Heading into Tuesday night, there was one team in the country that was still without a victory: the Binghamton Bearcats.
Given that America East co-leader Vermont was coming to town, there were only a handful of people that expected Binghamton to change that trend, and only one that didn’t wear a Binghamton basketball jersey. That would be head coach Mark Macon.
“I don’t go into games thinking we’re not going to win,” Macon told Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com, and it paid off. Binghamton took a 35-25 lead into the half and held on down the stretch, knocking off the Catamounts 57-53 to finally put a number other than zero in their win column. It only took 27 games to do so.
How impressive was this win for Binghamton? Ken Pomeroy termed in the upset of the year. And while that may be a fair statement, the upset itself may not actually be the story of the game.
As I said, Vermont came into this game as a co-leader in the America East, sitting tied with Stony Brook at 12-2 in conference play. But with Stony Brook’s 74-50 win over Hartford tonight and with the Seawolves hosting Maine (who is 5-9 in league play) on Sunday, Vermont looks like they may have lost themselves the league’s regular season title and the automatic trip to the NIT -- pending a loss in the conference tournament -- that comes with it.
But there’s more.
The way the America East’s tournament is set up, the title game is played on the home court of the higher seed. If Stony Brook wins, it means that they will be the No. 1 seed and host the title game should they get that far. For what its worth, Vermont beat the Seawolves by 19 in Burlington but lost on the road.
The in just the latest lesson in a long line of favorites over looking an opponent on the road.
Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @ballinisahabit.