When Kevin Broadus announced at his inaugural press conference that he planned on bringing four-star recruits to Binghamton University, everyone admired the quixotic nature of the new coach.

Few thought he’d ever deliver on his promise, especially in his first recruiting class. But Broadus has.

The University announced last Monday the signing of two recruits with Division I experience, Tiki Mayben of Hudson Valley Community College and Malik Alvin of Chipola College (Fla.), to National Letters of Intent. Both players started for high major programs as freshmen and both players left for questionable reasons.

Both players will be good; Alvin started for Conference USA’s UTEP as a freshman, but the guy who has everyone talking is Mayben.

The Troy, N.Y., native was the No. 1 ranked point guard in the nation after his freshman season of high school, according to HoopScoop.com. After graduating high school as the 57th best-ranked recruit in the nation, he headed to Syracuse, ready to step into Gerry McNamara’s shoes and continue the Orange revival. Mayben never arrived at SU due to academic reasons, and after spending a year at UMass, he’s currently running the point for HVCC, the No. 1 NJCAA Division III national poll.

Next season Mayben could have been preparing for his senior season at the Carrier Dome, but instead he’ll walk onto the Events Center floor, maybe as the starting point guard, maybe not, but definitely as the biggest recruit Binghamton’s ever brought in.

Does Mayben’s potential outweigh his risk?

Definitely.

‘At this level you have to take risks,’ Broadus said. ‘That’s the business we’re in. He’s a special talent. He was the No. 1 player in the country at one point in his career.’

The detractors are already deriding this move. They say Broadus seems only intent on winning quick and leaving for a better school. They say he doesn’t care about the school’s academic reputation. They’re saying recruiting junior college players doesn’t show a commitment to winning. They’re saying Mayben can never succeed, that his past struggles show too much.

But have any of the naysayers met Tiki Mayben? Did any of the doubters bother to check and see that at HVCC Mayben is averaging 19 points and 9.9 assists this season?

And even if Mayben doesn’t work out, the risk is worth it.

It is the nature of college sports that players graduate and you have to replace them. One would hope that in replacing the players, the coach goes after the best possible candidate. Does anyone really think there was a four-year player with Mayben’s ability that would consider Binghamton? A four-star prospect would choose the Big East over the America East?

Mike Gordon is graduating. He was a four-year recruit and one of the best things to ever happen to Binghamton. For four seasons Gordon manned the backcourt and defined Binghamton basketball. But his eligibility is up. The Mike Gordon era will end this March, and Broadus needed to find the best available player.

He could have gone and found another high school senior and hoped he developed into the next Mike Gordon, but when you have two more years of Lazar Trifunovic and Minja Kovacevic, and one more year of Dwayne Jackson and Reggie Fuller, do you take a chance that a point guard won’t develop quickly?

Squandering the final two years of Laz’s career would be worse than signing a point guard with a spotty past.

‘One thing I know is, you can have all the big men in the world, but if you don’t have point guard, you can’t win,’ Broadus said.

One of the main criticisms of Al Walker was that he went to JUCO players instead of four-year talents. And that was a viable criticism. For every Andre Heard that BU has recruited there was a Marvin Lee, a Drew Davidson or a Schaeffer Jackson.

But the same goes for four-year recruits. For every Gordon and Trifunovic there was a Jordan Fithian.

And make no mistake, Alvin, who started as a freshman at Conference USA’s UTEP, and Mayben are not a pair of Marvin Lees. Their ceiling is higher than any player BU has ever recruited, including Heard and Gordon.

Broadus and his staff have spent time with Mayben. They wouldn’t bring him in if they didn’t think he could help them win.

‘It’s our job to make sure he does his job on and off the court,’ Broadus said. ‘But you take a kid like that for two years, hopefully he can take your team to the next level.’

Mayben and Alvin have the potential to take Binghamton to that next level, to the NCAA tournament.

Who knows, maybe Broadus is trying to build a tournament-caliber team as quickly as he can without regard to long-term success so that he can take a job at a better school. That’s no different than any other AE coach, past or present: look at Jay Wright, who went from Hofstra to Villanova, and Mike Jarvis, who went from Boston University to St. John’s, and Jim Calhoun, who went from Northeastern to UConn. All three coaches succeeded in the America East and then moved to the Big East.

The only way the AE can get to the point that coaches will stick around is by taking chances on kids like Mayben and Alvin, and hoping they deliver.

So what if Mayben and Alvin help Binghamton University win a couple of titles and Broadus bolts for the Atlantic-10?

That’s still two more titles than Binghamton had before they got here.