Kevin Broadus has been a part of Binghamton University basketball for a little more than half a year, but he already knows what’s missing from the Events Center.

‘Banners,’ he said last Friday. ‘America East championship banners.’

And though men’s basketball season is still two weeks away, when talking with the new head coach one can clearly see that he intends on delivering banners to the Events Center, and sooner rather than later.

Broadus is right, you can have great facilities, offer a great academic reputation and give recruits all the free Pepe’s they want ‘ what brings people in is winning.

And Broadus knows winning.

I sat down in his office, across from a man who screams impressive. He pulled out a box.

‘Is that your Georgetown Final Four ring?’ I asked.

‘It’s my third one,’ he replied as I looked at the ring. It’s big, it’s expensive, it’s impressive. The ring is a lot like the new men’s basketball coach himself.

On the wall of his office are framed jerseys from his former players. A Pops Mensah-Bonsu Dallas Mavericks jersey hangs on one side, a relic of KB’s days at George Washington. Next to it is a Supersonics jersey autographed by Jeff Green, the No. 5 pick in this year’s draft. The subject of conversation soon switches to Green, a member of that Georgetown Final Four team.

‘He gets to play with Kevin Durant,’ said one of my colleagues from Pipe Dream.

‘Kevin Durant gets to play with him,’ Broadus answered. ‘You’ll see.’

And you believe him. You believe the coach when he says he will land four-star recruits. You believe the coach when he says Binghamton can win the America East.

But do his players believe him?

At this point, that is the million-dollar question, but lean toward yes. They sit with him at soccer games and at women’s basketball games. They look like a team, something that last year often could not be said. Like I said before, winning speaks louder than anything else, and everywhere Broadus has gone he has been a winner. His players are buying into his system because they want to win.

And again, when Broadus says why he wants to win, you also believe him. And he doesn’t just want to win for his players, he doesn’t just want to win for himself: he wants it for the whole student body.

When he got to George Washington, they couldn’t give away tickets to the games. When he left, they were an NCAA tournament team and the biggest draw on campus.

At Georgetown, the team was in a down time, but before he left, students were lining the tarmac to watch the team head on a plane to the Final Four.

And Kevin Broadus wants that at Binghamton. He wants BU students to have the same experience that the students at Georgetown had. He wants the BU Zoo to experience postseason basketball.

Will the new coach really accomplish all he wants at Binghamton? Time will tell, but so far the future looks very bright for Binghamton basketball.