It's finally here, the start of hoops season. For folks at Bucknell, where the football team is struggling mightily, it couldn't come soon enough.

We will be in Lewisburg tonight as the Bison unfurl their Patriot League title banner and kick things off with what is still being called Midnight Mania, even though it will run from 9-11 p.m.

Look for a report tomorrow, most likely late in the day after we get done schlepping kids to soccer games in the morning.

Down in the valley, Lehigh will wait until 11 a.m. Saturday to get started. ESPN college basketball analyst Doug Gottlieb will be the emcee for the Mountain Hawks event in Stabler Arena. During last week's Holy Cross-Lehigh football game, Billy Taylor said the reason for the Saturday start is to allow alums on campus for reunion weekend to take part.

In Worcester, Hart Hysteria will get underway tonight at 10 p.m.

Army's start apparently will be more low key. All the Cadets' Web site mentions is the start of practice today.

Ditto for Navy.

By the way, in case you have not been there lately, Matt is turning the Patriot Hoops Blog into some sort of graphical wonderland with all kinds of charts and numbers. There are more than enough stats to ponder while you wait for the actual games to tip off.

Don't believe his bullshit about being the next president of AU though, bloggers are way too low budget for that job.