[Urban Barrister]

Speaking first about the team's chances next year, it seems like Binghamton is consistently underrated year in and year out. While it's true that they've lost two key players to graduation in Heard and Hermenier, players like Milne and Proctor definitely have the potential to step in and fill their shoes, and I think both Dwaynes (actually a Dwayne and a Duane) have the potential to contribute more next year.

As for Walker, though he takes plenty of abuse on this board, keep in mind a few things:

1. Overall, Bing has been more successful than any of the other four newest members, since joining the AE.

2. Is you assume the pre-season polls are reasonably accurate, then he's found a way to get his teams to overachieve just about every year in the league. (Last season, as an example, I believe Bing was pegged to finish 5th.)

3. A friend told me just last week that Walker's program has a 100% graduation rate since moving up to D-I. I'm sure the AD and administration are well aware of that, as academics are paramount at Bing.

4. He runs a very disciplined program. By and large, Walker recruits good kids who are willing to work hard, day in and day out. Nick Billings was the closest thing to an exception the program has had, in that he wasn't a very hard worker, but he was still a good kid and didn't get into any kind of trouble while at Bing. (Moreover, my guess is that if Nick wasn't a 7 footer, he never would've wound up at Bing in the first place -- when you're at our level, you tend to make exceptions to your general recruiting philosphy for 7 footers.)

For these reasons, unless and until there comes a year when Bing is the odds on favorite to win the league and its NCAA bid (as Albany was this season) and then fails to do so (miserably, not by losing to, say, the 2nd or 3rd place team, in the conference finals), I think Walker probably has a job at Bing for as long as he wants to stay - and I don't think that's a bad thing.

 

[Urban Barrister]

Lets be careful - Bing got out of the gate quicker, but UA has flown by them.

UA finished ahead of Bing in the AE standings each of the last 2 seasons.

UA has 1 Conference Championship, Bing 0

UA has 1 AE Tourney Championship, Bing 0

UA has 1 NCAA appearance Bing has????????

Bing is definitely ahead of the Brook

BU has hosted the Tourney (big time home court advantage, especially with the infamous disappearing ZOO) and couldn't even parlay that into an appearance in the finals.

I stand by my statement. Up until last year, Bing was significantly better than Albany. Your program was terrible.

Last year, you guys finished a game ahead of us in the standings, and we beat you in the tourney. I'd say that makes the teams pretty even, so the season is a push.

This year, you were the better team (though not by as much as we were better than you in your first few years in the AE) and you won the conference title and tourney. Break that down into as many parts as you'd like, and it still adds up to being better than Bing for one season (and, again, not by all that much).

None of this is meant to take away from Albany's accomplishments this past year, which clearly were impressive. But one great season doesn't outweigh all the others. If Albany keeps winning for another couple of years (and does better than Bing in each), then it's a different story.

 

[Urban Barrister]

To be clear, though, I meant "successful" in the broader sense of the word. I understand how someone could interpret "successful" to mean the titles you've won, rather than the number of games you've won or a team's overall competitiveness. Obviously, if the only criteria is how many titles/conference tourneys you've won, Albany has been more successful.

Old Dog: I'm definitely not trying to claim that Walker's the most popular coach in the league. Clearly, he's not, though it's odd that he's as hated by so many as he is, given his performance.