It seems like only yesterday the packed Events Center crowd stormed onto the court to see our Binghamton Bearcats win a bid to their first NCAA tournament. Six months and a crack cocaine bust later, the Bearcats have lost six returning players and the preseason buzz surrounding our basketball team is no more.

To all those who might’ve thought we had a chance against the Big East’s Pitt on Nov. 17, I think it’s fair to say that their bench could probably play drunk and still beat us by 30 points. The team members we are losing will affect us tremendously this season and will hurt us early.

Focusing in on the recent turn of events, I don’t think Emanuel “Tiki” Mayben’s release from the team surprised anyone. When you’re charged with selling cocaine and then found with 3.4 grams during the arrest, that’s usually what will happen. But what was their rationale for releasing Paul Crosby, Malik Alvin, Corey Chandler, Dave Fine and 2009 American East leading scorer, D.J. Rivera, from the team?

According to head coach Kevin Broadus, “They are not toeing the line. Their attitude and behavior … is not what we expect from our student-athletes.”

Hold it just a minute, Coach. Is this not the same team that last year was accused of condom theft and senior citizen assault, developed academic problems and ridiculed in The New York Times? Assuming that these players were not involved in the “Tiki” scandal, how could their attitude and behavior have been any worse this year than last?

This sounds like a public relations move by the University to make us appear tough when our reputation is on the line.

The bad coverage certainly doesn’t make us look good, but why must our entire program suffer because of one irresponsible player? It’s not like these other five guys were brought here to prepare for med school or get their MBA. They were brought here to play basketball.

If these players didn’t comport themselves any differently than last year, why must they suffer simply because one bad egg made a bad decision?

This move was done to set an example and hurts us for several reasons. First, these guys have been playing together all this past offseason and by removing five additional players, the majority of whom were upperclassmen, team morale and chemistry were hurt.

More importantly, this move kills school spirit. I loved the idea of seeing Tony Kornheiser give Binghamton a small section on “Pardon the Interruption,” a popular ESPN show. It made me proud to hear people talking about Binghamton in a different light, besides being a good school in a depressing town.

Call me crazy, but I think the majority of people here wouldn’t mind us having some less-than-perfect characters on the team in exchange for wins.

Tiki deserved to be released, if not further prosecuted, but I believe that the other five served as a scapegoat for the entire program. By standing on principle, they fired five players who could have been getting their acts together and could have helped this team get to another NCAA tournament.

Instead, our program reputation is still damaged and we won’t have any wins to show for it.