Day 1: Binghamton Bearcats at Colgate Raiders

Cotterell Court (capacity 3,000)
Hamilton, New York

The Result: Colgate 78, Binghamton 70
While I didn’t get the overtime thriller I hoped for, I did get to see a very good game. Binghamton battled back from an 8-point, first-half deficit, tying the game at the break with a well-executed play that set up a Duane James three-pointer. But in the second half, Colgate senior guard Jon Simon took over, scoring nine consecutive points to answer Binghamton’s rally.

Venue Rating (academic scale): F
One of my favorite aspects of basketball travel is visiting and evaluating basketball venues. For my 10-10-10 adventure, I’m proud to unveil the exclusive FAB rating system,which evaluates venues based on three key attributes: Facility, Attendance and Basketball Environment.

Facility: D Walk into Cotterell Court and something immediately seems out of kilter. In some kind of feng shui violation, the court feels like it’s oriented the wrong way relative to the arches supporting the ceiling and roof. Picture the Palestra with its court turned 90 degrees.

The building gets novelty points for having a bowling alley. And you get a good chuckle watching the away team come and go from the court, as it is forced to run through the doors and lobby used by the general public.

Other than that, the place is pretty unremarkable. I like bleachers, but prefer wood to the hard plastic I endured at Cotterell. A nice scoreboard is about all it has going for it.

Attendance (510): F. That was not a typo. A Division I basketball game involving two teams separated by only 65 miles and only 510 people show up. And of that total, only a small fraction were students. Pitiful. With the game tied at the break, I heard one student ask another, “Are you going to stick around for the second half?”

Basketball environment: F Good game aside, if I wanted to kick off my adventure with a bang, I probably couldn’t have chosen a worse place. Empty gym. No pep band. No cheerleaders. A tape recorded chorale version of the national anthem. (Colgate’s website boasts of its music degree programs, yet the university can’t find a student to perform the anthem?) Worst of all, during every time-out the “crowd” is tortured with blaring recorded music in a desperate attempt to create excitement.

Fan Face-Off: Binghamton wins on the road!
Given its atrociously apathetic student body, Colgate was ripe for the upset. Binghamton fans, many of whom came by bus, bettered their upstate rivals with buses and a balanced attack: old clappers and young yappers. While the many older fans could be relied on for consistent clapping, a spirited group of perhaps 8 Binghamton students periodically pounded the bleachers as they stood and chanted.

The Bearcat boosters also won the appearance battle: the older crowd was impressively dressed in green Bearcat duds, while the 8 students had their faces painted.

Two factors made the fan battle a close one. A group of Colgate-clad children behind a basket gave it their all. And a Bearcat student almost cost his side the Fan Face-Off by yelling “you suck!” while Colgate players shot their free throws. Fortunately the other students didn’t follow the lead of this classless moron.

Best Mascot: Bearcats
It's a close one, but I’m going with the Bearcat. Colgate used to be the Red Raiders, but dropped the “red” out of concerns that it might be offensive to American indians (even though it apparently wasn’t referring to them). Bearcats wins just for being less nebulous.

Federal Graduation Rate: Colgate 80, Binghamton 63
This is college basketball, so with each game we'll see how the programs compare in the classroom. Where possible, I’m using the NCAA Graduation Success Rate, but Binghamton doesn’t one. For this match-up, I used the Federal Graduation Rate, and Colgate wins handily. (For the record, Colgate’s NCAA graduation success rate is 92%.)

Life on the Road
Day 1 was fantastic. En route from Philadelphia to Hamilton, I stopped at Nina’s Café on New York Street in Dunmore, Pa. I’m friends with the proprietors’ brother, and she treated me to fantastic meatballs and sauce, and threw in some delicious pizza that featured an unusual blend of cheeses.

Hamilton is known for being remote, but the drive was beautiful. Rolling farmland interrupted by pretty Victorian towns. And while Cotterell Court didn’t garner much praise from me, the town of Hamilton and Colgate’s campus are wonderful. Hamilton has a center square lit up for the holidays, and the pretty campus is perched atop a hill overlooking town. At the base of the hill is a small lake teaming with geese.

Thanks to the generosity of friends and family, this will be my only night in a hotel: the Colgate Inn. A nice mile walk from the court with nice rooms and free breakfast...a great place.

Total Miles To Date: 250

Next Game: Iona at Rhode Island.