Real Life Concerns Chief In Mayben's Decison

Ron Bailey, Publisher

November 5, 2007 – When a college basketball players transfers, many times people assume the reasons are strictly round ball related, as factors such as playing time and on court utilization are brandied about as justifications for a move.

Additionally, interaction with a coaching staff is also put forth as reasons for a transfer: Let’s be honest, no matter how you view the relative stature of student athletes and coaches, both are human beings, and sometimes certain people are not a good mix.

In Tikki Mayben’s case, his decision to transfer to Binghamton University from Hudson Valley Community College (he initially attended UMASS for two seasons), is more personal and more substantive, being anchored primarily in non-basketball concerns.

“The coaching staff alone” posited Mayben, a 6’2”+, 178 pound point guard of what drove his decision. “They talked about life, not just basketball like everybody else. They were the only ones who talked about what I needed to do for my future and my family’s”.

That would include his son, Haisi, and the kid’s mother and Tikki’s significant other, Lauren. In fact, his progeny was after Lauren’s brother Isaiah, further illustrating Mayben’s devotion.

Mayben, with Haisi and Lauren this year. Tikki believes a Binghamton degree will benefit the family in the future.

Added to Binghamton’s coaching staff, led by talented first year head coach Kevin Broadus, was the school’s proximity to Mayben’s Troy, NY Home, where both Haisi and Lauren reside.

Mayben’s national notoriety extends to his sophomore year at Troy High School, when he initially committed to Syracuse University after as he shared, receiving “(recruiting) letters from everybody in the country, except for North Carolina and Duke”. By the time his high school career was over, Mayben recounted “I was one of the top three guards in New York and top five nationally”.

Despite receiving a coveted Regents high school diploma (New York’s most challenging, college curriculum based program) in 2005, Mayben did not fully qualify under NCAA guidelines, and resultantly couldn’t participate athletically that year.

Consequently, the 2006-2007 season was his freshman campaign athletically, and according to Tikki, saw him “For the first 13 games, I averaged around eight (points) and six (rebounds). After that it was around four and four”.

Mayben, plans on returning to his power curve at Binghamton, in 2008-2009, when he hits that campus.

“I’m a true point guard that likes to get up and down the floor, stated Tikki, who plans to enroll at Binghamton during next summer, of his skill set. “We are going to run, and I’m excited. I can find the open man, or make the pass that afterward gets to the open man”.

This season at Hudson Valley, the Binghamton faithful can see him further develop his outside shot - a self-admitted point of needed improvement - as well as display what many around him value the most.

“My strength is my heart” said Mayben of what allows him to dominate on the court. “It’s just that I always win”.

Binghamton’s Broadus and his staff will surely welcome that trait, something that Tikki Mayben once again displayed when choosing that school; dwarfing the basketball program being on the upswing and in the capable hands of Broadus, was concern for his family’s future.

Broadus et al apparently spoke to that concern, and consequently all parties will benefit, beginning next summer.

With student-athletes such as Mayben aboard, expect Binghamton’s Broadus Era to be a golden period in that school’s hoops history.