The new era of Binghamton University men’s basketball officially starts tonight.

The Bearcats are set to play Loyola University Maryland on the road in their season opener, and the two teams are on different ends of the college basketball spectrum. Binghamton won two games last year, while Loyola won 24 and made the NCAA tournament.

But the Bearcats have reason to be optimistic about the future, though success might not be imminent.

Head coach Tommy Dempsey, who was hired in May, carries a successful pedigree to Binghamton. At Rider University, Dempsey went 119-105, giving him the third-most total wins by a MAAC program during his seven-year tenure. His team never advanced to the NCAA tournament, but Dempsey led the Broncs to various postseason tournaments in three of his last five years with the school.

When Dempsey took the job at Binghamton, he had several holes to fill in the roster. But he got to work right away, signing freshman Jordan Reed within days of being hired. The rest of the class filled itself out over the summer with freshman Karon Waller and transfers Roland Brown, Brian Freeman and Rayner Moquete.

Moquete, who spent two seasons at Fordham University, is set to be Binghamton’s point guard. In Saturday’s exhibition against Susquehanna University, he led the team with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

“[Moquete has] been through the wars although they weren’t here,” Dempsey said at Binghamton’s media day on Oct. 26. “He brings a level of consistency everyday.”

Moquete joins former walk-on Jimmy Gray, a senior, in the backcourt. Gray primarily played point guard as a junior, but with the addition of Moquete, he’ll be able to slide back to his natural position of shooting guard. Still, Gray and Moquete are expected to alternate at the one and two.

“I’m definitely looking forward to [the switch] because in high school I was more of a scorer,” Gray said. “I kind of grew out of that, and I’m trying to come back to that position and get more focused on scoring offensively.”

But while Binghamton has a veteran backcourt, junior Rob Mansell, the team’s leading scorer last year, won’t suit up this season. He tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus in Feb. and has not fully recovered yet, so he will redshirt.

“I just don’t think it’s in his best interest,” Dempsey said. “Although he would probably be able to go in in January and February, I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do as far as him wasting a lot of this year.”

Without Mansell, Dempsey expects scoring to be an issue for the Bearcats. Reed and Waller were each reputed scorers in high school, but Dempsey said it’s not fair to expect freshmen to carry a team offensively. Gray is the only returning player who averaged more than four points per game last year.

“When you look at last year’s team and then going forward to this year’s team, we’ve lost a lot of scoring,” Dempsey said. “We’re going to have to find ways to manufacture baskets and manufacture points.”

But Dempsey plans on establishing a solid defense to counter his offense’s limited potency. In Saturday’s exhibition, Binghamton pressured Susquehanna into 24 turnovers, many of which led to points on the other end. Senior walk-on Mike Horn led the defensive effort, and with time, the Bearcats hope to develop cohesiveness on that end.

“We’re not a team right now that’s built to score 75 points a game,” Dempsey said. “We’re going to have to be able to play good defense and rely on our defense to carry us through a lot of games.”

Binghamton is set to play five games in the season’s first 10 days, leaving little time for practice. The Bearcats are still learning a system vastly different from that of former head coach Mark Macon, and with so many new faces, chemistry development will be key.

But at the current trajectory, Dempsey hopes the Bearcats will be better by the turn of the calendar.

“I’ve seen dramatic improvement over the summer and over the fall, so if that improvement can continue, I hope by the time conference play rolls around that we’ll put ourselves in a position to be very competitive,” he said.

After tonight’s game against Loyola, Binghamton is scheduled to host its home opener against Brown University at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Events Center.