Binghamton men's basketball coach Kevin Broadus hiring

Press Conference Transcript

I want to thank all of you for being here today. I'm pretty sure you had a lot going on today. We all have busy schedules, family, work and all those type of things. I'm elated to be here first and foremost. I'd like to thank Dr. Thirer and Dr. DeFleur and the whole athletic department here at Binghamton. I'm very excited to be here and I appreciate you welcoming my family and I here, I'm deeply appreciative of that. I'd like to thank my lovely wife and my kids who couldn't be here because of school.

I'd like to thank Coach Walker for leaving the program in good shape. The program is not bare at all, it's in good shape. I'm happy and excited for the opportunity to build a successful program with all of you, with all of your support and enthusiasm. I'm looking forward to working with all of you

I'd like to thank people who have helped me along the way. I'd like to thank my wife because it's been a long road from my Bowie State days, to the D.C. days, to my time at American, George Washington and now with the Georgetown.

I'd first like to thanks Georgetown and John Thompson III who taught me a number of things about basketball that I didn't know before I got there. Both him and his dad have taught me a lot.

Of course, Karl Hobbs, who is one of my mentors who I was fortunate to work with to build a program to national precedence. He is an important mentor and I'd like to thank him.

There are many others who have been very instrumental in my career. Will Jones is a mentor, John Thompson Jr., Ed Myers and Al Brathaway.

Binghamton has good tradition and a lot to build on and I'm very aware of that. I've been taught in the few days with Dr. Thirer, about some of the things that he expects. I was going through some literature and I've done my homework…100 % graduation rate and I plan to keep that up. The commitment is huge, just to see the faces and the people here and to feel the warmth of the community. It was hard with the calls I've gotten from people that I tried not to let it out, but I feel blessed right now and I want to make everyone here happy.

We have goals and aspirations. I talked with the guys before and we want to be America East Champions, and that's a goal that is easier said than done. We have to work hard and I know that.

We have goals and aspirations. I talked to the guys (players). We want to be America East champs. It's easier said than done, but I think these guys understand. These guys want to win. I told them we have to have burning desires for two things: to be very good students…they have to get a degree…and second of all, to play at the next level, which means hard work. Its' easier said than done, but I think these guys understand and they want to win. To have a 100% graduation rate is incredible. I haven't really seen that anywhere and I've been at some very strong institutions.

I just want to thank everyone for being here. I don't want to talk long and I don't want to bore you, I'm on one hour of sleep. We played last night then drove home while the kids and wife slept whole way and then drove here today. I would just like to thank everyone, I can't say that enough.

Question & Answers

Q: What are your plans and goals for this program? What type of style will you play?

A: We’re going to play a type of style that is very disciplined. We’re going to play up-tempo, but it’s going to be disciplined. It’s going to be hard to defend us the way we’re going to play. People are going to say I am going to bring the Princeton style, the GW (George Washington) style, the American University style…we’re going to play the Binghamton style. And you’ll find out quickly what that is. It’s going to be a very good style, it’s going to be very disciplined, very up-tempo, and one thing I do know - we’re going to defend because the thing that I’ve learned in the last week about the team from last year is we had pretty good offensive players and now we got to get them to defend. The guys played at a 40 percentile on the offense in field goal percentage and that’s pretty good. Now we got to teach these guys how to defend and rebound. And if they want to win the America East, they’ll pick that up quickly, hopefully.

Q: You said you just met with all the players, you know what's coming back in terms of scoring next year. You say you want to win the America East, do you mean immediately or are you building a plan for the next couple of years?

A: I would love to win it immediately. I can’t promise you that, one thing like I told the players; I’ll never lie to you. I’m not going to put any timetable on it, but that’s our goal. They said that’s their dreams and aspirations, I want to help them, but I told them they have to make sure they know its hard work coming along with that. So when you tell me you want to win the AE you got to work hard.

Q: You’ve been credited with bringing in a lot of the players who’ve helped Georgetown reach the Final Four this year. This year you recruited two McDonald’s All-Americans to come to the Hoyas next season. Where do you plan on recruiting from for this program?

A: All over, All over. I don’t have a broad-base, one city only. People like to say he’s a D.C. guy. I’ve gotten guys out of Virginia Beach, Atlanta...a guy that’s playing in the NBA Pops Mensa Bonsu, recruited him to GW from London. All over, that’s my plan. I’m not going to say we’re just going to recruit in a certain area. We’re going to recruit New York City, Washington D.C., Philadelphia; we’re going to recruit the best player, the best student-athlete, that’s what we’re going to recruit. We’re not going to just recruit the best player and sacrifice the academics for another player. We’re going to put it all together and get the best student-athlete from whatever area we can find them in.

Q: Jeff Jones at American said you are a person who can recruit all types of people, all ages all kinds of people. What are your skills that allow you to do that?

A: Personality. Recruiting is mostly personality and I hate to put this on it, but it’s a little bit of salesmanship. You have to be able to sell yourself, the University, the academics, you have a beautiful facility here to sell. I have to sell you guys, the people in this room, the support. We can’t win, we can’t recruit without the support. I’m not going to make it a secret, I’m not going to fool you, I’m not going to say we can do it with mirrors. We need everyone in this room to recruit. People always say you’re a great recruiter; I didn’t do it by myself. I may have recruited the individual, but I had support and I had help. I had this lady (wife) in my corner, I had that person at Georgetown, and that person at American with Jeff Jones. People only look at the small picture of recruiting. Recruiting is a wide base and for us to get the right student-athlete at Binghamton, it’s going to take everyone in this room and others to help us. I’m not saying financially, its going to take the mind trust and the support and the yelling in the stands and being behind this team and things like that. One thing I do know, kids love to play in front of crowds that you have. And that was the one big selling point for me when I saw the support of the fans and the season ticket holders and I was just like “wow”.

And we played here when I was at GW 4-5 years ago at the West Gym a couple of years ago. And you guys came to GW the year before and took us to OT and we were pulling our hair out and I said “I may have to look at this place.” I know it’s the support here, I just hope and pray and beg you guys to support us. Not just to support me, support us, because it’s not about me, it’s about the young men. Like I told them in the locker room, it’d be a crying shame if they walked out of here, and my dream and my goal for them is to play post-season play. And I feel whole-heartedly about that, whether it’s the NIT or NCAA. These kids, and all kids should at least experience it, it’s an experience of a lifetime. I can’t even begin to tell you, I’m standing up here thinking. These guys, if you take Binghamton off the chest, you take that name off and you put no name on it, these guys are just as good as some of the guys we played against two weeks ago. They can play with some of these teams, trust me I’ve seen it. It's hard work, but getting the right student athlete to buy into it and to have the same passion as you do is remarkable, but I want these guys to experience it, I want you guys, everyone in this room to experience post-season play. We want to be sitting right here in this room next March looking at the screen and seeing where we’re going. It’s the most exciting feeling. We could be going up the street to Buffalo; we could be going to St. Louis. The thing is when they call your name you don’t even care who your playing, its an unbelievable experience and its an experience that I want you guys to have too because walking away, cutting nets, I want that experience here, I want that experience here. I need you guys to help and push and give these guys encouragement so we can get them in that mindset that "Hey, we can be America East champs." We can’t just talk about it, we got to be about it and work at it to be there.

Q: Standing here, right now at this moment, what is your number one biggest challenge?

A: My number one, biggest challenge is America East, the other eight other schools. That’s the biggest challenge. These guys are willing to put in the time and effort. That window is scary because with a little bit of luck and the ball bounced a few different ways I may not be here and that’s just the reality of this business. The biggest challenge is to hope that we get the luck and ball bounces in a few more times and we’re in the left column more than the right side of the column, but the biggest challenge is the other schools. Some of these schools have a full head of steam, and that’s not to say they are better places, because they’re not. They’ve tasted the NCAA, it’s contagious. The Vermont’s, the Albany’s, the different schools in this league that have tasted the winning, that’s the biggest challenge. Now we got to taste the winning because once you taste it its hard, because once they taste winning its contagious. Then kids will want to come, the so-to-speak top players in the country will want to come play for you. We will get those kids, because we’re going to work hard. The group we’ll put together, whether it’s the guys here, or some other guys, I don’t know. I don’t really want to elaborate because I haven’t really thought about that part, but the biggest challenge is the other schools. Once we get it going, you’re going to love the product. We’re going to play very disciplined, we’re going to have some up-tempo, but we’re going to play a style of basketball that you can appreciate. I see a lot of people in here that have a lot of gray hairs like me that will recognize the system. I’m not going to put a name on it. It’s going to be the Binghamton system and it’s going to be a system you can appreciate. And the challenges, we’ll be up to it, we’ll be up to the other schools, quickly.