Just when you think you have it all figured out, college basketball likes to throw you a curveball, and I think that's why I love it so much.Tuesday was a great example of the college basketball world just not making a lick of sense.
Enter the 0-26 Binghamton Bearcats. The Bearcats are widely accepted as the worst team in Division I college basketball, evidenced by their awful record, and the fact that they struggle to even be competitive in most games, losing 19 times by at least double digits this season, including being drilled 92-51 in a game earlier this year. Just to add to their misery, the Bearcats are dead last in points per game, and towards the bottom of the country in every other statistical category.
Then there's the Vermont Catamounts. Vermont was working on a respectable 19-10 season, and were atop the America East conference at 12-2 after smashing formerly first place Stony Brook 68-49 to take hold of first for themselves. Earlier in the season, Vermont played Binghamton, and promptly disposed of the Bearcats 73-53.
On Tuesday night, Vermont visited Binghamton for their second meeting of the season. In the battle between the first place team and the last place team, normal conventions would tell us that the first place team would cruise to a victory. And in the game, a team led nearly wire to wire on their way to a 57-53 victory.
But it wasn't the Catamounts.
Somehow, someway, Binghamton, the worst team in college basketball, the team in last place, and the team that many said would not get a win all season, beat the best team in their conference. And it wasn't a fluke, it wasn't luck, it wasn't pity. They outright beat Vermont.
It's games and stories like this why we continue to watch college basketball, because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter who has been better all season. All that matters is who is better that night. Binghamton's coach Mark Macon said after the game that it didn't matter if the Bearcats were playing the New York Knicks Tuesday night, they were going to win that game. After a season of embarrassment and frustration, the Binghamton players had had enough, and took it out on Vermont.
Is Binghamton going to the tournament this year? No. Will they win another game this season? Probably not. But for one night, they grabbed the spotlight and were shown in all of their glory on Sportscenter, and that's why I love college basketball. On any given night, any team can be the star, and on this night, it was little old 1-26 Binghamton.
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