Everything about the first home game of the Kevin Broadus era screamed new, and ‘ perhaps most important ‘ everything about the first night screamed class.

For the first time since Binghamton University made the leap to Division I athletics, someone other than Al Walker told the men’s basketball crowd to ‘cheer loudly, cheer often, but most importantly, cheer with class.’

It was new head coach Kevin Broadus who said it, and the cheer that followed as he and his staff walked out for the first time was deafening. They strolled out, five coaches acting as a staff, no one seeming bigger than the other, all in suits, all in ties. Even Al Walker holdover Lawrence Brenneman had a new haircut. And throughout the game, the staff looked like a team, conferring with each other at half court, with players and with the refs.

The team on the floor had brand new jerseys and warm-ups that made them look like a Big East team and not necessarily an America East team. Seeing the name ‘Gordon’ above the No. 5 on Mike Gordon’s jersey just looked right.

And throughout the game, an 88-75 victory over Quinnipiac, a new attitude was seen: an attitude of class and dignity.

Everything didn’t go BU’s way on Wednesday night ‘ far from it. But when Kevin Broadus didn’t like what he saw on the court or from a player, there was no yelling. It was Broadus calmly wanting to know what went wrong. When he didn’t like a call he raised his arms at the ref: no yelling, just a ‘come-on, you’re-better-than-that’ look. And he made the refs look more stupid than any yelling fit could have.

If a player didn’t respond to Broadus, he talked to them. He pulled players off the court, told them what they were doing wrong, then patted them on the back and sent them back out there. He wasn’t going to call out a player in front of the crowd.

In the locker room, it was a different story.

Lazar Trifunovic was tentative in the first half. He wasn’t attacking the hoop the way his coach knew he could. In the second half, Laz scored 14 points, including 10 straight during a decisive second-half run that put Quinnipiac away for good.

‘I can’t say what I told him in the locker room,’ Broadus said. ‘But I challenged him. And he looked me in the eyes and said, ‘I’m ready.’

That’s how you motivate your players. You don’t call them out in front of fans or the media. You earn their respect. You make them want to win for their teammates.

Broadus made sure after the game to point out that ‘everyone has each other’s backs.’ They’re a team. They’ll win as a team and they’ll lose as a team, and Broadus isn’t going to mess with that.

A 19-point half-time lead was whittled to six halfway through the second half. This was a time when last year’s Bearcat team might have panicked, let the game slip away and seen a tantrum from their coach.

But the Bearcats didn’t fold. The game never slipped away. Broadus called a timeout and Trifunovic led the Bearcats on a game-sealing 10-4 run.

What was the difference this season?

‘Coach Walker would have subbed everybody out,’ Richie Forbes said. ‘They go on a big run and he would have subbed everyone out. A bad decision. Coach Broadus just sat us down, talked to us, ran a smart play to go inside and out, and that’s what we did.’

Broadus stuck by his guys and didn’t embarrass them in front of the home crowd. They appreciated the effort and in return didn’t let him down.

Just shows what a little bit of class can do.

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