We haven't handled the bad case 2 yet, but let's see what the code would be just to handle the search AND case 1.
Begin with the usual public/private pair of methods, remembering that deletion modifies the tree (like put, but unlike size()). In particular the root might change.
public void delete(int k) { root = delete(root, k); } public Node delete(Node t, int k) { if (t == null) { return null; // k not in the tree } // Find the node to delete: the one containing k if (k < t.key) { t.left = delete(t.left, k); } else if (k > t.key) { t.right = delete(t.right, k); } else { // we found it. Now delete t if (t.left == null) { // So we are in case 1 return t.right; } else if (t.right == null) { // Also in case 1 return t.left; } else { // THE BAD CASE 2 - t has two children } } return t; }