Five years ago, when Binghamton decided to make the jump to Division-I, one young man happily accepted the challenge of leading the Bearcats in their first steps towards prominence.

Nick Billings, a highly-touted recruit from Kodiak, Alaska, was a seven-foot ball of energy and excitement. When the team opened the 2001 season, and its D-I tenure, with a 49-46 win over Dartmouth in the West Gym, Billings immediately asserted himself as a crowd favorite with four blocks and a thrilling slam-dunk.

From that day forward, everyone knew who Nick Billings was. Girls wanted him, guys wanted to be him. Nick Billings was the talk of the town.

On Jan. 31, 2002, Nick sustained a meniscus injury after playing seven minutes off the bench at Maine, and would sit out the rest of the year.

But the following year, nobody started stronger than Nick. The seven-footer returned to the court to dominate the America East, twice picking up 10 blocks in a span of two weeks against rivals Boston U. and Northeastern in the most successful season a Binghamton big man has ever had.

2003-04 was an up-and-down year, or more accurately a down-and-up year, for BU’s dreaded big man. After early-season struggles with BU’s new point guard, Troy Hailey, Billings finally got back in his groove. He brought BU to the brink of a playoff win against Maine with 20 points, nine rebounds and four blocks.

But last year everything fell apart. Considered a potential professional by national and local media outlets before the season, Nick simply crumpled under the pressure. His monumental collapse, from preseason all-conference and potential NBA second-round draft pick to sitting next to the redshirts on the bench, brought up all kinds of questions about Nick’s character, as well as Al Walker’s motivational skills.

Touching images of Nick grasping freshman point guard Mike Gordon after the team’s semifinal loss to Vermont were misleading — Gordon’s emotional boost was the best pass he made to the veteran all year.

I mean let’s be honest — Nick just didn’t have it at all last year. The guy could never really shoot the ball, he had no desire to fight for position down low, and he couldn’t hustle back down the court to play defense. It’s beyond me how anyone could think that someone without the motivation to start at Binghamton University — losing his job not once but twice — could possibly play professional basketball.

A couple weeks ago, Nick was cut by the Roanoke Dazzle, a team coached by current BU player Drew Davison’s father, Kent. Given a second chance by the NBDL’s Fayetteville Patriots, Billings was again cut on Wednesday.

Whether it’s his knees, his work ethic, or both, the time has come to realize that Nick is no longer the potential superstar he once was. But with no other real budding professionals hanging around the BU athletic department, it’s hard to take the media focus off BU’s graduated seven-footer and his fight to play professional basketball.

“He doesn’t work as hard, or didn’t work as hard, or couldn’t work as hard as the gifts that he was given,” Walker said, “so there’s great drama there. There’s great human interest — it’s a great curiosity.”

Don’t get me wrong here — as I’ve always said, Nick is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. He was always thrilled to speak to the fans, especially the young members of the Junior Bearcat club. He appreciated every fan and media member, and if you saw him off the court, you’d never know he was one of the best shot-deniers in NCAA history.

My suggestion is that rather than linger on the plight of Nick Billings, now is the time to move on and find a new face of BU athletics. Anyone who watched a BU basketball game last season could tell that Nick wasn’t even our second-best center, while the energy given by workhorses like Sebastian Hermenier was constantly overshadowed by the media blitz surrounding the 7-foot Alaskan.

If Binghamton University wants to move ahead with its plan of becoming a successful athletic program, its time that its student body put the past behind them and looked towards the future — a future filled with talented, dedicated players like Mike Gordon and Duane James. Here’s rooting for Nick Billings, of course, but if success is in our near future, the focus just has to shift to the opportunity at hand.