Since thinking about this year’s squad makes me feel like banging my head against my desk, I started daydreaming about how great Binghamton would be if its best players could have finished college at the same time. The Bearcats have only played Division I basketball for six years, but there have been some very talented players during Al Walker’s tenure. After consulting some Pipe Dream writers who saw more of the older players when they were in uniform, I came up with the roster for the Binghamton University All-Star squad, right down to the players’ best individual seasons.

Mike Gordon, point guard, junior year, 2006-07

Gordon is perhaps the best pure point guard in the America East this season, and may go down as the school’s best ever four-year player when he graduates. He’s dishing out 4.7 assists per game with an assist to turnover ratio of 2.91, which ranks fifth in the country among players who average at least three assists. His intelligence is also reflected in his defense, where he averages more than two steals per contest. Gordon isn’t a natural shooter or scorer, but with enough talent around him on this all-star roster, he won’t need to do much of either.

Anthony Green, shooting guard, senior year, 2002-03

Green, a current BU assistant coach, was Binghamton’s first star and first America East first-teamer. The Philadelphia native was actually a point guard during his time at BU, but the emergence of Mike Gordon lets us move Green off the ball to shooting guard. Green scored 16.7 points per game in his senior season on solid three-point and free throw shooting.

Andre Heard, small forward, senior year, 2005-06

Heard was the most exciting player to watch in his two years at Binghamton, thanks to his highlight-reel dunks and ability to score bunches of points in a few minutes. Heard actually shot the ball poorly (.386 last season), but scored 17.1 points per game and was a ball hawk on defense. Ya Heard?

Sebastian Hermenier, power forward, senior year, 2005-06

Hermenier did it all — he shot well, got to the line (making nearly all his free throws), drew charges and, best of all, guarded the opponents’ leading post players with unquestionable toughness. At only 6-foot-6 and routinely guarding players almost seven feet tall, Hermenier was the America East Defensive Player of the Year. “Seabass” led by example, and as a senior on this squad, he’ll mentor the team’s youngest member…

Nick Billings, center, sophomore year, 2002-03

The 7-foot shot blocker was a legitimate NBA prospect in his sophomore and junior seasons. I chose his sophomore year because he shot better, swatted more shots on defense and rebounded more efficiently than he did as a junior. Billings did, however, foul out of five games that year, which is where Hermenier’s leadership comes into play.

Troy Hailey, sixth man

Hailey is not a star in the same respect as his teammates on this roster — he’s never been an America East all-star pick as former teammate Brandon Carter was — but he has been so consistent at Binghamton that he deserves the nod. Due to last year’s injury-riddled season, Hailey somehow got a reputation as being an inconsistent player, but over his career Hailey averages a respectable .340 on 3-pointers. Plus, he has experience playing with nearly all of his teammates on the BU All-Stars.

The Binghamton All-Stars feature two America East Defensive Players of the Year inside the paint and two America East defensive first-teamers on the perimeter in Mike Gordon and Andre Heard. Suffice it to say they are a very, very stingy team defensively. They are efficient on the other side of the floor, too, with legitimate offensive stars in Green and Heard. Green’s scoring ability, combined with Billings’ tall presence in the paint, frees up Heard to do what he does best: slash to the hoop. Mike Gordon, meanwhile, is the maestro, the orchestrator and, best of all, the glue guy. He makes it happen for this squad. Besides Vermont and maybe Boston University, no America East team fielded as much talent as Binghamton over the six-year stretch.

The depressing thing about this team is that Gordon, Hailey, Heard and Hermenier actually played on the same team last year and failed to win the America East championship. But there is hope … and it comes in the form of an undersized guard from Queens and a 6-foot-8 forward from Serbia. The pieces are there to win a title next year, and Bearcats fans will accept nothing less.