Long have Binghamton basketball fans hoped to see one of their coaches celebrating a big accomplishment on the front of the New York Times’ sports section.

But this probably is not the way they drew it up.

The Bearcat faithful left for spring break more than content with the selection of Kevin Broadus as the new men’s head coach, but arrived home to see his recruiting, for which he has been widely heralded, being called into question by the Times’ sports section.

The article, published Friday, March 30, was jarring, in terms of both content and the layout, with words like ‘ignominious’ and ‘unaccredited’ jumping out at the reader. The main allegation is that Broadus was looking for players at a prep school in Philadelphia known as a diploma mill for graduating students who do practically no work.

Broadus recruited Marc Egerson for Georgetown from Lutheran Christian Academy, the prep school in question, for fall 2005. He went to Lutheran after four years of public high school in Delaware, where his GPA stood at 1.33 in his core curriculum.

He received passing grades of C or lower in nine classes and failed 12 others, including physical education as a freshman. His SAT score was in the 600s.

Quoted in the article featured in the Times, Binghamton athletics director Dr. Joel Thirer said that despite looking into the histories of all of the potential replacements for Al Walker, he did not know about Broadus’ recruitment of players from Lutheran while he was conducting the national search for a new coach.

‘We legitimately did our homework,’ Thirer said, also adding that Broadus had received ‘glowing references’ from several sources.

He also seemed surprised when told of Egerson’s transcript and his admission to school to play for the Hoyas, adding that regardless of what other schools look for when they admit athletes, no players like Egerson, regardless of what they can do on the court, will be coming to play for the Bearcats.

‘Georgetown University accepted a kid like that? Wow,’ Thirer said in the article.

‘I guess I’m an idealist. There’s just no place for that at Binghamton,’ he added. ‘Binghamton has never engaged in that type of behavior. If there’s a history of that, it certainly won’t be the case here. I can guarantee that.’

Egerson was not on the Hoyas roster when the story was printed, having left school in January to transfer to the University of Delaware. His new coach, Mont√É© Ross, said that Egerson became a father early in 2007 and had not failed out of Georgetown.

Broadus has looked to Lutheran for players before, bringing Maureece Rice to George Washington University several years ago, and helped recruit Omar Williams to GW even though he attended four prep schools, Lutheran being his final stop before graduating.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that Georgetown looked the other way when admitting Egerson for his on-court skills, university president John J. DeGioia said that the school carefully considered all aspects of his profile before deciding he was worthy of acceptance to Georgetown. And even after being reminded of Egerson’s credentials a few weeks ago, DeGioia continued to defend his admission to the university.

‘Marc fit very well into the Georgetown community,’ he said. ‘His decision [to leave] really was very personal, and we respect that. But there was never a question of his being a part of this community.’

Hoyas coach John Thompson III declined comment on Egerson, and Georgetown does not allow its assistant coaches to comment on stories; Broadus was still under contract with the Hoyas when the story ran, the day before Georgetown would go on to play, and lose to, Ohio State in the Final Four.

The NCAA is trying to crack down on diploma mills and their ability to get students to college despite not doing work through high school; they no longer accept transcripts from Lutheran.

Thirer gave Broadus his full endorsement after the story ran.

‘I think Kevin is a really terrific guy and I think he’ll do a great job for us,’ Thirer was quoted as saying in the Press & Sun-Bulletin. ‘I have no qualms that he’ll operate within the high standards that Binghamton is accustomed to operating.’

Thirer also said that Georgetown coach John Thompson III called him after the story was published to reiterate his support for Broadus.