communication on the defensive side of the ball has been at the forefront of the team’s efforts during practice this week.

More recently, Army fell to New Jersey Institute of Technology on Wednesday by one point. Though the loss proved to be the Black Knights’ fifth of the year, the team’s potent offensive attack remained on display for all to see.

Trailing by as many as 16 in the second half, Army stormed back on the strength of a 27-12 run for the remainder of the contest. Black Knights sophomore Josh Herbeck took the game’s final and potentially game-winning shot, but it rimmed out at the buzzer.

Herbeck’s 10 points per game rank second on the team behind junior Ella Ellis’ 15.6 points per game. The two have been the only ones to lead Army in scoring through the team’s first seven games.

But according to Macon, Binghamton’s hasn’t been thinking on stopping the duo so much as it has on itself.

“Our focus has been filling holes in the area of defense together,” he said. “You [stop Herbeck and Ellis] as a unit on defense knowing where those guys are.”

On the offensive side of the ball, sophomore Robert Mansell and freshman Ben Dickinson will look to continue in their roles as the team’s leading scorers. Mansell’s 15.2 points per game lead the team, trailed by Dickinson’s 15.

The Bearcats are set to play their first home game in nearly a month, something Macon said will feed into the team’s positive energy heading into tomorrow night’s 7 p.m. tip.

“I think it’s a good feeling because you are in the comforts of your own place,” he said. “I think we will play well and I’m looking for growth as well as a win.”

Jillian Santos: My birthday’s close to it, so every year I get together with my family and go to my cousin’s house and we celebrate my birthday, so it’s nice to have everyone there.

AG: What does it feel like for you to be ranked in the top 10 of some of Binghamton’s all-time categories?

JS: It’s pretty cool, I know some of my teammates last year who graduated were No. 1 and No. 2 on all-time win lists so hopefully I can be close to them by the end of this year.

AG: You’ve been named to the America East honor roll multiple times, how do you do it?

JS: A lot of time management, I make a bunch of to do lists … every day. It takes a lot of planning ahead and trying to figure out when things are due and plan when you’re going to study for it. I wouldn’t say anything particularly special that the average student doesn’t do. Unless they don’t make lists. I make a lot.

AG: How hard is it to be a successful student-athlete and get everything done?

JS: It’s really difficult. The thing I probably lack the most is sleep and rest. Every Tuesday and Thursday we have practice at 6:45 a.m., so it’s just waking up, eating breakfast, being ready and then just being tired afterward and then having to go to class for the rest of the day and then having practice later in the day. It’s just really exhausting. Early mornings are the toughest, but I feel like it helps me to manage my time better because I have a lot going on, so I feel like I have to do certain things at a certain time to get things done.

AG: You’re a psychology major, what’s your favorite part about that?

JS: As a part of one of my classes, I work at the Institute for Child Development where I work with kids with autism. It’s just been a really great learning experience working with kids and it’s made me realize that I want to work with kids.

AG: Do you ever use anything you’ve learned in your psychology major in your matches either for yourself or against an opponent?

JS: There’s definitely a lot of different things about psychology to apply in sports … staying positive, telling yourself to do certain things, and I never realized that sometimes I do that. Even things that a coach will implement about positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement and punishments, it’s all part of psychology. I definitely think it’s helped me to be more understanding of other people on the team, and as one of the team’s captains, being a psychology major has helped me understand everyone else on the team better.

AG: Your sister Lillian played for Binghamton too. Did that influence your decision to come here?

JS: Yeah, I stayed with her on my recruiting trip instead of with the team. She had a really great experience at Binghamton so I knew I wanted to come here.

AG: What’s your go-to shot on the court that you’re most confident in?

JS: My forehand, but my coach might differ and say that my backhand might be a little bit better. But usually I feel better controlling the points with my forehand.

AG: With spring season approaching in early February, how much of your winter break is going to be spent preparing for it as opposed to relaxing?

JS: It’s going to be tough — this winter break I’m actually going to the Philippines with my family and it’s the first time I’ve been there in about 15 years. I made sure to tell my family that I need to play tennis. It’s my last year heading into spring season and I just want to do really well and work hard and be prepared for what’s to come in the spring and really lead by example for the rest of my teammates.

AG: You mentioned you wanted to work with kids. Do you have any specific plans after graduation?

JS: Grad school is in the plans as of right now; it’s just a matter of applying, but I want to go into early education. I want to get my master’s after graduating, I just don’t know where yet.

AG: How much is tennis in your future?

JS: I hope a lot, I’m definitely looking into graduate assistant positions or places where I can be an assistant coach. At one school they had an opportunity for an assistant coach at a Division-III school. I definitely want to play after school, keep in shape, maybe join a league or something, but I love tennis so hopefully it stays with me.

Holding off a second-half BU surge, visiting Colgate University handed Binghamton a season-opening loss on Saturday night at the Events Center, 78-74. The Bearcats then went on to drop their second game in three nights when they were defeated on the road by Cornell University on Monday, 76-61.

Though Binghamton (0-2) came out of the halftime break firing on all cylinders to double its first-half production, 39 second-half points from Colgate proved to be just enough to keep BU at bay.

Binghamton freshman forward Ben Dickinson led all scorers with 27 points while sophomore guard Robert Mansell came back from a lackluster first half to finish with 24. Mike Venezia added 22 for Colgate (1-0).

“It was a tough one, we got beat by a better team,” Binghamton head coach Mark Macon said. “Colgate was a better, more savvy team and they played two halves. We played a great second half of basketball, [but] we didn’t play a great first half.”

Though both teams traded advantages through the opening five minutes, Colgate took a first-half lead that ballooned to as much as 13.

The Bearcats whittled it down to nine just before halftime, but Colgate senior Sterling Melville hit a 3-point buzzer-beater prior to halftime to take a 39-27 lead.

Foul trouble for sophomore starters Alex Ogundadegbe and Mansell limited their play in the first half. Ogundadegbe played just six minutes while Mansell was forced to sit for all but eight. Among all team scorers, the two were the low men for the half with two and three points, respectively.

But Mansell said he didn’t feel that he played as big of a part in the team’s struggles as Binghamton’s inability to capitalize did.

“You can’t really blame it on the foul trouble,” he said. “More so it’s the missed layups and missed opportunities.”

Colgate pushed its lead to as much as 18 in the early minutes of the second half, but in a three-minute span, the Bearcats scored eight unanswered to cut the Red Raider lead down to 47-37.

Though Colgate managed to push the lead back to 13, a furious Binghamton rally late pulled the game back within reach at 73-68 with 1:30 left.

At the heart of that rally were Mansell’s 21 and Dickinson’s 18 second-half points.

“That was big,” junior guard Jimmy Gray said. “Both of them came through and played hard. It’s better because the defense has to react to not only one person, but two. And it was hard for them to focus in on both of them.”

Though Binghamton cut the deficit to as little as four, Colgate’s made free throws down the stretch sealed the game with a final score of 74-78.

“We played a good second half,” Macon said. “It just wasn’t good enough.”

Saturday’s attendance at the Events Center was announced at an opening night record of 4,760 and Dickinson’s 27 points set a freshman record for the program. He was named America East Rookie of the Week yesterday for his efforts.

“He understands how to play,” Macon said. “The thing that I talked about before we walked out was ‘act like you’ve already been there,’ and he has. This is what he does; he understands how to play the basketball game and he takes what’s given to him … But whether he scores 20 for us or four, he’s going to do other things that make us better.”

Though one of Binghamton’s new additions excelled on the floor Saturday night, one was unable to participate in the team’s home and season opener. While his teammates participated in pregame warmups, freshman guard Storm Clonch was in street clothes, with a walking boot on his left leg.

Macon was unable to give a definite answer regarding Clonch’s injury in a post-game press conference on Saturday, but speculated that it was a high ankle sprain and did not have a timetable for his return. He did, however, say that Clonch would be in the boot for “a week or so.”

Binghamton began a four-game road trip last night as the team headed to Ithaca last night to take on Cornell. Cornell led by just two at the break, but ran away with the game in the second half and dealt the Bearcats their second loss of the season, 76-61.

The road trip continues at 7 p.m. Friday when Binghamton is set to take on Fordham University.

As head coach Nicole Scholl addressed the media following the team’s blowout exhibition win over Mansfield University, concerns regarding the status of star guard and senior Andrea Holmes proved surprisingly minimal, mainly thanks to a new player on Binghamton’s roster.

Sophomore Vaneeshia Paulk, a 5-foot-4-inch transfer student from East Georgia College, eased those worries with her play against Mansfield.

Holmes tore her ACL in the second-to-last regular season game of the 2010-11 season and missed the team’s final contest before being forced to sit out the entire America East tournament.

And as recently as early October, Holmes said she had still been feeling a “great amount of pain,” leading many to question whether she would be ready once the season tipped off.

But prior to Tuesday’s exhibition at the Events Center, Holmes was dressed and fully participated in team warm-ups. Despite sporting a brace on the injured left knee, she said the knee did not present any issues.

“Honestly, it felt like I never left,” she said. ìI’ve been playing around at practice a lot over the last month, and with the knee brace I feel really comfortable out on the floor and I don’t think my knee came across my mind once.”

In 13 minutes against Mansfield, Holmes scored six points while dishing out three assists. She said percent-wise, she felt she was in the “high 90s.”

“[I’m] getting there,” she said. “Still not quite there yet, but making a peak and almost at the top.”

Since a press conference regarding the injury in early October, Scholl has discussed the importance of limiting Holmes’ playing time early on.

And following a 10-point, four-assist performance from Paulk on Tuesday, the head coach’s job may have just become a lot easier.

While Holmes has typically led the team in points throughout her Binghamton career, Paulk’s speed and passing skills now present the team with a different type of point guard.

“Watching Vaneeshia play tonight, she added a complete[ly] different dimension than what Andrea does,” Scholl said. “I love the fact that we have two different style point guards right now … and it’s nice too because I can put them on the floor together and Andrea can switch to the two and not have as much responsibility of handling the basketball.”

Prior to her injury, Holmes was among the top-three scorers in the conference. She finished the season tied for fourth, averaging 14.3 points per game while dishing out an average of 3.3 assists per game.

With the team set to open the regular season at home tonight, Scholl is optimistic about her squad’s depth.

“We’ve got a lot of options this year,” she said.

As a student-journalist, I’m bound to want to root for our very own Binghamton Bearcats. And there’s no denying it. I do.

But I do it internally, because yelling in the press box at the Bearcats Sports Complex isn’t exactly professional.

When you cover a team, it’s your job to know everything about it. Or at least that’s how I go about it. But sometimes when a large part of your life is taken over by covering that team, you establish a connection.

When the team succeeds, you’re happy. When they fail, you’re let down.

And as a journalist, writing about a losing team becomes uninteresting. As a fan, it becomes disappointing. Overall, it just becomes downright frustrating.

Welcome to my fall semester.

Having covered the Binghamton men’s soccer team last year, I was ready for this season. I knew the coach. I knew who the stars were. I knew what they lost after last year, and I knew what they were bringing back.

So with that knowledge, I was optimistic about the team’s chances this year. Binghamton was predicted to finish fifth in the eight-team America East as it returned 12 letterwinners from last year’s squad and added 14 new faces.

But this year’s returners were ones who were sure to impress: guys like Ryan Walter, Adam Whitehead, Jake Keegan and Chris Hayen.

And out of the gate, the team stumbled a bit. Granted, the Bearcats played some tough opponents in the early goings, namely, ranked teams in The Ohio State University and West Virginia University.

In the season’s first handful of games, Binghamton was doing OK. Nothing special, but nothing terrible.

It seemed like forever before the team came home and played its first games at the Bearcats Sports Complex. In a perfect world, they would have won their first two at home and righted the wrongs heading into the meat of their schedule.

But they lost the first game.

And through 85 minutes of the second game, it looked like more of the same.

Walter scored the game-winner with three minutes left after the team struggled to create any scoring opportunities for most of the match.

It was after that lucky win that I wrote my first commentary of the year. In it, I talked about how the team needed to get its act together, and fast. Up to that point in the season, Keegan was the only consistent offensive threat for the Bearcats, as he’d netted four of the team’s 10 goals.

For me, that stat begged a question: what happens when defenses stop him like they’d seemingly begun to?

Binghamton head coach Paul Marco assured me that there were other players on the roster who could put the ball in the back of the net and that the team’s success didn’t rely on Keegan. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Marco is a smart man who knows his team well.

As both a fan and a journalist, I wanted to believe him, but his team’s play in its first two home games just didn’t allow for it.

I closed that column in Pipe Dream’s Sept. 20 issue by saying that, among other issues needing resolving, until players not named Keegan scored consistently I’d continue to wonder if Binghamton would be a force to be reckoned with when America East play rolled around.

Wouldn’t you know it, I’m a prophet.

The team never did get those contributions. And worse, opposing defenses found a way to stop Keegan.

Some say defense wins championships. Others say it’s offense.

One thing’s for sure: Binghamton’s offense for the remainder of the season was suspect at best. And for this year’s Bearcats, a serious lack of offensive production meant failure in conference play.

The team finished with one lousy America East win, which came on the final day of the season and was, for all intents and purposes, meaningless.

Binghamton missed the conference tournament for the first time since 2002 and finished dead last.

As a journalist, the story remained the same all season. The men’s soccer team couldn’t get goals when it needed them.

And as a fan, the 2011 season was a major disappointment. I had hoped, after last year’s successes during the regular season, I would at least get to see another conference tournament appearance in my final year covering the team.

It just wasn’t meant to be. It’s easy for me to be critical. I was the one behind a computer in a warm press box while Keegan, Walter and Marco were down on the field through the chills of October clawing for those ever-important goals.

Those goals just weren’t in the books for this year’s Bearcats.

And now, with the 2011 men’s soccer campaign complete, the fan turned journalist inside of me can at the very least take solace in one thing.

The only place to go is up.

Head coach Mark Macon said that the dismissal was his decision. He would not, however, comment on the specific rationale behind Sutton’s dismissal.

Macon repeatedly referred to the dismissal as a “coach’s decision” throughout a post-game press conference following Monday’s exhibition game against Mansfield University.

“We were heading in different directions,” Macon said. “And we have to move forward with our team and where we’re going to be this upcoming season.”

Sutton was seated in the student section during the first half of the exhibition game, in which Binghamton topped the Division II Mountaineers 79-64. He chose not to respond to questions from Pipe Dream reporters regarding his dismissal.

Macon said he was unaware of Sutton’s presence at Monday’s game, and would not comment on any specific restrictions the senior would be required to adhere to as a result of his removal from the team.

The 6-foot-9-inch center from Brooklyn, Sutton averaged 6.4 points and 4.1 rebounds last season in his 29 appearances and 11 starts for the Bearcats.

Athletic director Jim Norris, who will be succeeded by Patrick Elliot on Nov. 14, said during halftime that he supports Macon’s choice.

“My initial reaction would be [that] I support Mark’s decision 100 percent,” Norris said. “Mark made the decision that [Sutton] wasn’t heading in the same direction as the rest of the team, and it was time for both parties to head [in separate directions]. I support all of our coaches when they make these kinds of decisions.”

The athletic director said that Sutton’s removal from the team does not affect his academic standing.

“He’s not out of school so he can stay here and graduate,” Norris said. “If he wants, he can transfer and go to Division II and play.”

The dismissal came less than a week after the announcement that the men’s basketball program posted a perfect Academic Progress Rating (APR) score of 1,000. The score allowed the program to regain the two scholarships it lost following the release of six players in 2009.

After capturing its first America East title in 2009, the arrest of standout Emanuel “Tiki” Mayben led to a collapse of the men’s basketball program and ultimate dismissal of five additional players. After both an NCAA and in-house investigation, Binghamton ultimately decided to self-impose a two-scholarship reduction after requesting a waiver of approval from the America East.

The APR score, which indicates a program’s academic integrity, places heavy emphasis on athlete graduation. But with Sutton still enrolled in classes, according to Norris, the score should not be affected by the dismissal.

“He’s eligible right now, so we’re not going to lose that point,” he said. “I’m fairly certain he’ll graduate somewhere, and that point will be intact. I’m not worried about APR.”

Sophomore guard Robert Mansell, who joined Binghamton last season as Macon’s first official recruit, acknowledged the impact of the loss of Sutton.

“It’s definitely a huge loss for us,” Mansell said in a brief interview following his press conference remarks. “Kyrie is a great friend and a great basketball player, but we have to move on and hopefully win without him.”

Mansell told Pipe Dream he was unaware of the reason behind Macon’s decision, adding only that the team needed to move past Sutton’s dismissal.

“We’re definitely young with no seniors, and it’s going to be tough without him,” he said. “But we’ve got to move on.”

Without Sutton, the Bearcats will join University at Albany as the only America East teams to enter regular season play with no seniors on the roster.

Hometown: Cork, Ireland

Aaron Gottlieb: When did you first start playing basketball?

Orla O’Reilly: I started first when I was 10 — my mom brought us out and I remember our first practice was outside on a tarmac court. It was fun.

AG: Why basketball? Is it big where you come from in Ireland?

OO: It’s not big in Ireland at all, actually. It’s pretty small, especially when I started … But I come from a basketball family — all five of us play basketball and four of us played on an international team growing up.

AG: What’s your hometown like?

OO: It’s nice, it’s small. I live in the city, but it’s about the same size as Binghamton. So I’m not in the countryside like everyone thinks Ireland is. I like it — it’s a nice, little, small town.

AG: How did you hear about Binghamton, let alone come here?

OO: I think a coach from Ireland got in contact with the previous coach here and coach [Nicole] Scholl just kept talking to me and kept recruiting me and we got on the phone one day, and I liked the college and she wanted to recruit both myself and [my sister] Sinead and we both decided to come.

AG: Were you looking into any other options for college?

OO: Yeah, we were talking to a couple others, but this seemed like the right place. We were interested in going to the east coast so we’d be somewhat closer to home and in a similar environment.

AG: Now that you mention it, what’s your relationship with Sinead like? Did you intend on coming to college here and playing together, or was it just kind of a coincidence?

OO: Yeah, we had decided beforehand that we were going to go together and it makes it a lot easier to come to a new place with a family member there.

AG: So if you guys would compare yourselves to one other sibling duo that plays the same sport, who would it be?

OO: Hmm … that’s a good question … I’m not sure. I’ve never been asked that before …. What other siblings play the same sport?

AG: Eli and Peyton Manning, Brook and Robin Lopez …

OO: Oh, yeah! We can be the Manning brothers!

AG: Now that you’re a senior, what’s been your favorite part of the whole Binghamton experience that’s not basketball-related?

OO: I really love going to school here — I love all the people here. I’ve made some great friends and met some great people within the athletic department as well. I think that was the main part for me. I enjoyed the education too, but I wasn’t really focused that much on the education to begin with — when I came here I wanted to focus on basketball — but I think that really surprised me to gain such an interest in education too.

AG: Pretend I’m coach Scholl. What’s one thing you can do to get under my skin and piss me off?

OO: Hmm … not listen. She hates that.

AG: What’s something you can do to get on my good side?

OO: Shoot the ball well.

AG: If you had a 100 percent guarantee to make a game-winning shot, where would it be from on the court?

OO: I think a three-pointer on the wing.

AG: Any preference on which wing?

OO: Either one.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

But when Colgate University visited Vestal on Tuesday for a non-conference match, the Bearcats were given a break from the pressure-filled environment that presents itself in a mid-October America East match and played to a 1-1 draw with the Raiders.

With the game having no conference implications, Binghamton head coach Paul Marco rested some of his key players for numerous reasons, including card accumulation, and gave a night off to those who needed time to heal from minor injuries.

Colgate (8-3-3, 2-1-1 Patriot League) jumped out to a 1-0 lead with just over 22 minutes remaining in the first half. Sophomore Barrett Metzger unleashed a corner kick into the heart of the BU box where it met teammate Patrick Letourneau, who redirected it at sophomore goalie Chris Hayen.

Hayen was able to stop the initial attempt but allowed the ball to bounce away from his grasp and Letourneau capitalized on the rebound for his first goal of the season to give Colgate a 1-0 lead.

Marco admitted that Colgate did a good job on its execution of the corner kick, but was also quick to note that he thought some of the new faces who were inserted for the non-conference match were at fault for allowing the goal.

“[Some of the younger guys on the field] had never really settled in on defending corners,” he said. “So that will be something that we certainly look at because a trait of ours is that we don’t concede corner kick goals.”

Colgate nearly padded its lead before halftime as team scoring leader Steven Miller unleashed a rocket shot from inside the BU box. But Hayen had a beat on it, making an acrobatic save to keep the Raider lead at one heading into the locker room.

In the opening minute of the second half, Colgate yet again nearly went ahead by two as Miller beat out BU defenders for a long lead pass. But his breakaway shot was, for a second time, turned aside by Hayen.

Binghamton eventually broke through with just under 32 minutes remaining on sophomore Luke Halberg’s third goal of the season. Junior Jake Keegan was credited with the assist, his fifth of the year.

Keegan found a streaking Halberg down the right side of the field and Halberg, despite being blanketed by numerous defenders, was able to unleash a shot on goal.

Colgate goalie Grant Reed got a piece of it, but the strength of Halberg’s shot was too great as it skidded under Reed and into the net.

“[Keegan] was pretty good at playing the ball to me,” Halberg said. “I thought if I could make that run it’d be a pretty easy goal so it was a good feeling to finish it.”

Following Halberg’s game-tying goal, scoring remained at a standstill for the rest of regulation and through two overtime periods, leading to a 1-1 final.

Though Marco was pleased with his team’s effort against Colgate, he made it clear that he wasn’t pleased with the result.

“At home you don’t play for ties; at home you play for a win,” he said. “But a tie at home playing against Colgate, which is a very good team, builds some confidence in the guys.”

Still winless in America East play heading into the final stretch of the season, the Bearcats will need confidence now more than ever. Despite their struggles, they still sit within striking distance of a playoff spot.

Excluding leading University of Maryland, Baltimore County and second-place Boston University, all AE teams are capable of leapfrogging a squad in front of them with just one win.

The Bearcats will look to do just that as they are set to take on Stony Brook University on Saturday. At 2-1-1, the Seawolves currently stand in third place behind UMBC and Boston.

“They’re a very good team … and they move the ball a lot,” Marco said about his team’s upcoming opponent. “We’ll have to be patient [and] we’ll have to pick our moments … We’ll understand how they’re going to play, it’ll just be a question of if we can weather a storm a little bit.”

Following the matchup against SBU, Binghamton is set to take on University of Hartford on Wednesday before concluding its regular season by hosting the Boston Terriers on Oct. 29.

“I don’t see us out of the playoffs,” he continued. “I see us in the playoffs, provided we take care of some of these upcoming games.”

The Bearcats are set to kick off play against Stony Brook at 7 p.m. on Saturday at LaValle Stadium.

With $32 million, you can buy the world’s most expensive car ($2,400,000) 13 times over.

With $32 million, you can pay for the tuition of 1,200 students at Binghamton University (bear with me, out-of-staters).

With $32 million, you can account for at least half of the total 2011 payrolls of nine MLB teams.

So $32 million can buy a lot.

But it doesn’t buy championships, so in the world of the New York Yankees and their fans, it doesn’t buy happiness. It doesn’t even buy a World Series appearance, so it doesn’t even almost buy happiness.

Hell, if you ask Alex Rodriguez, it doesn’t even get you a trip to the American League Championship Series.

That was how I started this column last Thursday, just an hour after A-Rod had struck out to end the Yankees’ season for the second consecutive year. I’ll admit, I was writing on instinct, and Alex Rodriguez had just concluded the second-worst postseason of his career by striking out with the game-tying run on base. I’m sure most Yankee fans would have reacted (and did react) the same way.

But having had the weekend to stew things over, my take on the ALDS loss is a little different. So with that in mind, let’s continue.

I still think $32 million is a lot of money. But so is $196,854,630, which was the Yankees’ entire payroll this year. It led the MLB. Big shocker there.

By comparison, the 1998 Yankees made around $65 million in total. Understanding of course that the great ’98 World Championship team came in a different time, it was exactly that; a team. Boy, do names like Tino Martinez, David Cone, Scott Brosius, Paul O’Neill and Chad Curtis bring me back.

Each member of that roster contributed his fair share, and you don’t really remember expecting much more out of any one player over another. Is it because the highest-paid Yankee that year was making just over $8 million? Could be.

Baseball is a team game, and it’s right up there with basketball, football and hockey as the most team-oriented games out there. So while it’s easy to blame one incredibly rich superstar for his team’s failures, at least some of the onus has to fall on his teammates, too.

Was LeBron James 100 percent to blame for Miami’s loss in the NBA Finals? Of course not. But because of the drama that came with him joining the Heat, he was at the end of both the country’s collective pointer (and middle) fingers when Dallas raised the trophy.

With great power (and in this case, money,) comes great responsibility. So for a team with the salary of this year’s Yanks, there’s just no excuse for the ALDS loss.

Let’s forget Games 1-4 for a second and just concentrate on the final pressure-filled three innings of Game 5 — you know, when superstars should be earning their money.

The Bombers loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, but were only able to scratch across one run (which was forced in with a Mark Teixeira walk).

Teixeira made just over $23 million this year, by the way. But at least for that money he kept the line moving, something my high school baseball coach always stressed as important to keeping a rally alive.

A-Rod followed with a strikeout, and Nick Swisher ($9 million) followed by doing the same.

In the eighth, Derek Jeter ($14 million) almost put the Yankees ahead with a long fly out. Don’t pretend you didn’t have a flashback of Jeffrey Maier, because we all did.

And finally, it came down to that desperate bottom of the ninth. Curtis Granderson ($8 million) flew out, Robinson Cano ($10 million) lined out and Rodriguez struck out.

I’d have loved to get on the “hate A-Rod” bandwagon. And for a few hours, I was riding shotgun. But at the end of the day, you can’t hold one player accountable for a team’s failed effort.

Don’t get me wrong. $32 million is still plenty of money. But according to my calculations, $196 million is more. Feel free to double-check the math on that, though.

So if you want to blame A-Rod, go ahead. He makes the big bucks and should absolutely be held accountable for his own shortcomings.

But to be fair, there are others who should share the blame.

Then again, nobody said life was fair.

Binghamton got off on the right foot in the opening round as it shot a team score of 286, 2-under-par. The score is the second-best team round in program history.

In the tournament’s second round later that day, the Bearcats slipped to second place after a round of 293, one stroke behind the leading Columbia University Lions.

But in the tournament’s final day, Binghamton’s top four scores totaled 292 (72, 73, 73, 74), four ahead of the Lions who finished with a team score of 296.

All in all, BU finished the tournament with a score of 871, three ahead of Columbia, who stood at 874.

Individually, senior Mike Surdey, who led the field with 40 pars, and sophomore Paul Andrews each finished runner-up.

Andrews opened the tournament with an opening round of 69 (3-under-par) and continued with scores of 74 and 73 in the following two rounds, respectively. He also completed the tournament with two career-bests as his final score was an even par and as previously mentioned, ended in second place for the first top-10 finish of his career.

Each of the five Binghamton competitors in the event finished in the top-25, as junior David Cellura tied for 10th, sophomore Bryce Edmister tied for 19th and freshman Josh Holling tied for 25th. A total of 75 golfers competed in the tournament.

BU will have some time off before it next sees action, as it is set to take part in the Big 5 Invitational hosted by Temple University in Philadelphia.

Action is will begin on Oct. 8 and continue on Oct. 9.

In the annual Homecoming match, the Bearcats dropped a heartbreaking 2-1 final to the Adelphi University Panthers, allowing the game-winning goal with only 33 seconds remaining in regulation.

Through the entirety of the game’s first half, Adelphi (2-4) managed to hold BU (3-5) scoreless on just two total shots. Despite managing just three shots of their own, the Panthers struck with 21:37 remaining in the half.

Junior midfielder Steven Rivera crossed a ball into the middle of Binghamton’s box and fellow junior James Diana managed to get just enough of his head on it to direct it past sophomore goalie Chris Hayen for the game’s first goal.

Part of the Bearcats’ frustration on offense was due to Adelphi playing four defenders back, which BU head coach Paul Marco has said a lot of opponents have been doing to stop his team. Binghamton began its season on fire offensively, scoring nine goals in its first four games. But in its last four, the team has netted just two goals.

“We weren’t really going after them with the soccer ball and we weren’t playing as fast as we could,” Marco said.

But the tide turned when the second half began, as both teams suddenly found their offensive stride and fired shot after shot on goal. Despite having recorded a total of five shots on goal through the first half, the two teams created 19 opportunities in the second.

“I thought we created enough in the second half,” Marco said. “We decided to try [keeping the strikers central instead of wide] and move the wide midfielders a little bit higher, and I thought that allowed [a number of our players to attack more].”

Multiple acrobatic saves by Hayen kept the score at 1-0 and the Bearcats within striking distance. And numerous times in the second half, it seemed as if Binghamton would be able to deadlock the game as juniors Jake Keegan and Adam Whitehead each recorded legitimate chances.

None of those found the back of the net, though, and as the clock ticked down, the 2,443 fans in attendance grew restless.

But as the 10-minute mark came and went, Binghamton all of the sudden began to create its best opportunities.

With 8:35 to go, senior Ryan Walter saved a long pass from heading out of bounds, dribbled past a defender and fired on goal, but his shot was stopped by goalie Christopher Herrera.

Minutes later on a similar play on the other side of the box, Keegan stopped yet another ball from heading out of bounds and lifted a pass in front of the AU goal while senior Jerome Robinson headed it in for the equalizer.

“I got a great ball from Jake Keegan and I was in between two [defenders],” Robinson said. “So I went up strong and executed.”

The goal, Robinson’s first of the season, came at an opportune time for his team and on a stage of the utmost importance, the Homecoming game.

“It felt really good,” he said, thankful of Marco for having the confidence to substitute him into the game with 10 minutes remaining.

Having tied the match in dramatic fashion, the Bearcats played most of the remaining minutes with confidence and were able to stay neck-and-neck with Adelphi.

The key word being “most.”

With 33 seconds remaining, AU senior Mauricio Mora dribbled to the top of the Binghamton box and around defenders to rocket a shot past Hayen and into the net, sucking the air and energy out of the Bearcats Sports Complex as he put the Panthers ahead to stay, 2-1.

“I knew that time was running out and luckily the ball came to me,” Mora said. “At that moment I just saw two [defenders] rush at me so I knew I didn’t have the open shot so I just pushed it to the side and I knew where I was, so I just went for it.”

When asked how the goal felt given the energy and atmosphere of the night, Mora laughed.

“Honestly? It felt great. I mean, I hate to say it, but I couldn’t feel any better,” he said.

Now losers of their last four out of five games, the Bearcats wish they could say the same.

With the loss in the rearview mirror, Binghamton will look to bounce back in tonight’s match against Syracuse University with kickoff set for 7 p.m.

And for the Binghamton University men’s soccer team, one of those matches is tomorrow night. In line with the annual Homecoming weekend, the Bearcats are set to take on the Adelphi University Panthers at 7 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex.

The Homecoming match is generally the most popular regular season soccer game attendance-wise. Last year, 2,240 fans showed up to witness Binghamton extend its unbeaten streak to six matches with a 1-0 win over the University of Vermont, and one year earlier, 2,604 patrons set a Complex record for attendance that still stands today.

“It’s always unbelievable,” head coach Paul Marco said. “One of the highlights of the day is the match, so there’ll certainly be a buzz in the locker room.”

Among the 2,000 fans expected to attend Saturday’s game will be about 25 men’s soccer alumni who have played under Marco in the years since he came to Binghamton in 2002.

“It’s a special day for our guys,” Marco continued. “It’s a day that the focus is our Homecoming and bringing our alums back in.”

But to impress the players of the past in tomorrow night’s game, the current Bearcats will have to play better than they have recently. Alternating wins and losses throughout the entirety of this season, the team’s record now stands at 3-4.

The result of Binghamton’s most recent game, a 4-0 blowout loss at Cornell University, was not the way the team wanted to head into a game carrying the importance that the homecoming match does.

Though neck-and-neck through the first 20 minutes of play, the game quickly got out of hand as the Big Red took a 2-0 lead to the locker room.

The first of those Cornell goals came on a corner kick as sophomore Stephen Reisert directed the ball into the box toward 6-foot-5-inch sophomore Patrick Slogic, who headed it into the back of the net.

“[Slogic is] a center back who comes forward on their set pieces and basically they just delivered the ball to him and he headed it home,” Marco recalled.

And 13 minutes later it was Reisert’s turn as he capitalized on a cross from senior Scott Caldwell and headed his second goal of the season into the net. Following halftime, the Big Red continued their attack and netted two more goals to seal the victory in blowout fashion, 4-0.

“Our back four isn’t making the game as difficult as our strikers are seeing against the opponent’s back four,” Marco said. “So our defenders have to be smarter and harder … We’re making the game way too easy for our opponent, and if we solve that piece of it we’ll start to see less opportunities for [them].”

Despite beginning its season with nine goals through its first four games, Binghamton has scored just one goal in its three games since, something Marco attributes to opponents’ evolving strategies.

“The last couple of opponents we’ve played [have kept] four players back all the time, and when you do that you tend to not concede goals,” he said. “They’ve been pretty athletic and keyed in on [junior] Jake [Keegan] a little bit. [Against Central Connecticut State University, he] always had two players near him and sometimes there were three or four players near him.”

Keegan’s offensive firepower has led the Bearcats this season, but Marco was quick to insist that good defense on his top scorer will not doom his team offensively.

“We’re creating the opportunities, we just didn’t finish them in the last few games,” he said.

Marco has also discussed making changes to his lineup in order to enable his team to convert on those opportunities.

“We’ve now gone three games where we’ve struggled a bit,” he said. “I stayed with a couple of guys for a couple of games and they haven’t responded as well as they need to, so I think you might see a few new faces on the field on Saturday.”

Binghamton has played Adelphi once in its history. In 2001, the Panthers manhandled BU en route to a 5-0 blowout in Garden City, N.Y. This year, AU is 1-4 and 0-2 on the road.

Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. tomorrow following the annual Homecoming tailgate outside of the Events Center.

That may seem a bit harsh. But sometimes, the blunt truth is necessary.

The Bearcats have had a relatively tough non-conference schedule up to this point, playing two nationally ranked opponents in West Virginia University and The Ohio State University in addition to a strong Bucknell University team. In fact, they beat the Bison 3-1 to get off on the right foot this year.

But following that terrific jump out of the gate, BU has gone just 2-3 in its five games since. One can argue they could have taken each of those games, too.

It all started against West Virginia on Sept. 2, just one week after Binghamton’s opening win at Bucknell. Despite leaping ahead on an early goal, the Bearcats allowed West Virginia to retaliate with two goals of its own before the end of the first half. Scoring remained at a stand still for the remainder of the game and the Mountaineers escaped what could have been a shocking upset by a score of 2-1.

And it was more of the same against the Buckeyes nine days later on Sept. 11. Junior forward Jake Keegan netted the game’s first goal just four minutes into the match, and for most of the contest it seemed as if Binghamton would be able to hold on. But from the 74th minute on, the BU defense allowed the game-tying and game-winning goals.

Now, I’ll be honest. My soccer knowledge and experience with the game is strictly outlined by what I’ve learned from three sources: the World Cup, covering this team and EA SPORTS’ FIFA for Xbox 360. And when I was about 10, I accidentally hit myself in the face with a soccer ball. But really, that’s it. So maybe it’s just the not-so-spectacularly-knowledgeable spectator in me, but I think no matter what the sport, when you’ve got a lead through about three-fourths of a match, you have to do anything you can to hold on to it. But again, take that last sentence with a grain of salt, understanding that I’ve never played a game of soccer in my life outside of camp.

And I mean recently.

As a counselor.

With fourth grade campers.

In any case, this article isn’t as much about losing those WVU and OSU games as it is about the most recent two.

Finally playing at home for the first time this season, the Bearcats entered this weekend’s home tournament with a 2-2 record. With two games against two beatable opponents, a weekend sweep would really have, excusing the pun, gotten the ball rolling on this 2011 campaign.

But the Bearcats dropped the first game to Central Connecticut State University 1-0 on — yet again — a late goal. On Sunday, though, it was Binghamton’s chance to pounce late in the game, as a back-and-forth affair between Binghamton and Rider University saw its only goal come off the foot of senior captain Ryan Walter, which Walter himself later admitted was not an attempted shot, but rather was intended as a pass to the opposite side of the box where Keegan stood wide open.

Keegan’s breakout season and offensive firepower has accounted for nearly half of the team’s total goals (he’s netted four of the team’s 10) this season. He has been a steady force too, tallying a goal in four separate games, though the team is 2-2 in games where he scores. So my point is not that he’s been singlehandedly carrying the team, but that he can only do so much by himself. And as head coach Paul Marco has said, there are 10 to 12 players on the roster who he feels can put the ball in the back of the net — it’s just a matter of getting those goals at the right time, perhaps picking up the slack in a game during which Keegan struggles or simply when his efforts aren’t enough.

Moreover, the team’s goalkeeper position has been in flux all season long. Sophomore Chris Hayen seemed to be the clear choice, but an injury sustained early on opened the door for fellow sophomore Anthony Sokalski to join the conversation. Sokalski was given time in net as Hayen recovered, and Marco has been so pleased with his development that that the team’s game-to-game starter has yet to be decided with conference play looming and set to kick off for Binghamton next Saturday night.

And according to Marco, the team will continue to play its best 11, whether it’s composed of freshmen or seniors, experienced or not. Marco is a confident man who knows his team well, but a question mark in goal from game to game does not portray it to the untrained eye.

Until one of those goalies makes a strong push to secure the starting job and goals consistently come from players besides Keegan, I continue to wonder if this team will be considered a force to be reckoned with when America East play comes around.

Binghamton (3-3) didn’t start off the weekend like it wanted to against CCSU (3-3). After a fairly even first half in which the Bearcats held a 5-3 shot advantage, the team allowed a crucial turnover and goal in the 72nd minute to junior Alpha Dioubate.

“Our center back had clear possession of the ball and just underplayed the ball back to the goalkeeper,” Binghamton head coach Paul Marco said. “We just can’t make those mistakes … [giving] them the ball right in front of the goal. Of course he’s going to score when he just has the goalkeeper to beat.”

Just days after Marco had downplayed the idea of his entire offense relying on star junior Jake Keegan, who has emerged as a leader on offense, Keegan was bottled up against CCSU and was unable to get a shot off, perhaps feeding into Binghamton’s offensive frustration on Friday.

“I don’t think they just did a great job [defending] Jake, I think they did a pretty good job on all of us,” Marco said. He also noted that he felt it was necessary for his team to feel the “sting” of Friday’s loss before shifting its attention to Sunday’s game against Rider (1-5).

But through most of their second match of the weekend, the Bearcats looked flat and it seemed as if the sting of Friday’s loss was lingering. Binghamton managed multiple scoring opportunities in the first half but each was turned away by the Rider defense.

With just over 22 minutes remaining, an exhibition of passing by the Bearcats found Keegan cutting toward the goal, one-on-one with goalie junior Jason Giordano. As Keegan’s window of opportunity was closing, he attempted to fire a shot on goal but was met by a sliding Giordano, who deflected the ball away to end the chance.

Numerous free kicks taken by junior Adam Whitehead made their way into the box, but each was met by solid Rider defense as the teams headed to the locker rooms deadlocked at zero.

Junior and Binghamton goalie Anthony Sokalski wasn’t tested until seven minutes had gone by in the second half when he was forced to make the first of his three saves on the day.

Rider found itself with numerous legitimate scoring chances in the second.

With 31 minutes remaining and following a turnover in the BU defensive zone, junior Ryan Fitzgerald fired at the net but the ball was met and redirected by the fingertips of an outstretched Sokalski. The Broncs were forced to settle for a corner kick but were unable to convert.

One minute later Rider nearly got on the board again as freshman Matt Veltri’s rocket of a shot cleared the head of Sokalski but met the post.

Binghamton was also able to get its share of opportunities in the second half but each were turned away with spectacular saves from Giordano.

“Their goalkeeper was outstanding. He made some unbelievable saves — great reactionary saves,” Marco said.

But finally, with three minutes remaining, senior captain Ryan Walter found himself deep in Rider territory. He fired on goal and Giordano got his hands on it, but the power of Walter’s shot proved to be too much as the ball bounced into the back of the net for the game’s lone goal.

“Keegan was wide open on the back post so I tried to play it to him and it ended up going in anyway, so a goal’s a goal,” Walter said. “Friday we didn’t get a goal so coming into today we really wanted to get a win and coming down the stretch we were still [tied] 0-0.”

“Any time you play a ball early and behind the defense it’s difficult for them to defend,” Marco said. “You don’t know if it’s a shot, you don’t know if it’s a cross across the [front of the goal] and I think [Walter] just played it hard across the back of [the defense] at the frame and it was a fantastic goal.”

Having split its first two home matches, the team is set to travel to Cornell University tomorrow to take on the Big Red in one of Binghamton’s final non-conference matchups. The Bearcats are then set to return home for their annual homecoming game, scheduled to take place at 7:30 p.m on Saturday, Sept. 24 against Adelphi University.

Sophomore Ruben Haggai and senior Rafael Rodrigues went 1-2 in the C doubles flight as the two teamed up to beat a Princeton team by a score of 8-3.

Individually, Rodrigues was the most successful Bearcat on the weekend as he won two matches on his way to the E singles flight semifinals. Prior to losing in three sets to Columbia’s Ian Laster (5-7, 6-2, 6-4), he tore through a Fairleigh Dickinson University opponent 6-3, 6-3 and continued his roll against a Princeton adversary 6-2, 7-5.

“I’m sure he feels OK about it,” Binghamton head coach Adam Cohen said. “He’s playing better than he did last year but he still has a long way to go.”

Meanwhile, Haggai was able to post wins in three matches in his D singles flights.

Freshmen Jonathan Hefetz and Ismael Dinia each won a match in C singles and teamed up in doubles play to win a match in B doubles.

“It’s just a matter of execution,” Cohen said. “If you can execute under pressure, you’ll probably win the matches. If you don’t execute, you’re not going to win. It’s like that in any sport.”

The team is next set to see action this weekend at the Virginia Plus 1 Invitational. But according to Cohen, in order for Binghamton to be successful it must first build on its early-season performances.

“We just need to do a better job of finishing when we’re in a position to do so and I guess [that would be] one thing to take away from the weekend. Other than that, we just need to keep working and getting better,” Cohen said.

The Bearcats will continue their fall season at the Virginia Plus 1 Invitational next weekend.