Former Binghamton head coach Kevin Broadus joins Georgetown's staff

Kevin Broadus is back.

The former Binghamton head coach and Washington DC native has been hired as a special assistant to Georgetown head coach John Thompson III. Not assistant coach, mind you. Assistant. As in aide. As in he cannot recruit off-campus, he cannot coach the team, he cannot participate in meeting involving coaching activities, and he cannot scout opponents.

Why is Georgetown being forced to bring in a head coach that made the 2009 NCAA Tournament as the nation's highest-paid intern?


Because his flameout at Binghamton was even more impressive than the team that he was able to field.

Long story short, Broadus quickly earned a reputation for recruiting kids with questionable behavioral and academic backgrounds.

Short story long, he led Binghamton to the America East's tournament title in 2009, but his best player -- DJ Rivera -- was blackballed from first team all-conference by coaches who did not support Broadus' recruiting methods and the high-risk transfers he brought in. No worries, though, as Rivera was one of six players to get kicked off of the Binghamton team that following September after a series of unfortunate events. There was Tiki Mayben's arrest for selling crack. There was Malik Alvin getting arrested after knocking over a 66 year old woman and giving her a concussion while trying to steal a pack of Magnum condoms. There were accusations of academic impropriety. And, worst of all, a former member of the team named Milidan Kovacevic punched a student so hard that he inflicted life-threatening head injuries and damaged his brain so severely that the student lost all of his memory from college, including the classes he had taken. Oh, and Kovacevic immediately fled the country back to his native Serbia.

If that wasn't enough, Broadus committed a recruiting violation just weeks after this scandal hit. The details are here, but essentially he went to Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts and had illegal contact with a recruit. That, eventually, cost him his job, but not without taking a fifth of Binghamton's athletic budget with him.

"I think that Kevin, like everyone else, has learned from things that have happened in the past," John Thompson III said. "During his time here at Georgetown, he was invaluable to me as a sounding board, and I anticipate that being the case again. ... I did not go into this naive, thinking there wouldn’t be some negative thoughts out there, negative feelings toward him. And with reason. . . . But at the end of the day, Kevin knows how we do things at Georgetown and how we don’t do things at Georgetown."

Personally, I think this is a good move for all involved.

Georgetown doesn't take on much risk that Broadus will commit another violation given that his duties will be limited. (Seriously, does he make sure JT III's coffee stays warm? What will he do at Georgetown?) College coaches are stubborn and set in their ways, but I seriously doubt that Broadus would risk JT III's career by breaking the rules while he is on the Hoya's staff.

For Broadus, this is a no-brainer. Its a chance for him to get back into basketball and to start rebuilding his reputation. Everyone makes mistakes, and like the questionable characters Broadus brought into Binghamton, everyone deserves a second chance, an opportunity to right their wrongs.

Let's just hope that Broadus learned from his mistakes, unlike the players that got the boot from Binghamton.