‘I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot ‘ and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why ‘ I succeed.’ ‘ Michael Jordan

‘You learn a heck of a lot more from a loss than a tie.’ ‘ Coach Ted Orion, Mighty Ducks 3

The Bearcats are 1-4. They’ve lost to Chicago State by 21 points, they dropped a home game against a team that New Hampshire handled. At this time last season, they were 3-2.

Is it time to panic? To call for Kevin Broadus’ head? To crawl to Al Walker’s house and beg him to come back? To burn down the Events Center?

Of course not.

To anyone in Bearcat nation panicking over Binghamton University’s 1-4 start (and there are a lot of you), calm down, take a deep breath and please stop sending Baxter death threats.

It’s easy to start panicking after five games and to second-guess everything from hiring Broadus, to signing Milos Klimovic to adding courtside seats at the Events Center ‘ but it’s not necessary, and right now it’s not even relevant.

For starters, Binghamton’s playing not only without its starting center Minja Kovacevic, but without his backup Jaan Montgomery. And that’s definitely affecting the flow of the game. When Richie Forbes is second on your team in rebounding, there’s something wrong.

‘If we are gonna say names directly, I am waiting for Minja,’ Lazar Trifunovic said of the Bearcats current problems. ‘I really think he can be the No. 1 rebounder in this conference. He can jump more than me. I am waiting for Jaan, too; he grabbed a couple of rebounds over me in practice.’

Laz is a great rebounder and right now is really the team’s only rebounder. And even though he’s 17th in the nation in rebounding, until the centers return, he’s being misused. Trifunovic is at his best facing the basket, shooting over smaller defenders, not banging away inside, a job reserved for a beast like Kovacevic.

You’re not going to win when two players are missing at any position, especially not center. But before you go and curse BU’s training staff, ask yourself, wouldn’t you rather have Minja and Jaan out now than say in a February game at Boston?

Yeah, it would be nice to open the season 5-0, but for this Bearcats team there are really just three games that matter ‘ the America East Tournament in March.

(And I say three because as bad as things look right now, BU is not playing in the 8 vs. 9 game the Friday before the tourney. If you think they’re that bad, stop reading right now.)

All the little kinks and injuries of this Bearcat team will be worked out by March ‘ that’s why you play non-conference games.

‘The record is not any indication of how good or bad any team is,’ Broadus said after Tuesday’s loss to then winless Central Connecticut State. ‘You could say we’re good, we’re bad or we’re indifferent. But both [BU and CCSU] are good teams, and going to be good teams.’

Broadus has to call his team good ‘ it’s his job, but he’s right. His team has as much talent as any in the America East. Right now shots aren’t falling and defenders aren’t getting boxed out, and it’s showing in the standings.

But this is when you want to lose. Losses to Chicago State and Central Connecticut may look bad now, but they won’t even be mentioned in March.

Just look back to last season. The Bearcats beat Miami in Florida and briefly everyone in Vestal started envisioning a trip to the NCAA tournament. A 12-point thumping at Stony Brook the next week blasted the Bearcats back to reality, and they spent the conference season trying to figure out who they were.

But by losing games where the weakness is so obvious, the Bearcats can learn.

Some problems have already started to turn around.

The rebounds differential was a big concern early in the season after St. Bonaventure outrebounded the Bearcats by 13.

The Bearcats addressed it, and in the past two games ‘ still without the centers ‘ they were better on the boards. Now they have to address the other aspects of the game, numerous as they are.

‘It’s a progress for us,’ Broadus said. ‘Nobody said it’s going to be easy and I know that. Everyone’s learning a new system. I firmly believe at some point we’re going to be really good. I can’t tell you when, I’m not Houdini, but we’re gonna be good.’

So now when the Bearcats shoot 20 percent like they did against Akron, they learn from it. They work on the shooting.

And when they miss over half their free throws like they did against Central Connecticut State, they learn from it.

‘I look at our guys and say, ‘Remember these feelings,’ because it’s not gonna always be like this,’ Broadus said.

And that’s why they play tough out-of-conference games. To lose and learn from those losses.

Look at the only Bearcats team to make a serious run at the America East, the 2005-2006 squad in Walker’s second-to-last season. That team opened up 0-5 en route to 3-9 nonconference record.

People were panicking about that team, too, but it finished the America East 12-4, and if not for a late collapse, it likely would have made the AE Championship game.

The Bearcats lost their second home game of the season by three points to CCSU that year as well.

No one remembered in March.