With Binghamton University players on both sides of the court taking jump shots on the eve of its first ever NCAA Tournament game, Mark Macon stands at center court with his hands behind his back, taking in the scene around him. It’s a setting Macon was last a part of 18 years ago as a senior at Temple University. He is back on the big stage in the Big Dance, but this time as a coach.

“The kids are a lot better, strong, faster and bigger now,” Macon said. “The coaching style has changed because you have to change with the times, the same in any sport.”

Macon, in his second year as assistant coach for the Binghamton Bearcats, is a gym rat. As a player, he was the first to enter the gym and the last to leave. And as a coach, it’s no different. In the office or on the court, Macon’s effort and commitment to his trade is never-ending.

“As coaches, we are always working and getting prepared,” he said. “When we get in the meeting rooms and in between those lines, it’s serious. But it’s always very relaxed.”

Macon doesn’t have to try very hard to keep the team relaxed because the players just have to duplicate their mentor. Relaxed, calm and drawn back are all words head coach Kevin Broadus uses to describe Macon.

“He is cerebral and mild mannered,” Broadus said. “He doesn’t raise his voice, but I always hear him.”

When Binghamton took the floor for the first time on Wednesday in Greensboro, Chretien Lukusa’s first shot of the afternoon was an air ball. His second hit the top of the backboard. Macon calmly, hands still behind his back, waked over to Lukusa and whispered something in his ear to relax and keep focus.

It’s rare, but there is one thing that gets under Macon’s skin: turnovers.

“I hate turnovers,” he said. “You have to keep your head in the game and you can’t make those types of mistakes.”

While turnovers may unsettle the usually calm Macon, you won’t see him rattled for too long. And it’s that type of professional demeanor that Broadus was looking for when he brought Macon in last season.

“He is that figure who has been in a lot of big games and he knows what it takes to be a great basketball player,” Broadus said. “He’s been in those shoes and he knows what it’s like.”

At Temple from 1987-91, Macon was a finalist for the John Wooden Award and a four-time first team All-Atlantic 10 Conference selection. He was selected in the first round, eighth overall, in the 1991 NBA Draft. Macon has been to the promised land where every college basketball player hopes to one day reach, and it’s that type of resume that players look up to and try to emulate.

Junior guards Tiki Mayben and Malik Alvin specifically have benefited the most from Macon’s tutoring.

“He brought patience to my game and confidence to my shooting,” Mayben said. “I was up and down, starting and not starting. I had little things bothering my mental aspects of the game and he just told me to keep focused.”

That focus and mental toughness is something Macon preaches day-in and day-out. And it was even more prevalent in the lead-up to the biggest game in Binghamton’s history.

“I kept telling them to stay focused and concentrate on what we are doing,” Macon said. “We have to focus on doing what we have done to get to this place.”

It’s a place where Macon shined in a jersey and shorts and is now excelling in a shirt and tie. And while he still follows Temple and keeps in contact with current and old coaches, he doesn’t find a need to rehash the past.

“I love what I’m doing,” he said. “I’d rather be here [in the NCAA Tournament] as a coach. Right now, I’m a student and I just want to keep learning.”

Macon is as good a student as he is a teacher, and it’s that give-and-take relationship that makes him such a successful coach. Whether he will become a head coach down the line is uncertain, but he has all the tools — including a great jump shot — to take over the helm somewhere.

But Macon doesn’t worry about the future; he just concentrates on the present. He is just doing what he has done his whole life: staying focused.