I agree with my Pipe Dream colleague Randy Benjenk that Dwayne Jackson is heating up. But he adds, “… for the postseason,” and this is a mentality that no Bearcats fan should have just yet.

This is not an attack on Benjenk or the BU Zoo, which he represents, just a warning to all of you Binghamton University fans.

Yes, it’s fun to look at America East Tournament seeds and who needs to beat who for seeds to happen. But Binghamton still has two conference games to worry about and you should too.

After Manhattan this Saturday, which shouldn’t be overlooked either, the Bearcats take on Albany for Senior Night at the Events Center, and then travel to Stony Brook. These are neither “automatic” wins nor anything to overlook.

You can put yourself in the position to worry about how and whom Binghamton will play in the tournament after the Stony Brook game, not now. You never want to be in the position where another team holds your fate. You don’t want to be sitting there with the season out of your hands, needing a team to win or lose. You want to put yourself in the best position possible and the only way to do that is win one game at a time. At this point, the Bearcats control their own destiny. The No. 2 through 6 seeds are still up for grabs and all BU can do is win every game.

One game at a time is something Broadus always preaches, especially now.

When asked if he thought his team may be looking toward Albany this week instead of Manhattan this weekend, Broadus said, “Trust me, you don’t have to worry about that. We’ll never look ahead.”

And he urged the media and fans, “Don’t start talking tournament time. We need to win every game we have.”

And those wins include Manhattan this Saturday. With a week off after playing well against Maine, Binghamton will have to regain some momentum and continue to play the way they have the past couple of games. And with Albany lingering in the shadows, there are mixed feelings among the team on this weekend’s game.

“I’m kind of focusing on Albany,” admitted Lazar Trifunovic.

“Bracket Buster is a game to get better,” Mike Gordon said. “We are going to try to win like we try to win every game.”

But for Broadus, it is clear. “We are not going to the Bracket Buster game just to be playing, we’re going to win. We are going to New York to win.”

There is no doubt that the Albany game is going to be important for the Bearcats, but a big loss at Manhattan because they are thinking ahead will not help. Binghamton ended the Maine game playing sloppy basketball, so it is crucial for them to get back in that grind-it-out, play hard mentality against Manhattan.

You can root all you want for your ideal seeds in the tournament and what each team has to do, but all Binghamton has to do is win each game, one at a time. Because if it doesn’t, then none of the speculation matters.