Player arrested on crack cocaine charge

[Da Coach]

The title of one article said "BU player arrested for crack cocaine". That got my attention.

But fortunately it does not relate to Bradley University.
A player at Binghamton University, in upstate New York, was arrested for possession and sale of crack cocaine.
Tiki Mayben, who at one time was one of the highest ranked high school players, and was thought likely to be an NBA player after a year of college, was arrested in "possession of 3.4 grams of cocaine and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third and fifth degrees, both felonies". He was already the subject of a sealed indictment for sale of cocaine in an ongoing investigation by police.

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/troy-1266771-drug-police.html

http://www.umassathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/mayben_tiki00.html

[tornado]

five more players booted at Binghamton...cleaning house....

http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/10124830/Binghamton-releases-5-from-basketball-team

[Da Coach]

This obviously smacks of the basketball coach, Kevin Broadus, being given orders to clean up his act and "clean house" of any players who were not model citizens. They didn't want any more embarrassment. Broadus is being accused of knowingly bringing in a bunch of bad characters, and not instilling discipline because he was only concerned with winning. BTW, they did win the America East title and competed in the NCAA tournament - the first time since it has been a Division 1 program that the Binghamton program had done so.

Interesting, that the only person who appears to be allowed to speak to media was a staffer in the Athletic Department, John Hartrick, who is the "Associate Director of Athletics for Communications". The coach and AD have been made unavailable, and I suspect are under orders not to talk to media.

Hartrick said Broadus is unavailable to discuss the situation, and would be unavailable for an undetermined amount of time.
“Kevin's in no shape to talk with anybody right now,” Hartrick said. “He's very disappointed in a lot of things."

Yeah, right. He is so upset by all this he just can't bring himself to be available to the public. Binghamton is part of the vast State University of New York university system, and thus these people are all state employees and should be answerable to the taxpaying public.

Ironically, the Chancellor, Nancy Zimpher, who was formerly the President at the University of Cincinnati is quite the expert at dealing with these kinds of issues. She was the university president that finally had enough of these kinds of things that she fired popular and successful basketball coach Bob Huggins.

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090925/NEWS01/90925035

[tornado]

just a year ago another one of Binghamton's thugs beat another student into a come, then posted bail and fled the country, going back to Serbia and signing a pro basketball contract and dodging prosecution in the US.

http://qbinghamton.com/2008/06/serbian-binghamton-basketball-player-charged-with-felony-assault-flees-country-after-posting-100k-bail/

http://basketball.about.com/od/collegebasketballculture/a/kovacevic.htm

and there have been other lesser issues as well.......

Binghamton, which is within a couple hundred miles of New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Syracuse, Boston, Pittsburgh, and the whole DC area.....would appear to be right dead center of the single most fertile recruiting area in the world!
Yet, they bring in trouble-maker kids from Serbia, California, Texas, Florida, etc....
They are relatively new to D-I and need to work on building good local recruiting connections and stop aiming for the potential stars with baggage.

[Da Coach]

Here is a better perspective of the risks and shortcuts Binghamton coach Kevin Broadus took, and the never-ending string of legal and academic problems he dealt with in his players culminating with the cocaine arrest of one of his stars, and the unprecedented dismissal of 6 of his players just before their season was about to start-
This NY Times article was written last February-

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/sports/ncaabasketball/22binghamton.html?scp=5&sq=Thamel%20and%20BInghamton&st=cse

And this one from March-

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/in-america-east-a-statement-is-made/

And from today-

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/sports/ncaabasketball/26binghamton.html

[tornado]

Oh - how about this Binghamton moment from last year...

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/binghamton_hoops_player_accuse.html

[tornado]

Binghamton coach coming under fire for recruiting so many talented yet
"at risk" players (I guess "at risk" is a code word for troubled and troublemaker)

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/12278987/rss

this should be a strong lesson for all desperate coaches who want to grab a troubled transfer like Diamond Taylor...

[SFP]

Please do not take that I am standing up for these troubled young men but I believe it is the duty of teachers and educators to try and take these youths off the streets and into the classroom. Georgetown with John Thompson made it work for years! What he did not do though was put up with the trouble once they arrived on campus. You cannot take these youths with a spotty past without some type of guidance and discipline that they is so needed in their lives.

[Da Coach]

John Thompson did a great job recruiting talented kids with marginal backgrounds, and kept them in line.
He didn't try to take shortcuts by going after kids who have already failed at other schools, or who were given one or more chances and failed.
Broadnax did that at Binghamton. And it might have worked if you carefully get just one of those types of kids, but it looks like he had a whole team of them. I doubt he had much control there.

[tornado]

Baylor had a whole team of those kinds of kids under Bliss a few years ago...

[Da Coach]

Binghamton Athletic Director Joel Thirer was quoted as saying that managing the basketball players was "like running a zoo".

Well that didn't set well with the Binghamton Zoo's business manager.
Here is her response, from a letter she wrote to the Binghamton newspaper.

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20090929/VIEWPOINTS03/909290310/1120/Comparison+insults+zoo

I am tired of hearing that blight on Binghamton University, the men's basketball team, being referred to as a "zoo." The Binghamton Zoo at Ross Park has just received re-accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the industry's governing authority. We achieved this status by being in the top 10 percent of all the zoos in the country.....
Not one of our tigers has been arrested with cocaine. No otter knocks over old ladies to shoplift condoms. Our bear doesn't have temper tantrums and storm off his exhibit. You won't find any of our lemurs busted for smoking pot. So, please, stop insulting zoos by comparing those criminals to us.

[Da Coach]

Now the Athletic Director at Binghamton has resigned.

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/binghamton-athletic-director-to-resign/

[Da Coach]

Binghamton coach Kevin Broadus has been placed on "administrative leave" indefinitely.
Former Temple player Mark Macon will be the interim coach.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4559713