By JOHN KEKIS
AP Sports Writer

VESTAL, N.Y. (AP) --  Brewster the Bearcat threw T-shirts into the
crowd, the pep band was as loud as ever, the players were
greeted with an ovation, and the interim basketball coach
thanked everybody for coming.

And yet Late Nite Madness this year at Binghamton University
wasn't what it was supposed to be. Instead of celebrating a
champion with a packed house, it was a soul-mending event for a
campus reeling from a series of scandals that have battered the
men's basketball program.

"It's terribly sad," said former Vermont coach Tom Brennan. "The
worst-case scenario has developed."

It didn't take long.

In March, head coach Kevin Broadus and star players Emanuel
"Tiki" Mayben, D.J. Rivera, and Malik Alvin choked back tears as
they described winning the America East tournament before a
raucous crowd. The triumph gave the university its first NCAA
tournament berth, the measuring stick for bigtime college
basketball.

Six months later, not one of them remains on the team.

Mayben was arrested in September, pleading not guilty to
possessing and selling cocaine in his hometown of Troy, N.Y.,
and was kicked off the team. Two days later, the school released
five more players - including Rivera and Alvin - with a vague
reference to "commitment issues." Longtime athletic director
Joel Thirer resigned within a week.

Broadus violated NCAA recruiting rules, the school
self-reported, when he spoke with two potential recruits a day
after the contact period had passed in October. Days later, he
was placed on indefinite paid leave.

Mark Macon, an assistant who had played for disciplinarian John
Chaney at Temple, was named interim coach. He took over a team
reduced to seven scholarship players - his top returning scorer
averaged less than five points last season.

Binghamton is 11 days away from its season opener against
Bloomsburg, and the Bearcats will play while a retired New York
City judge oversees an independent investigation into the
athletic department and turns over the results to the SUNY Board
of Trustees.

Macon knows he's facing a tough season.

"We look forward to the challenge of coming out and competing
every night and hopefully winning as many game as we possibly
can," Macon said.

"I'm a teacher at heart, and that's what we do."

But the lessons of Binghamton, a state school 140 miles
northwest of New York City, were no shock to college basketball
insiders.

"What's happened there really should come as no surprise to
anyone that was in the league or following that league," former
Boston University coach Dennis Wolff said. "They were making a
recipe for disaster by the way they were going about their
business."

This was not the outcome envisioned when SUNY was striving to
brand its schools in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony
Brook.

Moving to college basketball's premier division was part of the
grand plan. Binghamton completed the jump from Division III in
2001 and hired Al Walker as head coach. He was unanimously
selected by the university's advisory committee, in part because
he was a magna cum laude graduate from SUNY Brockport and had
coached at Cornell.

But Binghamton supporters sought to raise the athletic profile
of the school, which had a tradition of academic excellence
dating from when it was known as Harpur College (1950-65).

The school opened a new 5,322-seat arena in 2004. Three years
later, Walker was given another job for the remainder of his
contract after seven seasons, a record of 92-108, and a 100
percent graduation rate for players who completed their
eligibility.

In April 2007, Binghamton hired Broadus, a Georgetown assistant.
Known for giving troubled players second chances, the new coach
embarked down a road aimed at basketball success.

In two seasons at Binghamton, Broadus landed several risky
recruits:

- Rivera, who sat out a semester at Saint Joseph's because of
academic problems, was granted a NCAA hardship waiver,
transferred and didn't have to sit a year

- Mayben, who originally signed with Syracuse but did not meet
eligibility standards, sat one year, played a season at
Massachusetts, transferred to a community college and then to
Binghamton.

- Alvin, who was recruited after leaving Texas-El Paso because
of academic problems.

- Corey Chandler left Rutgers, then was released by Binghamton
two days after Mayben's arrest.

"The concept of giving kids transferring in (a scholarship), I
don't think anyone's against that," Wolff said. "But the idea
that almost every guy that came in had been asked to leave where
they had been before, that puts it in a different light in my
mind."

Rivera, Alvin and Mayben accounted for 42 points a game last
season as the Bearcats won 23 games, their best season but one
that started with trouble. Alvin was arrested last November
trying to steal condoms from a Wal-Mart, and while fleeing he
knocked over an elderly woman, giving her a concussion. A
larceny charge was dismissed and Alvin pleaded guilty to
disorderly conduct, police said.

"The problem with Binghamton was simply that the course that
they chose, they were under suspicion from the beginning,"
Brennan said. "People said, 'Whoa, whoa, this guy's been at
three schools. This guy's been at four schools. And then when
the kid stole the condoms and knocked the woman over, he gets a
two- or three-game suspension. Now, all these red flags are
going off. What price glory here?"

America East officials knew problems were brewing. Despite
Rivera being arguably the league's best player, he was relegated
to second team all-conference, a move seen as a protest by
America East coaches - who select the team - over his
eligibility.

"I don't know if any league has the power to police a particular
school," Wolff said. "But I do think that all the members are
obligated to some degree to make sure that there are some
standards you'd like everyone to live by."

More changes are undoubtedly coming.

Retired judge Judith Kaye will report her findings to SUNY
chancellor Nancy Zimpher, known for taking a hard line on such
problems. As president of the University of Cincinnati, she
forced Bob Huggins out as men's basketball coach in 2005,
demanding that the school recruit players who were serious
students.

During Huggins' 16 years, the Bearcats made the Final Four and
were ranked No. 1 for the first time in 34 years. They also
piled up player arrests, went on NCAA probation and had one of
the nation's lowest graduation rates in the 1990s.

"We expect our coaches to be role models, and we expect our
students to be role models. I will not apologize for setting
high standards," Zimpher said at the time.

Binghamton president Lois B. DeFleur declined comment because
the investigation is ongoing. Broadus did not return a message.

Zimpher, who also did not return phone calls, made her position
clear to the SUNY Board of Trustees two weeks ago: "Going
forward, the State University of New York stands for the highest
degree of integrity in its collegiate athletic program."

Brennan, whose 13th-seeded Vermont team stunned Syracuse in the
2005 NCAA tournament, said the extraordinary popularity of the
tournament can cause schools to lose sight of their primary
mission.

"I think (athletic director) Thirer got stars in his eyes and
they had that nice building," he said. "I think with our
success, people were saying, 'If Vermont could do it, we can do
it.' And then you say, 'OK, how do we go about doing it?' And
the course they chose, unfortunately, ended up blowing up in
their face."