Part I

Questionable in-game decisions

If you’ve ever watched a Binghamton basketball game and wondered, ‘Why did they do that?’ well, you’re not the only one.

While Al Walker has never played a single minute on the court for the Bearcats, he has made thousands of decisions that directly affect his team’s play on the court.

Sometimes things work out perfectly. Perhaps the best example happened just over a week ago, when junior point guard Mike Gordon bounced an inbounds pass off the back of an opponent with half a second remaining, then drained a game-winning lay-up. (Hello, SportsCenter.)

Sometimes, however, things just do not work out as planned. Whether it’s an ill-advised substitution, a technical foul assessed to the coaching staff or just a mistake at the most critical of moments, there have been a number of memorable errors in judgment:

‘Are You Serious?!?!’

Al Walker has always been a fiery coach. When Walker is manning the sidelines, the fans, the players and the administration all know that Al is going to leave it all on the line.

The BU Zoo, and to a lesser extent the local Southern Tier fans, have come to embrace the nature of their coach. Signs comparing Walker to Chuck Norris have popped up among the supportive student section, and cutout cardboard Al Walker heads on sticks from an early-season game this year are surely still hanging decoratively around campus dorm rooms.

But at times, that fierce attitude has backfired. Never one to keep his thoughts to himself, Walker has been personally assessed with 14 technical fouls in his seven years on the Binghamton bench.

Sometimes it helps, as the benefit of getting the crowd and the players fired up outweighs the cost of two free throws. But often times ‘ especially this season ‘ these technicals have seemed misplaced and uninspiring.

When Binghamton beat Miami in South Florida in December, Walker received tons of praise for a solid gameplan and great execution down the stretch. But with 12:30 left in the second half and Binghamton clinging to a nine-point lead, following a Lazar Trifunovic foul in the backcourt, Walker unleashed a verbal tirade and was assessed a technical foul, allowing the ‘Canes two free throws. They would convert both, setting off a 7-0 Miami run.

The Hurricanes’ run set the stage for the dramatic finish, where Binghamton was able to pull out a gutsy victory. But without that 7-0 run, perhaps the game wouldn’t have ended quite so close.

For this season, Walker was also assessed technicals with 2:28 in the loss against Pepperdine with the Bearcats trailing by 10, as well as in the Boston University loss with 15:34 remaining and a nine-point deficit. (All three technical fouls this season have come directly following foul calls on Lazar Trifunovic.)

While some of Trifunovic’s errors have encouraged Walker to flip at the refs, one especially memorable exchange came in the loss at Stony Brook on Jan. 14, when Walker informed Trifunovic, at the top of his lungs, that he ‘is fucking soft!’ after Trifunovic failed to chase down a loose ball.

No substitute, no substitute

Walker’s devotion to defense sometimes leads him to remove players that seem to be ‘hot’ offensively.

This season, Walker’s substitution patterns seem to have settled down. But the persistent benching of Richie Forbes perplexes many casual fans, who wonder how such an explosive scorer can be consistently relegated to sitting.

‘Richie might score 12, but he’ll give up 16,’ Walker said earlier this week. ‘I’m not trading 12 for 16.’

Perhaps the most befuddling benching came on Jan. 21, when senior guard Troy Hailey played just two minutes in a 65-61 loss to Vermont. Even Vermont head coach Mike Lonergan expressed confusion over Hailey’s benching in the postgame, where Walker offered a vague explanation: ‘It was just a tighter rotation today.’

Hailey returned to his regular role in the next game against UMBC, playing 29 minutes, and has shown flashes of the scorer he once was ‘ but not everyone bounces back from being benched. In fact, it seems more often than not, many haven’t.

Senior swingman Billy Williams practically disappeared from existence after his mid-season benching in 2004. Sharp-shooting two-guard Louie Karis was among several players who left the team after the 2003 season, upset about what he considered unfair playing time. And Nick Billings’ playing time tumbled to almost nothing as his senior season winded down. (To be fair, injuries played a factor in Billings’ demise.)

Situation Critical

With the exception of two losses, one at Stony Brook and one at home to Boston University, every conference game the Bearcats have had this season has at least been close. Many fans, and the optimistic coaching staff, hang their hats on keeping the Great Danes and the Catamounts from ‘covering the spread.’

But sometimes just one move can make the difference between a win and a loss.

Walker shouldered the blame after UMBC’s Brian Hodges burned past Giovanni Olomo down the lane in a last-second loss on Jan. 3: ‘I should have reminded Gio how to defend,’ he lamented.

In the home loss against Vermont, in the closing moments with the Bearcats down four, it took the team six seconds to intentionally commit a foul to send the Catamounts to the free-throw line.

Yes, the coaching staff has had its share of successes as well ‘ like Gordon’s off-an-opponent’s-back wizardry, which was indeed drawn up by the coaches. But when you’re in last place, the pitfalls seem all the more significant.

The Bearcats’ biggest collapse this season came on Jan. 18 against UNH. Awful defensive positioning late in the loss allowed the Wildcats’ Tyrece Gibbs to knock down a heartbreaking 3-pointer, giving UNH a five-point lead just minutes after the Bearcats had a 15-point edge.

BOXXX Last-second woes have played a part in previous years as well. Bad losses against Albany (scoring three points in the game’s final 4:22, Jan. 28, 2006), St. Rose (giving the Golden Knights two free throws with .3 seconds left in a tie game on Nov. 4, 2006), and New Hampshire (trailing by two points with two seconds left and calling an alley-oop to Nick Billings, Jan. 17, 2004) come to mind, but perhaps the most significant last-second choke in Binghamton history came on March 6, 2004.

The fifth-seeded Bearcats, playing the first Division-I postseason game in program history, an AE quarterfinal game against No. 4 Maine, had taken the Black Bears to overtime and led 75-73 with 57 seconds left. Billy Williams was whistled for a foul, and in the ensuing stoppage of play, Nick Billings took the basketball and slammed it to the ground in disgust.

Billings was immediately called for a technical foul, and after the four free throws, the Bearcats now stared at a two-point deficit. The Black Bears would go on to win the game 79-77, but the pain really set in when eighth-seeded Stony Brook knocked off top-seeded Boston in the other quarterfinal.

With the Terriers out of the way, the Black Bears would go on to easily knock off Stony Brook in the semifinals, making it to the 2004 AE Championship game, while the Bearcats dreamed about what could’ve been. END BOXXX

::: In part two next Tuesday, I examine the philosophical decisions that coach Walker and his staff seem obligated to stick with from season to season, the staff’s misuse of certain role players throughout the years and the critical errors in strategy that have turned potential wins into disappointing losses.:::