Bucknell center Chris McNaughton scored 8 points and grabbed 7 boards Tuesday as Germany defeated the Czech Republic 69-53 in the second round of the World University Games in Turkey.

Germany will face China, 117-61 losers to the US, Wednesday. A win in that game would advance the Germans to the third round, where they would face the winner of Group L (the Ukraine will win that group if it beats Lithuania Wednesday).

We are headed out of town on vacation and are leaving the laptop behind (hey, it is a vacation!), but you can follow the action on the World University Games site.
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From allAfrica.com, this news:

Nigeria's national men's basketball team, D'Tigers, got off to a good start yesterday as the 23rd African Nations Cup began in Algeria by beating Cote d'Ivoire 87-56.

You are probably asking "Why should I care about that?"

The answer: Bucknell point guard Abe Badmus, the 2005 PL defensive player of the year, is a member of that Nigerian team, which is coached by former Celtic Sam Vincent and includes a handful of current and former NBA players. According to Bucknell SID Jon Terry, Badmus was eligible to play for the African nation because his mother is Nigerian.

If anyone can find boxscores from this competition, feel free to forward us a link.
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ESPN.com's Andy Katz has Bucknell on what he calls his Summer Sessions Top 50, ranking the Bison at No. 50 and calling them one of "10 teams we could see getting an NCAA bid and possibly winning a first-round game"

Katz's reasoning:

Credentials: The Bison's win over Kansas ranks as the top victory in the 2005 NCAA Tournament and there is a carryover to this season. The Bison had only one senior on last season's team -- and he was sixth in scoring. The return of the rest of the core -- specifically guard Kevin Bettencourt, center Chris McNaughton and wing Charles Lee -- bodes well for Bucknell's chances to get back to the Dance and win a game again. Remember, this is the same team that shocked Saint Joseph's and Pittsburgh on the road during the regular season.

Reason: Bucknell took a spring trip to England and Ireland, beat up on the competition on the way to a 4-0 record and got more experience as a team. This is one of those machine-like teams that should be so well-schooled in its schemes by now that they will be tough to beat. Bucknell might get a Top 25 vote early.

Red flag: Some people will still say Bucknell is not talented or athletic enough to hang with the big boys, but that was proven wrong last season. No, the biggest problem for Bucknell is getting back to the NCAAs. The Patriot League just doesn't get two bids. So that means Bucknell has to play well enough to be one of the Patriot League tournament's two protected seeds, at the very least. Bucknell won the title game on Holy Cross' home court last season, but it might be asking a lot of the Bison to pull that off again.

For those who dig visuals, there is also a picture of Bucknell center Chris McNaughton on the site's College Basketball index page with the tease to Katz's piece.
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Bucknell and Holy Cross are both ranked in College Hoops Net's top 144, a summer preview project the site is posting over the course of 144 days.

The site posted Bucknell at No. 88 Monday. Holy Cross was previously posted at No. 115.

While it is arguable that a No. 88 ranking does not show Bucknell the kind of respect it might deserve given that everybody is back from a team that made the second round of the dance last season, it is still nice to see two teams from the league included in this kind of a piece.

It was not long ago that you would likely have found no Patriot Teams anywhere on the list.
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A hearty Hoop Time welcome to the newest Patriot League enthusiast in the blogosphere. Boxman's Blog will offer a Holy Cross perspective, promising:

I will post after every game I attend, offering my sophomoric insight and excuses for out play.

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There is no official release yet ... that won't come until all the contracts are signed and returned. But Bucknell has finally completed its 2005-2006 schedule.

New names on the slate include games Nov. 22 at Northeastern and Dec. 3 at DePaul, two teams that made the NIT field last season, and a Jan. 2 date at perennial national contender Duke.

The ambitious schedule also includes home games with Villanova (Dec. 6) and Saint Joseph's (Dec. 21).

The Bison will also become the first Patriot League team ever to play in ESPN's Bracket Buster Saturday on February 18. That game, against a to-be-determined mid-major foe, will be on the road.

While many will heap praise on the Bison for the tough non-conference schedule, assistant coach Nathan Davis said it was as much due to necessity as desire. It has never been easy for Bucknell to fill its schedule, and last year's success, coupled with the return of all but one player from that team, made it even tougher this year.

"It's going to be difficult, but what are you going to do," Davis said. "You have to play somebody."

The "you have to play somebody" part also explains the return of Division III Haverford to the Bison's schedule. Davis said Bucknell did not want to play a DIII, but they needed a home game and could not get any Division I teams to come to Lewisburg.

The Bison have just five non-conference home dates, including Haverford. The remaining eight non-conference games are away from Sjoka Pavilion.

Bucknell Bison (Tentative) 2005-2006 schedule:
Nov. 18 - @ Rider
Nov. 22 @ Northeastern
Nov. 26 - YALE
Nov. 30 - @ Niagra
Dec. 3 - @ DePaul
Dec. 6 - VILLANOVA
Dec. 17 - CORNELL
Dec. 19 - HAVERFORD (D3)
Dec. 21 - ST. JOSEPH'S
Dec. 28 - Cable Car Classic at San Francisco, CA - Bucknell vs. Boston University
Dec. 29th - Bucknell vs. Santa Clara/UC Riverside
Jan. 2 - @ Duke
Jan. 7 - @ Navy
Jan. 11 - @ American
Jan. 15 - HOLY CROSS (TV)
Jan. 18 - LAFAYETTE
Jan. 21 - COLGATE
Jan. 25 - @ Lehigh
Jan. 28 - NAVY
Feb. 1 - @ Army
Feb. 4 - @ Colgate
Feb. 8 - AMERICAN
Feb. 11 - @ Holy Cross
Feb. 16 - @ Lafayette (TV)
Feb. 18 - ESPN Bracket Buster (location TBA)
Feb. 22 - LEHIGH
Feb. 25 - ARMY
Mar. 3 - PL Tournament
Mar. 5 - PL Tournament
Mar. 10 - PL Tournament

For more on the Bison, check out Tom Housenick's column in today's Daily Item.

Also, Colgate has posted a tentative schedule on its Web site.

Let's just say the Raiders are not going to do wonders for the league's RPI.
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Bucknell's Chris McNaughton scored 9 points and grabbed 8 rebounds for Germany Sunday in a 72-62 loss to the USA team in the World University Games in Turkey. McNaughton went 4-for-10 from the field for the Germans, who lost for the first time in three games. (story|box).

Despite the loss, Germany advances to the next round of competition after placing second in Group F. The Germans will play Group E winner Czech Republic Tuesday. The Czech's went 2-0 in their three-team pool, beating China (74-48) and Peru (98-29). The US will face China Tuesday.

McNaughton scored 9 points on 4-for-7 shooting and grabbed 3 rebounds Friday as Germany opened play with an 80-60 win over Slovakia.

Saturday, McNaughton had 2 points and 2 rebounds in a 64-60 Germany win over Iran.
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