More than three months after my original article, it’s safe to say this season has been one to remember. Struggles with injuries, inexperience, feisty reporters and the general ups and downs of a college basketball season has left Binghamton University’s women’s basketball team smarter and wiser.

I was cautiously optimistic about this season back in November, an attitude many of the players I spoke to shared. Despite the departure of four seniors the previous year, there stood a handful of juniors who were experienced enough to lead this team to success, as well as the senior anchor that is Laura Franceski.

With optimism in one hand and a thirst for success, I calmly watched as Binghamton struggled against competitive teams. They collected unimpressive wins against weak programs. I lashed out, letting my disappointment reign as I wrote of how the team was not competing where it should be. The team finished the 2008 part of the season with a 4-8 record.

Now, I was heavily criticized for being too harsh on a team with a first year coach and its two stars gone.

But the new head coach had been with the program for nine years before her ascension into the top job and she is no strange face to the program, nor is she a drastic change in the eyes of her team. So my expectations were high for head coach Nicole Scholl.

The departure of graduating seniors is inevitable for every team, and excuses cannot be made every year when star seniors leave. So my expectations for juniors Erica Carter and Muffy Sadler, and senior Laura Franceski were to assume the voids of last year’s seniors and rise past the mediocrity the team had endured the season before.

With the semester over and students gone, the women’s basketball team concluded their non-conference schedule and looked to America East play. While I was frivolously gambling away my 21st birthday checks in Vegas, Binghamton knocked off Cornell and went 4-3 in conference play. The emergence of freshman Andrea Holmes was an unexpected but pleasant surprise that vaulted Binghamton into a tie for fourth place with UMBC.

Despite the sour start, Binghamton holds a 6-7 conference record and a shot at a fourth-place finish in the conference, which would best the fifth seed they received last season.

My expectations may have been unrealistic; I can admit the possibility, and early on the team fell short of these goals. But with the America East championships on the horizon, I must admit things are not bleak at all.

As a freshman, Holmes has sprung into a legitimate point guard in the conference, and that provides a lot of stability for the Bearcats and their future. The team also had to face a serious issue when two of their stars, including Franceski, missed multiple games with injuries.

The Bearcats lost four of five games while their stars battled injuries, but there were positives to take away. Against undefeated Boston, the Bearcats had Sadler sitting on the bench the entire game and Franceski getting limited minutes; the underclassmen for Binghamton gave the undefeated Terriers all they could handle in a thrilling 76-75 overtime loss. The young guns provided the key shots at the end of the second half as well as in overtime, but came up just short.

Boston has beaten every team in the conference at least once, and some teams twice, so Binghamton can take away the knowledge that they can keep up with the best teams in the conference regardless of the lineup.

Realistically, Binghamton should finish with the No. 4 or 5 seed in the tournament and likely will face UMBC in the quarterfinals. Finishing in the middle of the pack shouldn’t instill anger, but year after year of it might bring out some frustration.

At this point, it’s just speculation on how Binghamton will fare in the postseason this year. They have been inconsistent, and that makes my lousy predictions that much lousier.

The Bearcats have a long shot at a title and a berth in the NCAA tournament, but it is there, and if the wind blows right and some shots fall the right way, anything is possible.

A tournament loss this season, albeit disappointing, doesn’t rule out the chances of winning the AE in coming years; a title just might be in the cards.