If there is still a Binghamton basketball fan out there, can I get a “hell yeah!”

Please?

The recent fiasco revolving around the Bearcats has perplexed me. O.K., maybe a little bit more than that. Given Emanuel “Tiki” Mayben’s arrest, the removal of star players like D.J. Rivera and Malik Alvin, the disappointment of not seeing the performances of former Rutgers star Corey Chandler or former Michigan player Paul Crosby and the departure of Thirer, it has been quite the depressing week.

Still, a fan should remain loyal through the thick and thin of all things. There was a time when the entire school hoisted the team upon its shoulders, throughout the America East championships and the NCAA tournament. In one year, Broadus and his boys gave us something to be proud about. They brought excitement to our University no one could have dreamed of. Now when the team is brought to its knees, we do nothing but scorn it and kick it down.

If you ask me, the really disgusting thing here is how the glory hounds have gone back to their dirty dog ways.

Don’t get me wrong. There is no excuse for what Mayben did, and if the basketball players did indeed do something serious, then the administration unfortunately had to do what it had to do. Still, the loyalty to the Bearcats must be steadfast amidst all these problems. That’s what it means to be a true fan. It’s unconditional love, man.

Sure, we don’t have the All-Star squad we had last year, but it should not stop us from going to the games and supporting whoever is still on that team. Remember that Chretien Lukusa, Kyrie Sutton and Moussa Camara are all America East champions too and they deserve to be treated that way.

Like the team is doing now, continuing its preseason practice, Bearcats fans must pick themselves up from this mess and move forward and continue to support the team. Remember, most of us were skeptics in the beginning of last season, but Broadus and his boys proved to us that they could be champions.

Given the opportunity to talk with many of the players in the past year, it’s not hard to see that they are regular guys. They have difficulties of their own, like any other student. After interviewing Alvin, Rivera and David Fine this past week, it’s very evident how strong they are staying through this ordeal.

“Life doesn’t stop at Binghamton,” Rivera said.

They all intend on staying at the University and finishing up their degrees, and that is admirable. Anyone who had their dreams of basketball taken away from them could have easily said, “screw this,” and bounced. Still, they intend on staying as Bearcats.

As for Broadus, my faith is still in him. He cannot be involved in every second of every player’s life, monitoring what each person is doing. I still hope he tries to push the envelope for success for the basketball program. With the new regulations set in place for the team, I hope that Broadus will still be able to take chances and make the program better every year. After all, what is the point of having a team that doesn’t exceed expectations year after year, or a Division I school that has only got into the NCAA tournament once in its lifetime?

Many critics have been crying about how Binghamton University is losing sight of its academic integrity through the basketball program, but it isn’t all about academics. Colleges should also give the opportunity for athletics and extracurricular activities to expand. Basketball is life for many of these guys.

The term “higher education” is not solely married to the biological sciences or history or math. For many of us students, our higher education is in a lecture hall. For these basketball guys, however, their higher education is on the court.