Bison pull out opener
Originally posted Friday at 11:39 p.m., updated at 3:47 a.m.
NOTE: This report has been edited to correct an error in the original post.
A good shooter has no conscience. It doesn’t matter to a shooter if his shots are falling or clanging off the rim. He is like an egg-sucking dog, he has a habit that cannot be broken.
When you are on, shoot, they say. When you are off, shoot until you are on.
So it was no surprise when Bucknell’s Kevin Bettencourt jacked up a 19-footer from the right side with his foot on the three-point line with one second to go and his team trailing Rider by a point in the season opener for both teams.
Forget the fact that he had just missed six shots in a row. Forget that Bettencourt was 2-for-12 from three-point range up to that point. The fact that he had not made a bucket since early in the second half and was 1 for his last 10 did not bother Bettencourt any more than the fact that he had not made a field goal in the past 12 minutes.
Bettencourt is a shooter, and shooters shoot the ball. And you don’t get to be your school’s all-time leading three-point shooter without making a few. Like the one that won the season-opener 56-54 over a game Rider club that led most of the second half.
“I’m going to keep shooting. I learned that through the years. I am not going to stop shooting. I needed a nice roll and I got one,” said Bettencourt, who had seen shot after shot rim out before the game-winner stayed down.
“He had to knock one down,” said Bison coach Pat Flannery.
Up until the final minute of the game, it had all the makings of an upset.
The Broncs took the lead with a 5-0 spurt in the last 45 seconds of the first half, breaking a 24-24 tie with a three-pointer by Edwin Muniz and a short jumper from Rodney Pierce.
For most of the second half, Rider made that narrow lead stand up. Bucknell closed it to 31-30 early in the second half, only to see Rider stretch the lead back to 7. Four times Bucknell managed to pull even; each time Rider responded to keep the lead.
Against Bucknell’s usually stingy defense, the Broncs shot 45 percent from the floor in the first half. At the same time, Bucknell, in early foul trouble after a handful of offensive foul calls on its big men, became tentative against Rider’s aggressive matchup zone.
“We got called for some moving screens and stuff early, some physical stuff we usually can do. We got less aggressive and as a result we became a perimeter shooting team,” said Flannery.
In fact, 12 of Bucknell’s 22 first half shots came from outside the three-point arc. Only three of them fell in a half that saw the Bison shoot 36.4 percent.
How perimeter oriented did the Bison become? Chris McNaughton, their 6-11 center had 7 first half points, all from outside the paint, including the first three-pointer of his career.
“That was not planned,” McNaughton said.
“The shot or the bank,” asked Flannery.
“Everything,” laughed McNaughton.
With Bucknell unable to get into an offensive flow, and the Broncs hitting four big three-pointers, including the one by Muniz that kick started the spurt at the end of the half, Rider went into the locker room at intermission feeling their oats.
“By then we had given them so much confidence that it was going to go down to the end,” said Flannery.
That it did. The Broncs had a 52-48 lead with 2:41 to play. Then Bucknell’s defense and experience came to the forefront. First Charles Lee stole the ball off Rider’s Jason Thompson under the Bison basket after Thomspon had rebounded a missed Bettencourt trey.
Lee, trying to throw the ball off Thompson’s legs as he was falling out of bounds, missed Thompson, but the bounce found Donald Brown, who laid it in to cut Broncs’ lead to 2.
The Bison, who allowed only three Rider offensive rebounds all night, gave up two of those in the final two minutes. But each time they managed to get the stop, once with McNaughton making a big block on a Muniz runner and, after yet another Bettencourt missed three, by forcing Rider into a shotclock violation.
Rider had yet another possession with a chance to stretch its lead, but Muniz missed an off balance jumper with the shot clock about to expire.
At the other end, Bucknell’s John Griffin hit a three with 17.5 to go to give the Bison their first lead of the second half. But Rider went right back on top on a pair of Thompson free throws after he got the ball on the low block and drew a foul from McNaughton.
That set the stage for Bettencourt’s heroics.
“We’ve been in so many situations like that the last few years. We have been there before. We remained confident and never paniced,” said Bettencourt, who added a free throw after Rider threw away a desperation inbounds pass to account for the final margin.
McNaughton, who hit the first four shots he took and put back his own miss on the fifth, finished with 14 points to lead the Bison. Charles Lee added 13, 8 coming in the first 4:55 of the game. Lee also had a team high 8 rebounds as the Bison outboarded Rider 39-28.
Thompson led Rider with 17 points. Muniz chipped in with an 11-points, 11-rebounds double-double.
The Bison will continue their season opening road swing Tuesday when they travel to Syracuse to face the No. 16 Orangemen.
Box Score
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NOTE: This report has been edited to correct an error in the original post.
A good shooter has no conscience. It doesn’t matter to a shooter if his shots are falling or clanging off the rim. He is like an egg-sucking dog, he has a habit that cannot be broken.
When you are on, shoot, they say. When you are off, shoot until you are on.
So it was no surprise when Bucknell’s Kevin Bettencourt jacked up a 19-footer from the right side with his foot on the three-point line with one second to go and his team trailing Rider by a point in the season opener for both teams.
Forget the fact that he had just missed six shots in a row. Forget that Bettencourt was 2-for-12 from three-point range up to that point. The fact that he had not made a bucket since early in the second half and was 1 for his last 10 did not bother Bettencourt any more than the fact that he had not made a field goal in the past 12 minutes.
Bettencourt is a shooter, and shooters shoot the ball. And you don’t get to be your school’s all-time leading three-point shooter without making a few. Like the one that won the season-opener 56-54 over a game Rider club that led most of the second half.
“I’m going to keep shooting. I learned that through the years. I am not going to stop shooting. I needed a nice roll and I got one,” said Bettencourt, who had seen shot after shot rim out before the game-winner stayed down.
“He had to knock one down,” said Bison coach Pat Flannery.
Up until the final minute of the game, it had all the makings of an upset.
The Broncs took the lead with a 5-0 spurt in the last 45 seconds of the first half, breaking a 24-24 tie with a three-pointer by Edwin Muniz and a short jumper from Rodney Pierce.
For most of the second half, Rider made that narrow lead stand up. Bucknell closed it to 31-30 early in the second half, only to see Rider stretch the lead back to 7. Four times Bucknell managed to pull even; each time Rider responded to keep the lead.
Against Bucknell’s usually stingy defense, the Broncs shot 45 percent from the floor in the first half. At the same time, Bucknell, in early foul trouble after a handful of offensive foul calls on its big men, became tentative against Rider’s aggressive matchup zone.
“We got called for some moving screens and stuff early, some physical stuff we usually can do. We got less aggressive and as a result we became a perimeter shooting team,” said Flannery.
In fact, 12 of Bucknell’s 22 first half shots came from outside the three-point arc. Only three of them fell in a half that saw the Bison shoot 36.4 percent.
How perimeter oriented did the Bison become? Chris McNaughton, their 6-11 center had 7 first half points, all from outside the paint, including the first three-pointer of his career.
“That was not planned,” McNaughton said.
“The shot or the bank,” asked Flannery.
“Everything,” laughed McNaughton.
With Bucknell unable to get into an offensive flow, and the Broncs hitting four big three-pointers, including the one by Muniz that kick started the spurt at the end of the half, Rider went into the locker room at intermission feeling their oats.
“By then we had given them so much confidence that it was going to go down to the end,” said Flannery.
That it did. The Broncs had a 52-48 lead with 2:41 to play. Then Bucknell’s defense and experience came to the forefront. First Charles Lee stole the ball off Rider’s Jason Thompson under the Bison basket after Thomspon had rebounded a missed Bettencourt trey.
Lee, trying to throw the ball off Thompson’s legs as he was falling out of bounds, missed Thompson, but the bounce found Donald Brown, who laid it in to cut Broncs’ lead to 2.
The Bison, who allowed only three Rider offensive rebounds all night, gave up two of those in the final two minutes. But each time they managed to get the stop, once with McNaughton making a big block on a Muniz runner and, after yet another Bettencourt missed three, by forcing Rider into a shotclock violation.
Rider had yet another possession with a chance to stretch its lead, but Muniz missed an off balance jumper with the shot clock about to expire.
At the other end, Bucknell’s John Griffin hit a three with 17.5 to go to give the Bison their first lead of the second half. But Rider went right back on top on a pair of Thompson free throws after he got the ball on the low block and drew a foul from McNaughton.
That set the stage for Bettencourt’s heroics.
“We’ve been in so many situations like that the last few years. We have been there before. We remained confident and never paniced,” said Bettencourt, who added a free throw after Rider threw away a desperation inbounds pass to account for the final margin.
McNaughton, who hit the first four shots he took and put back his own miss on the fifth, finished with 14 points to lead the Bison. Charles Lee added 13, 8 coming in the first 4:55 of the game. Lee also had a team high 8 rebounds as the Bison outboarded Rider 39-28.
Thompson led Rider with 17 points. Muniz chipped in with an 11-points, 11-rebounds double-double.
The Bison will continue their season opening road swing Tuesday when they travel to Syracuse to face the No. 16 Orangemen.
Box Score
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Four hit the floor
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New Hampshire at COLGATE 1 p.m.: Bill Herrion takes over as coach at UNH and looks to have a tough road ahead in his first season. Already off to an 0-3 start, the Wildcats still have non-league games with Harvard, Penn State, North Carolina State and UConn. All three losses have come on the road, two in close games (64-61 at Columbia in the opener, 64-62 vs. Quinnipiac in the consolation game of the Columbia tournament). The third was a 75-51 blowout at Providence. The Wildcats also lost an exhibition against DII Merrimack, the team picked to finish ninth in the Northeast-10 conference. Australian import Blagoj Janev (13.3 ppg), a 6-8 junior, is UNH's leading scorer. A young team, UNH has one senior, guard Georges Djanabia, who has been seeing very little time (3.3 mpg). Janev is one of three juniors. Colgate's notes show Kendall Chones returning to the lineup. Chones (15 ppg) missed the loss at Cornell due to injury. Chones, who has scored in double figures each of the three games he has played, leads Colgate in scoring His brother Kyle (6 rpg) is the team's leading rebounder. Kyle turned in his first career (16 points, 10 rebounds) in the loss at Cornell.
Colgate notes (pdf) | UNH Web site | USA Today matchup
The Citadel at ARMY 1 p.m.: Army tries to put together a three-game win streak for the first time since the 2001-02 season. The Citadel is 2-2, but it is tough to tell much about the Bulldogs from their record. Two losses came to Delaware and North Carolina State, the wins over Stetson and an NAIA team. Senior guard Dante Terry (6-2) leads Citadel in scoring (11.8 ppg). Soph Demetrius Nelson (6-8) does not start, but also averages in double figures (10.3 ppg). Junior J'mel Everhart leads the team in rebounding (9.3 rpg) while chipping in 8.5 ppg.
Army notes (pdf) | Citadel notes | USA Today matchup | Gametracker
AMERICAN at La Salle 2 p.m.:American will have its hands full with LaSalle's 6-9 senior Steven Smith, last season's Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year. A legit All-America candidate, Smith scored 15 and grabbed 9 boards in an opening night win over Maryland-Baltimore County. He averaged 20.3 ppg and 8.5 rpg last season. Smith mulled a jump to the NBA and decided to return for his senior season to try to improve his draft position. Smith was told at last year's pre-draft camp in Chicago that he would have been a late first to mid second round pick if he came out early. Suffice to say Brayden Billbe will have his hands full. Senior guard Jermaine Thomas (6-2) had 17 off the bench against UMBC. Sophomore guard Darnell Harris (6-1) added 13 points.
AU notes | Saint Joseph's notes | USA Today matchup | LaSalle radio
Yale at BUCKNELL 7 p.m.: All the makings of a classic trap game. Coming off the big win over Syracuse. It's BU's home-opener, but the students are on break so the crowd will likely be much smaller and much quieter than when they are in town. One edge for BU, Yale's leading returning scorer, 6-10 senior Dominick Martin, who has one semester of eligibility left, won't play until the first semester ends on Dec. 18. In his stead, 6-10 junior Matt Kyle has been starting at center, but Kyle is averaging just one point and less than 3 rebounds per game. Yale's leading scorer is junior Sam Kaplan (6-7, 225) who is scoring 17.7 ppg. Caey Hughes, a 6-5 swingman, has been in double figures in rebounds all three games.
Bucknell notes | Yale notes | USA Today matchup |Bucknell Radio
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | PennLive.com | Yahoo!
New Hampshire at COLGATE 1 p.m.: Bill Herrion takes over as coach at UNH and looks to have a tough road ahead in his first season. Already off to an 0-3 start, the Wildcats still have non-league games with Harvard, Penn State, North Carolina State and UConn. All three losses have come on the road, two in close games (64-61 at Columbia in the opener, 64-62 vs. Quinnipiac in the consolation game of the Columbia tournament). The third was a 75-51 blowout at Providence. The Wildcats also lost an exhibition against DII Merrimack, the team picked to finish ninth in the Northeast-10 conference. Australian import Blagoj Janev (13.3 ppg), a 6-8 junior, is UNH's leading scorer. A young team, UNH has one senior, guard Georges Djanabia, who has been seeing very little time (3.3 mpg). Janev is one of three juniors. Colgate's notes show Kendall Chones returning to the lineup. Chones (15 ppg) missed the loss at Cornell due to injury. Chones, who has scored in double figures each of the three games he has played, leads Colgate in scoring His brother Kyle (6 rpg) is the team's leading rebounder. Kyle turned in his first career (16 points, 10 rebounds) in the loss at Cornell.
Colgate notes (pdf) | UNH Web site | USA Today matchup
The Citadel at ARMY 1 p.m.: Army tries to put together a three-game win streak for the first time since the 2001-02 season. The Citadel is 2-2, but it is tough to tell much about the Bulldogs from their record. Two losses came to Delaware and North Carolina State, the wins over Stetson and an NAIA team. Senior guard Dante Terry (6-2) leads Citadel in scoring (11.8 ppg). Soph Demetrius Nelson (6-8) does not start, but also averages in double figures (10.3 ppg). Junior J'mel Everhart leads the team in rebounding (9.3 rpg) while chipping in 8.5 ppg.
Army notes (pdf) | Citadel notes | USA Today matchup | Gametracker
AMERICAN at La Salle 2 p.m.:American will have its hands full with LaSalle's 6-9 senior Steven Smith, last season's Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year. A legit All-America candidate, Smith scored 15 and grabbed 9 boards in an opening night win over Maryland-Baltimore County. He averaged 20.3 ppg and 8.5 rpg last season. Smith mulled a jump to the NBA and decided to return for his senior season to try to improve his draft position. Smith was told at last year's pre-draft camp in Chicago that he would have been a late first to mid second round pick if he came out early. Suffice to say Brayden Billbe will have his hands full. Senior guard Jermaine Thomas (6-2) had 17 off the bench against UMBC. Sophomore guard Darnell Harris (6-1) added 13 points.
AU notes | Saint Joseph's notes | USA Today matchup | LaSalle radio
Yale at BUCKNELL 7 p.m.: All the makings of a classic trap game. Coming off the big win over Syracuse. It's BU's home-opener, but the students are on break so the crowd will likely be much smaller and much quieter than when they are in town. One edge for BU, Yale's leading returning scorer, 6-10 senior Dominick Martin, who has one semester of eligibility left, won't play until the first semester ends on Dec. 18. In his stead, 6-10 junior Matt Kyle has been starting at center, but Kyle is averaging just one point and less than 3 rebounds per game. Yale's leading scorer is junior Sam Kaplan (6-7, 225) who is scoring 17.7 ppg. Caey Hughes, a 6-5 swingman, has been in double figures in rebounds all three games.
Bucknell notes | Yale notes | USA Today matchup |Bucknell Radio
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | PennLive.com | Yahoo!
New Hampshire at COLGATE 1 p.m.: Bill Herrion takes over as coach at UNH and looks to have a tough road ahead in his first season. Already off to an 0-3 start, the Wildcats still have non-league games with Harvard, Penn State, North Carolina State and UConn. All three losses have come on the road, two in close games (64-61 at Columbia in the opener, 64-62 vs. Quinnipiac in the consolation game of the Columbia tournament). The third was a 75-51 blowout at Providence. The Wildcats also lost an exhibition against DII Merrimack, the team picked to finish ninth in the Northeast-10 conference. Australian import Blagoj Janev (13.3 ppg), a 6-8 junior, is UNH's leading scorer. A young team, UNH has one senior, guard Georges Djanabia, who has been seeing very little time (3.3 mpg). Janev is one of three juniors. Colgate's notes show Kendall Chones returning to the lineup. Chones (15 ppg) missed the loss at Cornell due to injury. Chones, who has scored in double figures each of the three games he has played, leads Colgate in scoring His brother Kyle (6 rpg) is the team's leading rebounder. Kyle turned in his first career (16 points, 10 rebounds) in the loss at Cornell.
Colgate notes (pdf) | UNH Web site | USA Today matchup
The Citadel at ARMY 1 p.m.: Army tries to put together a three-game win streak for the first time since the 2001-02 season. The Citadel is 2-2, but it is tough to tell much about the Bulldogs from their record. Two losses came to Delaware and North Carolina State, the wins over Stetson and an NAIA team. Senior guard Dante Terry (6-2) leads Citadel in scoring (11.8 ppg). Soph Demetrius Nelson (6-8) does not start, but also averages in double figures (10.3 ppg). Junior J'mel Everhart leads the team in rebounding (9.3 rpg) while chipping in 8.5 ppg.
Army notes (pdf) | Citadel notes | USA Today matchup | Gametracker
AMERICAN at La Salle 2 p.m.:American will have its hands full with LaSalle's 6-9 senior Steven Smith, last season's Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year. A legit All-America candidate, Smith scored 15 and grabbed 9 boards in an opening night win over Maryland-Baltimore County. He averaged 20.3 ppg and 8.5 rpg last season. Smith mulled a jump to the NBA and decided to return for his senior season to try to improve his draft position. Smith was told at last year's pre-draft camp in Chicago that he would have been a late first to mid second round pick if he came out early. Suffice to say Brayden Billbe will have his hands full. Senior guard Jermaine Thomas (6-2) had 17 off the bench against UMBC. Sophomore guard Darnell Harris (6-1) added 13 points.
AU notes | Saint Joseph's notes | USA Today matchup | LaSalle radio
Yale at BUCKNELL 7 p.m.: All the makings of a classic trap game. Coming off the big win over Syracuse. It's BU's home-opener, but the students are on break so the crowd will likely be much smaller and much quieter than when they are in town. One edge for BU, Yale's leading returning scorer, 6-10 senior Dominick Martin, who has one semester of eligibility left, won't play until the first semester ends on Dec. 18. In his stead, 6-10 junior Matt Kyle has been starting at center, but Kyle is averaging just one point and less than 3 rebounds per game. Yale's leading scorer is junior Sam Kaplan (6-7, 225) who is scoring 17.7 ppg. Caey Hughes, a 6-5 swingman, has been in double figures in rebounds all three games.
Bucknell notes | Yale notes | USA Today matchup |Bucknell Radio
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | PennLive.com | Yahoo!
New Hampshire at COLGATE 1 p.m.: Bill Herrion takes over as coach at UNH and looks to have a tough road ahead in his first season. Already off to an 0-3 start, the Wildcats still have non-league games with Harvard, Penn State, North Carolina State and UConn. All three losses have come on the road, two in close games (64-61 at Columbia in the opener, 64-62 vs. Quinnipiac in the consolation game of the Columbia tournament). The third was a 75-51 blowout at Providence. The Wildcats also lost an exhibition against DII Merrimack, the team picked to finish ninth in the Northeast-10 conference. Australian import Blagoj Janev (13.3 ppg), a 6-8 junior, is UNH's leading scorer. A young team, UNH has one senior, guard Georges Djanabia, who has been seeing very little time (3.3 mpg). Janev is one of three juniors. Colgate's notes show Kendall Chones returning to the lineup. Chones (15 ppg) missed the loss at Cornell due to injury. Chones, who has scored in double figures each of the three games he has played, leads Colgate in scoring His brother Kyle (6 rpg) is the team's leading rebounder. Kyle turned in his first career (16 points, 10 rebounds) in the loss at Cornell.
Colgate notes (pdf) | UNH Web site | USA Today matchup
The Citadel at ARMY 1 p.m.: Army tries to put together a three-game win streak for the first time since the 2001-02 season. The Citadel is 2-2, but it is tough to tell much about the Bulldogs from their record. Two losses came to Delaware and North Carolina State, the wins over Stetson and an NAIA team. Senior guard Dante Terry (6-2) leads Citadel in scoring (11.8 ppg). Soph Demetrius Nelson (6-8) does not start, but also averages in double figures (10.3 ppg). Junior J'mel Everhart leads the team in rebounding (9.3 rpg) while chipping in 8.5 ppg.
Army notes (pdf) | Citadel notes | USA Today matchup | Gametracker
AMERICAN at La Salle 2 p.m.:American will have its hands full with LaSalle's 6-9 senior Steven Smith, last season's Atlantic 10 Co-Player of the Year. A legit All-America candidate, Smith scored 15 and grabbed 9 boards in an opening night win over Maryland-Baltimore County. He averaged 20.3 ppg and 8.5 rpg last season. Smith mulled a jump to the NBA and decided to return for his senior season to try to improve his draft position. Smith was told at last year's pre-draft camp in Chicago that he would have been a late first to mid second round pick if he came out early. Suffice to say Brayden Billbe will have his hands full. Senior guard Jermaine Thomas (6-2) had 17 off the bench against UMBC. Sophomore guard Darnell Harris (6-1) added 13 points.
AU notes | Saint Joseph's notes | USA Today matchup | LaSalle radio
Yale at BUCKNELL 7 p.m.: All the makings of a classic trap game. Coming off the big win over Syracuse. It's BU's home-opener, but the students are on break so the crowd will likely be much smaller and much quieter than when they are in town. One edge for BU, Yale's leading returning scorer, 6-10 senior Dominick Martin, who has one semester of eligibility left, won't play until the first semester ends on Dec. 18. In his stead, 6-10 junior Matt Kyle has been starting at center, but Kyle is averaging just one point and less than 3 rebounds per game. Yale's leading scorer is junior Sam Kaplan (6-7, 225) who is scoring 17.7 ppg. Caey Hughes, a 6-5 swingman, has been in double figures in rebounds all three games.
Bucknell notes | Yale notes | USA Today matchup |Bucknell Radio
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Bison have few questions
There are not a lot of questions to be answered about Bucknell entering the 2005-2006 season. With the entire starting lineup and eight of the first nine guys in last year’s rotation back, the Bison are pretty much a known quantity.
Abe Badmus will distribute the ball and play incredible defense at the point. Kevin Bettencourt and Charles Lee are dangerous wings who can shoot the three or take the ball to the hole. Chris McNaughton is unstoppable one-on-one in the post. John Griffin can play either guard spot and is potentially as good a scorer as Bettencourt. And it almost goes without saying that Bucknell will play tough defense.
About the only thing that will look different in the early going this season will be the rotation at power forward, where Bison coach Pat Flannery will need to make a tweak or two to compensate for the loss of Chris Niesz, the only senior on last year’s squad.
The casual observer might look at last year’s stats and think replacing Niesz should be no big deal. Statistically, that might be right. With the talent on the floor, Bucknell should have no problem finding someone to score Niesz’s 3.4 points per game, or to grab the 2 rebounds he averaged.
Folks who watched the Bison’s dream season unfold last year know different, though. They saw how Niesz’s emergence at the four helped solidify a Bison lineup that was shaken by the loss of starter John Clark, whose midseason injury woes coincided with the swoon that followed an early 11-game win streak.
With Clark benched with a bad foot, freshman Darren Mastropaolo was forced into the starting lineup. Mastropaolo was a capable replacement on defense and on the glass, but his lack of offensive range made it easy for teams to double and even triple team McNaughton down low.
Niesz, though, gave Bucknell an option with three-point range on his jumper. He also became a steadying senior influence down the stretch. To many, his three-pointer to beat Colgate at the buzzer of the Bison’s regular season finale was the spark that started the Bucknell postseason fire and his play in the league and NCAA tournament games helped fan those flames.
With three seniors, including Bettencourt—who has started since he set foot in Lewisburg – and Lee—who has started the past two seasons, the replacing Niesz’s leadership should not be a problem. Filling his minutes, though, might be more of a challenge.
That is not to say the Bison do not have players ready to step into Niesz’s shoes. The challenge for Pat Flannery will be more a matter of how to fit the pieces together to solve the power forward puzzle.
Mastropaolo will be the starter, that much is a given. The best post defender on the team, the 6-8 sophomore from Maine has worked hard on improving his offensive game in the offseason.
“He really recognizes, and did all summer, that his range is critical in keeping people honest. His 15-16 footer in the high post, he is shooting with confidence. His range has increased,” said Flannery.
After Mastropaolo, the rotation at the four is going to depend on a number of factors.
Donald Brown, a springy 6-6 junior is probably the most athletic front court player on the roster. Known to television viewers across the country as the guy popping his jersey after the Bison upset Kansas, Brown has started eight games in each of his two seasons in Lewisburg and averaged better than 15 minutes per game last season. Brown could start for a lot of teams in the league, but Flannery said last year that Brown seems to respond better when he comes off the bench.
Brown has a way of injecting some energy into the Bison when he enters the game and an ability to put the ball in the whole that might not be evident from his 3.4 ppg average of a year ago. More telling are the numbers he put up as a freshman, when he reached double figures nine times. He was a key player in the postseason for Bucknell, averaging 6 rebounds per game in the Patriot League and NCAA Tournaments.
With his ability to beat people off the dribble, Brown offers a change of pace when he replaces Mastropaolo. It also will help stretch the floor and keep people from sagging on McNaughton.
“Donald Brown is a tough as anybody to keep in front of you. Whoever is going to play him if he is in that four spot, we need to do things to get him isolated so he can get by them,” Flannery said.
Another option will be 6-7, 232-pound sophomore Andrew Morrison. Morrison has opened eyes in the preseason with his Niesz-like range and his willingness to do the dirty work under the basket.
“He can step out and shoot the ball and he bangs with the best of them,” said Lee.
“We do some things with Donald that we don’t do with Andrew and we do some things with Andrew that we don’t do with Donald. We will use the abilities they have. It might be somebody screening. It might be somebody penetrating. It might be somebody taking pressure off of one of our handlers. They are all a little bit different. We will keep using those guys according to the way they play,” Flannery said.
Yet another option at the four this season will be McNaughton, who is comfortable facing the basket and in the high post and has a nice touch on his jumper from about 15 feet in. Using McNaughton at the four, with 6-7, 264-pound senior bruiser Tarik Viaer-McClymont at the five is a combination Flannery said the Bison might employ a lot, especially early in the season against non-conference foes whose size up front presents matchup problems.
Talk to the Bison players and they will tell you Viaer-McClymont is an incredible talent in practice and in pickup games, where he is always one of the first guys chosen. Viaer-McClymont’s problem has been translating that ability into being confident and comfortable when the lights come on.
As if the Bison don’t have enough options in the frontcourt, Clark, who had surgery on his injured foot in August, is expected to be back in action by the second semester. With that kind of depth, Flannery will be under no pressure to rush 6-11 freshman Josh Linthicum into the mix.
That suits Flannery, who prefers to bring freshmen along slowly, especially in the first semester, just fine.
“Josh is going to be a kid that is going to be a force here. But they all have to do their thing academically and socially and get adjusted. I don’t want to put more pressure on them, especially when I have a team that has a lot of veterans,” Flannery.
That philosophy likely applies to the two other freshmen on the roster, off guard Jason Vegotsky and point Justin Castleberry. Vegotsky has shown an ability to fill it up from anywhere on the floor in the preseason and Flannery has been impressed by Castleberry’s poise and knowledge of the game at the point.
Castleberry might be the freshman who will see the most action early, since using him to backup Badmus would allow Griffin to concentrate on his more natural role as a shooter. Finding minutes might be tougher for Vegotsky, given the talent ahead of him in the Bison backcourt.
For some teams, finding enough minutes to go around might be a problem.
Lee said not for Bucknell.
“There is definitely a lot of talent on this team and 200 minutes is not a lot. But we’re a tight knit group. We always talk about what is going on and everybody knows their role on the team,” Lee said.
A bigger problem might be the schedule. Bucknell’s non-conference slate might be the toughest a Patriot League team has ever taken on, with perennial powers like Syracuse, Duke, Villanova, Saint Joe’s and DePaul, along with a trip to the Cable Car Classic where they will face Boston University and either Santa Clara or US Riverside. Niagara won 20 games and went to the Big Dance last year. Rider was the regular season champ in its league last year and some folks have picked Cornell as the darkhorse in the Ivy League.
Saidf Lee, “Everybody looks at DePaul, Syracuse, Villanova, Saint Joe’s and Duke. But we have a very difficult schedule with Cornell and Niagara and Rider, too. We’re not looking past anybody.”
Bucknell schedule
Bucknell roster
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Abe Badmus will distribute the ball and play incredible defense at the point. Kevin Bettencourt and Charles Lee are dangerous wings who can shoot the three or take the ball to the hole. Chris McNaughton is unstoppable one-on-one in the post. John Griffin can play either guard spot and is potentially as good a scorer as Bettencourt. And it almost goes without saying that Bucknell will play tough defense.
About the only thing that will look different in the early going this season will be the rotation at power forward, where Bison coach Pat Flannery will need to make a tweak or two to compensate for the loss of Chris Niesz, the only senior on last year’s squad.
The casual observer might look at last year’s stats and think replacing Niesz should be no big deal. Statistically, that might be right. With the talent on the floor, Bucknell should have no problem finding someone to score Niesz’s 3.4 points per game, or to grab the 2 rebounds he averaged.
Folks who watched the Bison’s dream season unfold last year know different, though. They saw how Niesz’s emergence at the four helped solidify a Bison lineup that was shaken by the loss of starter John Clark, whose midseason injury woes coincided with the swoon that followed an early 11-game win streak.
With Clark benched with a bad foot, freshman Darren Mastropaolo was forced into the starting lineup. Mastropaolo was a capable replacement on defense and on the glass, but his lack of offensive range made it easy for teams to double and even triple team McNaughton down low.
Niesz, though, gave Bucknell an option with three-point range on his jumper. He also became a steadying senior influence down the stretch. To many, his three-pointer to beat Colgate at the buzzer of the Bison’s regular season finale was the spark that started the Bucknell postseason fire and his play in the league and NCAA tournament games helped fan those flames.
With three seniors, including Bettencourt—who has started since he set foot in Lewisburg – and Lee—who has started the past two seasons, the replacing Niesz’s leadership should not be a problem. Filling his minutes, though, might be more of a challenge.
That is not to say the Bison do not have players ready to step into Niesz’s shoes. The challenge for Pat Flannery will be more a matter of how to fit the pieces together to solve the power forward puzzle.
Mastropaolo will be the starter, that much is a given. The best post defender on the team, the 6-8 sophomore from Maine has worked hard on improving his offensive game in the offseason.
“He really recognizes, and did all summer, that his range is critical in keeping people honest. His 15-16 footer in the high post, he is shooting with confidence. His range has increased,” said Flannery.
After Mastropaolo, the rotation at the four is going to depend on a number of factors.
Donald Brown, a springy 6-6 junior is probably the most athletic front court player on the roster. Known to television viewers across the country as the guy popping his jersey after the Bison upset Kansas, Brown has started eight games in each of his two seasons in Lewisburg and averaged better than 15 minutes per game last season. Brown could start for a lot of teams in the league, but Flannery said last year that Brown seems to respond better when he comes off the bench.
Brown has a way of injecting some energy into the Bison when he enters the game and an ability to put the ball in the whole that might not be evident from his 3.4 ppg average of a year ago. More telling are the numbers he put up as a freshman, when he reached double figures nine times. He was a key player in the postseason for Bucknell, averaging 6 rebounds per game in the Patriot League and NCAA Tournaments.
With his ability to beat people off the dribble, Brown offers a change of pace when he replaces Mastropaolo. It also will help stretch the floor and keep people from sagging on McNaughton.
“Donald Brown is a tough as anybody to keep in front of you. Whoever is going to play him if he is in that four spot, we need to do things to get him isolated so he can get by them,” Flannery said.
Another option will be 6-7, 232-pound sophomore Andrew Morrison. Morrison has opened eyes in the preseason with his Niesz-like range and his willingness to do the dirty work under the basket.
“He can step out and shoot the ball and he bangs with the best of them,” said Lee.
“We do some things with Donald that we don’t do with Andrew and we do some things with Andrew that we don’t do with Donald. We will use the abilities they have. It might be somebody screening. It might be somebody penetrating. It might be somebody taking pressure off of one of our handlers. They are all a little bit different. We will keep using those guys according to the way they play,” Flannery said.
Yet another option at the four this season will be McNaughton, who is comfortable facing the basket and in the high post and has a nice touch on his jumper from about 15 feet in. Using McNaughton at the four, with 6-7, 264-pound senior bruiser Tarik Viaer-McClymont at the five is a combination Flannery said the Bison might employ a lot, especially early in the season against non-conference foes whose size up front presents matchup problems.
Talk to the Bison players and they will tell you Viaer-McClymont is an incredible talent in practice and in pickup games, where he is always one of the first guys chosen. Viaer-McClymont’s problem has been translating that ability into being confident and comfortable when the lights come on.
As if the Bison don’t have enough options in the frontcourt, Clark, who had surgery on his injured foot in August, is expected to be back in action by the second semester. With that kind of depth, Flannery will be under no pressure to rush 6-11 freshman Josh Linthicum into the mix.
That suits Flannery, who prefers to bring freshmen along slowly, especially in the first semester, just fine.
“Josh is going to be a kid that is going to be a force here. But they all have to do their thing academically and socially and get adjusted. I don’t want to put more pressure on them, especially when I have a team that has a lot of veterans,” Flannery.
That philosophy likely applies to the two other freshmen on the roster, off guard Jason Vegotsky and point Justin Castleberry. Vegotsky has shown an ability to fill it up from anywhere on the floor in the preseason and Flannery has been impressed by Castleberry’s poise and knowledge of the game at the point.
Castleberry might be the freshman who will see the most action early, since using him to backup Badmus would allow Griffin to concentrate on his more natural role as a shooter. Finding minutes might be tougher for Vegotsky, given the talent ahead of him in the Bison backcourt.
For some teams, finding enough minutes to go around might be a problem.
Lee said not for Bucknell.
“There is definitely a lot of talent on this team and 200 minutes is not a lot. But we’re a tight knit group. We always talk about what is going on and everybody knows their role on the team,” Lee said.
A bigger problem might be the schedule. Bucknell’s non-conference slate might be the toughest a Patriot League team has ever taken on, with perennial powers like Syracuse, Duke, Villanova, Saint Joe’s and DePaul, along with a trip to the Cable Car Classic where they will face Boston University and either Santa Clara or US Riverside. Niagara won 20 games and went to the Big Dance last year. Rider was the regular season champ in its league last year and some folks have picked Cornell as the darkhorse in the Ivy League.
Saidf Lee, “Everybody looks at DePaul, Syracuse, Villanova, Saint Joe’s and Duke. But we have a very difficult schedule with Cornell and Niagara and Rider, too. We’re not looking past anybody.”
Bucknell schedule
Bucknell roster
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Crusaders have strong core
Note: This preview was written before HC's Game Notes were posted showing Alex Vander Baan starting and Tim Clifford coming off the bench, at least for the Crusaders' opener Friday against High Point.
If college basketball begins with guards as Ralph Willard is fond of saying (and who are we to disagree with Ralph?), then it is easy to see why Holy Cross seems to be the consensus pick as the team most likely to challenge Bucknell for the Patriot League title.
With two all-league picks on the wings and two point guards that are as good as any point guards in the league, the Crusaders are loaded in the backcourt. Matter of fact, in a league loaded with talented guards, the Holy Cross backcourt is head and shoulders above every other pack of guards in the league, except for Bucknell’s. Anybody who tries to tell you different is either a basketball illiterate or smoking crack.
In Kevin Hamilton Holy Cross has a guy who was voted the league’s player of the year last season after leading the conference in scoring, three-pointers, steals and, despite standing only 6-4, defensive rebounds. For good measure Hamilton was in the top 10 in the league in assists and rebounding (total).
The casual fan of the game probably is most impressed by Hamilton’s offense, the way he managed to score from almost anywhere on the floor. As comfortable spotting up from the arc as he is putting the ball on the floor and beating his man to the hoop, Hamilton averaged 15.7 points per game as a junior.
Those who study the game a little more are just as appreciative of Hamilton’s defense. Holy Cross had the top defense in the league last season and Hamilton, who ranked eighth nationally in steals, had a lot to do with that.
“Kevin Hamilton is the catalyst for us being a great defensive basketball tea. He can change the game at both ends of the floor. I have not coached a better guard in my 35 years,” Willard said.
Almost as good is Keith Simmons, a 6-4 junior who was named to the all-league team last season despite not starting for Holy Cross. Simmons averaged 12.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and almost 2 assists per game as the Crusaders’ sixth man, a role he will not reprise this season.
“I am stupid but I am not dumb,” said Willard, when asked if Simmons would stay in that sixth man role or move into HC’s starting lineup.
Willard is not at all concerned about Simmons making the adjustment.
“He played starters minutes last year. It’s just he gets his name announced. There will be no adjustment whatsoever. It is just a matter of he will be in for the first four minutes instead of going in after the first four minutes,” Willard said.
At the point, Willard has the luxury of two starter quality guys in junior Torey Thomas and sophomore Pat Doherty. Thomas was the starter at the beginning of last season and ended up starting 22 of the 31 games he played. But when Thomas was injured midseason, Doherty stepped in to fill the void, starting none games, and the Crusaders never missed a beat.
Regardless which one starts, both will see plenty of time.
“I can see Torey and Pat playing together. Torey gives us a great penetrator and Pat gives us a great three-point shooter, so they compliment each other. There’s no jealousy there. They root for one another. Every kid wants to play minutes, but they are both going to play,” Willard said.
In fact, don’t be surprised if you see Thomas, Doherty, Simmons and Hamilton on the floor at the same time.
“I envision us playing four guards a lot this year. I can see them being in the game at the same time. You might say that makes us really small, but the way we defend the post, with the exception of the first half of that championship game, big people don’t really hurt us,” said Willard.
“They really don’t. Chris (McNaughton) had a great game against us in the paint because we let him have a great game. We didn’t double down. I still didn’t figure that one out yet. I am still scratching my head because our game plan was to double right away from the top on him and we never did, the whole first half.”
Willard thinks that four-guard look could be potent on offense, too.
“It is going to make us extremely difficult to guard. Last year, John Hurley meant so much to our basketball team. But honestly, when John was on the floor, it was playing five on four at the offensive end because everybody knew John couldn’t shoot the ball. Whoever was playing John could park in the middle of the lane and take away our driving opportunities. If we play four guards, you are not going to be able to do that. If Keith Simmons is playing the four, you are going to have to have your four man, whoever it is, out there playing him because he will be banging threes on you.”
When you look around the league, you can see why Willard likes that thought. Aside from Bucknell, who would be able to matchup with that look? Only the Bison are deep enough to throw four guards of their own out there without a big dropoff at one, if not two spots.
And other than Bucknell’s McNaughton, and possibly Colgate’s Kendall Chones, who is a big enough offensive threat in the paint to force Willard to play bigger if he doesn’t want to?
That does not mean Willard has to go with that small lineup. With 6-10 sophomore center Tim “the Big Purple Dog” Clifford and 6-7 senior forward Kevin Hyland upfront, Holy Cross potentially is as good down low as anybody in the league.
Hyland’s 4.1 points per game average last season belies his offensive potential. A stat that is a better indicator of his ability with the ball is his 59. 8 shooting from the floor, which would have led the league had he shot enough to hit the three made shots per game minimum needed to make the leaderboard. Hyland had five double figures scoring games last season.
Willard said one key to the Crusaders success will be the ability of Hyland to stay on the floor more.
“The biggest problem Kevin has had over the years is foul trouble. It is stupid stuff. It is stuff he has to eliminate because he is effective in the low post, he really is. He can score. Kevin is going to have to have a senior year like a senior should,” said Willard.
Similarly, Clifford has shown flashes of great potential, like the 13-point, 13-boards double-double he posted at American when starter Nate Lufkin was out with an injury. Clifford had five blocks in that game and finished ranked fifth in the league in rejections, despite playing only nine minutes per game.
Other times, though, he has tended to vanish.
“Tim’s got potential, but he has to be consistent. He is not consistent. He has to stay out of foul trouble. He has to rebound consistently. The American game he had a great rebounding game. There were other games he didn’t touch the basketball, he didn’t go after the ball,” Willard said.
If Clifford and Hyland make the progress Willard hopes they will, Holy Cross will be very good again this year. On the other hand, if Hyland keeps fouling or Clifford regresses like Lehigh’s Jason Mgebroff did as a sophomore, the Crusaders might find it difficult to live up to their accustomed standards.
Especially since Holy Cross has precious little depth in the frontcourt. After Hyland and Clifford, its freshmen Colin Cunningham (6-7), Greg McCarthy (6-10) and Alex Vander Baan, who is really more of a three-man, despite his 6-8 size.
Vander Baan, said Willard, is a “skinny kid but he is very skilled.”
“He has a great nose for offense. He reminds me of John Hurley only he can shoot. John Hurley couldn’t shoot. This kid can shoot the basketball. Eventually he is going to be a heckuva player in this league eventually, but is he a heckuva player right now? No. But he certainly has the potential to be.”
Another freshman, 6-5 Lawrence Dixon, is listed on the roster as a guard. But Dixon, who Willard described as “really strong and athletic and a really good three-point shooter” could also end up seeing time at the four.
The question of depth is the one that worries Willard most.
“The seven kids back, six are the core -- Kevin, Keith, Torey, Pat Dougherty, Kevin Hyland and Tim Clifford --- those six kids are going to be the core of our team. Last year we had 10 kids that were in that situation, now we have six. That is a huge difference,” Willard said.
“We have four freshmen out of 11 players. Three of those freshmen are going to have to give us significant contributions,” Willard said.
If those freshmen step up, Holy Cross should live up to the preseason expectations. If one or two of them step up big time, the Crusaders could even exceed those expectations. If they don’t step up, depth could become a real problem for Holy Cross, especially late in the season.
Only time will tell if the Crusaders are a team that challenges Bucknell for the league title or a team that has to battle to even stay in the upper division.
Holy Cross schedule
Holy Cross roster
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If college basketball begins with guards as Ralph Willard is fond of saying (and who are we to disagree with Ralph?), then it is easy to see why Holy Cross seems to be the consensus pick as the team most likely to challenge Bucknell for the Patriot League title.
With two all-league picks on the wings and two point guards that are as good as any point guards in the league, the Crusaders are loaded in the backcourt. Matter of fact, in a league loaded with talented guards, the Holy Cross backcourt is head and shoulders above every other pack of guards in the league, except for Bucknell’s. Anybody who tries to tell you different is either a basketball illiterate or smoking crack.
In Kevin Hamilton Holy Cross has a guy who was voted the league’s player of the year last season after leading the conference in scoring, three-pointers, steals and, despite standing only 6-4, defensive rebounds. For good measure Hamilton was in the top 10 in the league in assists and rebounding (total).
The casual fan of the game probably is most impressed by Hamilton’s offense, the way he managed to score from almost anywhere on the floor. As comfortable spotting up from the arc as he is putting the ball on the floor and beating his man to the hoop, Hamilton averaged 15.7 points per game as a junior.
Those who study the game a little more are just as appreciative of Hamilton’s defense. Holy Cross had the top defense in the league last season and Hamilton, who ranked eighth nationally in steals, had a lot to do with that.
“Kevin Hamilton is the catalyst for us being a great defensive basketball tea. He can change the game at both ends of the floor. I have not coached a better guard in my 35 years,” Willard said.
Almost as good is Keith Simmons, a 6-4 junior who was named to the all-league team last season despite not starting for Holy Cross. Simmons averaged 12.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and almost 2 assists per game as the Crusaders’ sixth man, a role he will not reprise this season.
“I am stupid but I am not dumb,” said Willard, when asked if Simmons would stay in that sixth man role or move into HC’s starting lineup.
Willard is not at all concerned about Simmons making the adjustment.
“He played starters minutes last year. It’s just he gets his name announced. There will be no adjustment whatsoever. It is just a matter of he will be in for the first four minutes instead of going in after the first four minutes,” Willard said.
At the point, Willard has the luxury of two starter quality guys in junior Torey Thomas and sophomore Pat Doherty. Thomas was the starter at the beginning of last season and ended up starting 22 of the 31 games he played. But when Thomas was injured midseason, Doherty stepped in to fill the void, starting none games, and the Crusaders never missed a beat.
Regardless which one starts, both will see plenty of time.
“I can see Torey and Pat playing together. Torey gives us a great penetrator and Pat gives us a great three-point shooter, so they compliment each other. There’s no jealousy there. They root for one another. Every kid wants to play minutes, but they are both going to play,” Willard said.
In fact, don’t be surprised if you see Thomas, Doherty, Simmons and Hamilton on the floor at the same time.
“I envision us playing four guards a lot this year. I can see them being in the game at the same time. You might say that makes us really small, but the way we defend the post, with the exception of the first half of that championship game, big people don’t really hurt us,” said Willard.
“They really don’t. Chris (McNaughton) had a great game against us in the paint because we let him have a great game. We didn’t double down. I still didn’t figure that one out yet. I am still scratching my head because our game plan was to double right away from the top on him and we never did, the whole first half.”
Willard thinks that four-guard look could be potent on offense, too.
“It is going to make us extremely difficult to guard. Last year, John Hurley meant so much to our basketball team. But honestly, when John was on the floor, it was playing five on four at the offensive end because everybody knew John couldn’t shoot the ball. Whoever was playing John could park in the middle of the lane and take away our driving opportunities. If we play four guards, you are not going to be able to do that. If Keith Simmons is playing the four, you are going to have to have your four man, whoever it is, out there playing him because he will be banging threes on you.”
When you look around the league, you can see why Willard likes that thought. Aside from Bucknell, who would be able to matchup with that look? Only the Bison are deep enough to throw four guards of their own out there without a big dropoff at one, if not two spots.
And other than Bucknell’s McNaughton, and possibly Colgate’s Kendall Chones, who is a big enough offensive threat in the paint to force Willard to play bigger if he doesn’t want to?
That does not mean Willard has to go with that small lineup. With 6-10 sophomore center Tim “the Big Purple Dog” Clifford and 6-7 senior forward Kevin Hyland upfront, Holy Cross potentially is as good down low as anybody in the league.
Hyland’s 4.1 points per game average last season belies his offensive potential. A stat that is a better indicator of his ability with the ball is his 59. 8 shooting from the floor, which would have led the league had he shot enough to hit the three made shots per game minimum needed to make the leaderboard. Hyland had five double figures scoring games last season.
Willard said one key to the Crusaders success will be the ability of Hyland to stay on the floor more.
“The biggest problem Kevin has had over the years is foul trouble. It is stupid stuff. It is stuff he has to eliminate because he is effective in the low post, he really is. He can score. Kevin is going to have to have a senior year like a senior should,” said Willard.
Similarly, Clifford has shown flashes of great potential, like the 13-point, 13-boards double-double he posted at American when starter Nate Lufkin was out with an injury. Clifford had five blocks in that game and finished ranked fifth in the league in rejections, despite playing only nine minutes per game.
Other times, though, he has tended to vanish.
“Tim’s got potential, but he has to be consistent. He is not consistent. He has to stay out of foul trouble. He has to rebound consistently. The American game he had a great rebounding game. There were other games he didn’t touch the basketball, he didn’t go after the ball,” Willard said.
If Clifford and Hyland make the progress Willard hopes they will, Holy Cross will be very good again this year. On the other hand, if Hyland keeps fouling or Clifford regresses like Lehigh’s Jason Mgebroff did as a sophomore, the Crusaders might find it difficult to live up to their accustomed standards.
Especially since Holy Cross has precious little depth in the frontcourt. After Hyland and Clifford, its freshmen Colin Cunningham (6-7), Greg McCarthy (6-10) and Alex Vander Baan, who is really more of a three-man, despite his 6-8 size.
Vander Baan, said Willard, is a “skinny kid but he is very skilled.”
“He has a great nose for offense. He reminds me of John Hurley only he can shoot. John Hurley couldn’t shoot. This kid can shoot the basketball. Eventually he is going to be a heckuva player in this league eventually, but is he a heckuva player right now? No. But he certainly has the potential to be.”
Another freshman, 6-5 Lawrence Dixon, is listed on the roster as a guard. But Dixon, who Willard described as “really strong and athletic and a really good three-point shooter” could also end up seeing time at the four.
The question of depth is the one that worries Willard most.
“The seven kids back, six are the core -- Kevin, Keith, Torey, Pat Dougherty, Kevin Hyland and Tim Clifford --- those six kids are going to be the core of our team. Last year we had 10 kids that were in that situation, now we have six. That is a huge difference,” Willard said.
“We have four freshmen out of 11 players. Three of those freshmen are going to have to give us significant contributions,” Willard said.
If those freshmen step up, Holy Cross should live up to the preseason expectations. If one or two of them step up big time, the Crusaders could even exceed those expectations. If they don’t step up, depth could become a real problem for Holy Cross, especially late in the season.
Only time will tell if the Crusaders are a team that challenges Bucknell for the league title or a team that has to battle to even stay in the upper division.
Holy Cross schedule
Holy Cross roster
Read more!
'Pards have 1 thing going for them: O'Hanlon
Much has been made of Lafayette’s loss of Jamaal Douglas, the Leopards’ second leading scorer and arguably best player last season.
Douglas bailed on Lafayette after his sophomore season, transferring to Eastern Kentucky, where he will get a full scholarship, something Lafayette does not offer. In the process, Douglas took 9.9 points and 7 rebounds per game and his 6-6, 240-pound frame, leaving Lafayette with a big hole where its frontline was supposed to be.
“Fran’s (O’Hanlon) situation is difficult because of losing Douglas. If he would have been back, they would have been competitive. Losing him really hurt,” said Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard.
“That kid was improving dramatically. He couldn’t shoot a lick -- we were recruiting him too, and I loved his toughness and his strength, but I didn’t know if he could shoot it. Last year, at the end of the year, he was maybe their best three-point shooter.”
With Douglas gone, Lafayette is left with senior Andrei Capusan as its top returning frontcourt player. Capusan, who is listed at 6-8, 210, averaged 7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game last year. The dropoff from Douglas to Capusan, though, is far greated than the 3 points and 3 rebounds per game difference in their averages. Douglas had developed into a pretty fair outside shooter with the ability to step out past the arc to knock down a three. Capusan only tried three treys all last season and did not connect on any of them.
Capusan is also a dropoff defensively from Douglass, who bloked a team-best 28 shots and came up with 22 steals, compared with 16 blocks and 17 steals for Capusan. Douglas also was plus-one in assist-turnover ratio (42 assists, 41 turnovers), Capusan had 24 assists and 51 turnovers.
With Douglas back for his junior year, Lafayette was solid in the middle. Without Douglas, that middle is a void.
In a league with frontcourt players like Bucknell, Holy Cross, Lehigh and Colgate have, Lafayette is going to find itself at a serious disadvantage. That disadvantage is heightened by the fact that the Leopards backcourt, while solid, is hardly a match for the guards on the top five or six teams in the league.
In other words, it looks like another long season ahead for Lafayette, who will be hard-pressed to match last season’s 9-19 mark.
What might make matters even worse for the ‘Pards is the fact that they probably will not be as bad as Army.
If Lafayette were to suffer through a season similar to the one the Black Knights experienced last year, with only one win over a Division I opponent and a last placxe finish in the league, maybe, just maybe, the clamor from alums would finally be loud enough to get new president Daniel Weiss and the school’s trustees to acknowledge the reality of the Leopards non-scholarship situation.
That will not happen for one simple reason: O'Hanlon is too good a coach. The two-time PL coach of the year has a long history of getting the most out of his teams. Even last year, when the Leopards finished seventh in the eight-team league, they still played a lot of people tough. Included in their 19 setbacks were five where the margin was four points or less. Turn those around and Lafayette would have been a .500 team, despite the no scholarships.
While it seems unlikely that the Leopards will finish higher in the final standings than they did last season, it seems just as improbable that they will finish lower.
More likely, though, is a scenario similar to last season, where O’Hanlon’s team got better as the season progressed, pulling off two huge upsets in the final week of the regular season that left the illusion that Lafayette can still be competitive without scholarships. In retrospect, getting trounced by bitter rival Lehigh in the regular season finale might have been better in the long run for the program than the 81-76 win was.
Lafayette’s guards might not have the athleticism of some of the other backcourts in the league, but with juniors Jamaal Hilliard and Marcus Harley, the Betley cousins-- senior Pat and sophomore Matt, sophomore Paul Cummins and freshman Andrew Brown, of whom big things are expected, the Leopards do have enough depth to allow O’Hanlon to try to push the ball more on offense without worrying about tired legs being a detriment to that pesky matchup zone defense he likes to employ.
Or at leasst they will once Hilliard and Harley get back on the court. Both will miss at least the Leopards' first two games due to injuries.
The frontcourt enjoys no such depth. After Capusan, the drop off is drastic. There is sophomore Everest Scmidt, who at 6-7, 270, at least brings some bulk to the middle and 6-7, 195 sophomore Ted Detmer. But the two sophomores between them averaged less than 3 points and less than 3 rebounds. Neither started a single game as freshmen, with Detmer appearing in 21 games, Schmidt in 15.
Next in line are a quartet of freshmen, none of whom are likely ready for prime time. At least some of whom will have to play anyhow.
With 11 freshmen and sophomores on the roster, Lafayette is obviously in the rebuilding mode. Whether those non-scholarship building blocks can provide a foundation to return the 'Pards to the league's upper division remains to be seen.
One thing seems certain: O'Hanlon will be there for the forseeable future to oversee those recovery efforts. The 10-year contract he signed in 2004 is probably the best thing Lafayette basketball has going for it at the moment.
God only knows why a coach would sign such a deal, agreeing to stay in what looks to everyone outside of Easton to be a no-win situation. God also knows O'Hanlon didn't have to stay. He had offers aplenty to go elsewhere; his name is mentioned every time a coaching job opens up back in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Maybe it's the view from College Hill, or the selection of drafts on tap at Pearly Baker's that keeps him in Easton. Or maybe his kids dig the Crayola Factory. Or maybe he just likes the challenge.
Whatever the reason, Lafayette fans should thank their lucky stars every night than O'Hanlon has stuck around. Until the school joins the modern world and offers scholarships, O'Hanlon is all that stands between the Leopards and the abyss.
Corky Blake Lafayette preview from the Express-Times
Andre Williams Lafayette preview from the Morning Call
Lafayette schedule
Lafayette roster
Read more!
Douglas bailed on Lafayette after his sophomore season, transferring to Eastern Kentucky, where he will get a full scholarship, something Lafayette does not offer. In the process, Douglas took 9.9 points and 7 rebounds per game and his 6-6, 240-pound frame, leaving Lafayette with a big hole where its frontline was supposed to be.
“Fran’s (O’Hanlon) situation is difficult because of losing Douglas. If he would have been back, they would have been competitive. Losing him really hurt,” said Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard.
“That kid was improving dramatically. He couldn’t shoot a lick -- we were recruiting him too, and I loved his toughness and his strength, but I didn’t know if he could shoot it. Last year, at the end of the year, he was maybe their best three-point shooter.”
With Douglas gone, Lafayette is left with senior Andrei Capusan as its top returning frontcourt player. Capusan, who is listed at 6-8, 210, averaged 7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game last year. The dropoff from Douglas to Capusan, though, is far greated than the 3 points and 3 rebounds per game difference in their averages. Douglas had developed into a pretty fair outside shooter with the ability to step out past the arc to knock down a three. Capusan only tried three treys all last season and did not connect on any of them.
Capusan is also a dropoff defensively from Douglass, who bloked a team-best 28 shots and came up with 22 steals, compared with 16 blocks and 17 steals for Capusan. Douglas also was plus-one in assist-turnover ratio (42 assists, 41 turnovers), Capusan had 24 assists and 51 turnovers.
With Douglas back for his junior year, Lafayette was solid in the middle. Without Douglas, that middle is a void.
In a league with frontcourt players like Bucknell, Holy Cross, Lehigh and Colgate have, Lafayette is going to find itself at a serious disadvantage. That disadvantage is heightened by the fact that the Leopards backcourt, while solid, is hardly a match for the guards on the top five or six teams in the league.
In other words, it looks like another long season ahead for Lafayette, who will be hard-pressed to match last season’s 9-19 mark.
What might make matters even worse for the ‘Pards is the fact that they probably will not be as bad as Army.
If Lafayette were to suffer through a season similar to the one the Black Knights experienced last year, with only one win over a Division I opponent and a last placxe finish in the league, maybe, just maybe, the clamor from alums would finally be loud enough to get new president Daniel Weiss and the school’s trustees to acknowledge the reality of the Leopards non-scholarship situation.
That will not happen for one simple reason: O'Hanlon is too good a coach. The two-time PL coach of the year has a long history of getting the most out of his teams. Even last year, when the Leopards finished seventh in the eight-team league, they still played a lot of people tough. Included in their 19 setbacks were five where the margin was four points or less. Turn those around and Lafayette would have been a .500 team, despite the no scholarships.
While it seems unlikely that the Leopards will finish higher in the final standings than they did last season, it seems just as improbable that they will finish lower.
More likely, though, is a scenario similar to last season, where O’Hanlon’s team got better as the season progressed, pulling off two huge upsets in the final week of the regular season that left the illusion that Lafayette can still be competitive without scholarships. In retrospect, getting trounced by bitter rival Lehigh in the regular season finale might have been better in the long run for the program than the 81-76 win was.
Lafayette’s guards might not have the athleticism of some of the other backcourts in the league, but with juniors Jamaal Hilliard and Marcus Harley, the Betley cousins-- senior Pat and sophomore Matt, sophomore Paul Cummins and freshman Andrew Brown, of whom big things are expected, the Leopards do have enough depth to allow O’Hanlon to try to push the ball more on offense without worrying about tired legs being a detriment to that pesky matchup zone defense he likes to employ.
Or at leasst they will once Hilliard and Harley get back on the court. Both will miss at least the Leopards' first two games due to injuries.
The frontcourt enjoys no such depth. After Capusan, the drop off is drastic. There is sophomore Everest Scmidt, who at 6-7, 270, at least brings some bulk to the middle and 6-7, 195 sophomore Ted Detmer. But the two sophomores between them averaged less than 3 points and less than 3 rebounds. Neither started a single game as freshmen, with Detmer appearing in 21 games, Schmidt in 15.
Next in line are a quartet of freshmen, none of whom are likely ready for prime time. At least some of whom will have to play anyhow.
With 11 freshmen and sophomores on the roster, Lafayette is obviously in the rebuilding mode. Whether those non-scholarship building blocks can provide a foundation to return the 'Pards to the league's upper division remains to be seen.
One thing seems certain: O'Hanlon will be there for the forseeable future to oversee those recovery efforts. The 10-year contract he signed in 2004 is probably the best thing Lafayette basketball has going for it at the moment.
God only knows why a coach would sign such a deal, agreeing to stay in what looks to everyone outside of Easton to be a no-win situation. God also knows O'Hanlon didn't have to stay. He had offers aplenty to go elsewhere; his name is mentioned every time a coaching job opens up back in his hometown of Philadelphia.
Maybe it's the view from College Hill, or the selection of drafts on tap at Pearly Baker's that keeps him in Easton. Or maybe his kids dig the Crayola Factory. Or maybe he just likes the challenge.
Whatever the reason, Lafayette fans should thank their lucky stars every night than O'Hanlon has stuck around. Until the school joins the modern world and offers scholarships, O'Hanlon is all that stands between the Leopards and the abyss.
Corky Blake Lafayette preview from the Express-Times
Andre Williams Lafayette preview from the Morning Call
Lafayette schedule
Lafayette roster
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Read around
Quick links to other stories of interest:
Boston Herald Holy Cross preview
Boston Herald league preview
Army preview from Tuesday's Times Herald-Record
AP story on Matt Doherty starting over at Florida Atlantic (Colgate's Friday night foe)
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COMING SOON!
By the end of the week, Hoop Time is moving to a new address on the Web at HoopTimeOnline.com. It is a move that will make it easier for Patriot League fans to find the site and to share the address.
It might also pave the way for some other site improvements in the future.
We will continue posting at both addresses for a short time to ease the transition. But the new site is up and running now as sort of a mirror, so feel free to change your bookmarks ... you won't miss anything.
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It might also pave the way for some other site improvements in the future.
We will continue posting at both addresses for a short time to ease the transition. But the new site is up and running now as sort of a mirror, so feel free to change your bookmarks ... you won't miss anything.
Read more!
Midshipmen should be better
It was a strange year in Annapolis last season, where the Midshipmen suffered what was probably the most embarrassing loss in league history, losing at home to a mediocre Division III Gettysburg team, only to come on strong at the end of the season, winning four of their last five home games, including an upset of Bucknell.
The Mids took Holy Cross to the wire before losing 68-66 in their lone home loss of the second half of the season and they took American to overtime in the first round of the league tournament.
It was probably as drastic an improvement as the league has seen in a long time and if Navy continues to get better at that pace, they might be very, very good this season.
“I think another shocker is going to be Navy . . . Navy is going to get good very quickly. You mark my words. They will be in the top of the league in no time,” said Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard at the league’s preseason media day.
“When you can bring in 8 or 9 guys every year, you can improve dramatically.”
O.K., Ralph was stretching things a little. Navy is only bringing in six recruits this season.
But you get the point. Despite the near constant whining about not having athletic scholarships, Navy actually has the advantage of being able to give a virtually unlimited number of full rides to recruits. Without the NCAA’s limits to worry about, Navy can bring in as many players each year as it wants, stashing some on the jayvee team and some at the Naval Academy Prep School, where they get what is essentially a redshirt year.
As the old saying goes, if you throw enough against the wall, some is bound to stick.
Of course it doesn’t all stick. The Mids had seven juniors on the roster last season, but only four seniors this year. A sophomore from last season’s team is also gone this year.
Lange is not losing any sleep over those lost players, though. The four departees combined appeared in just 24 games, playing a total of 117 minutes, scoring 41 combined points and yanking down 21 rebounds. To put that in perspective, that was less production than Lange got from his top five returning players in an average single game last season.
All six freshmen are expected to see action at some point in the season and at least three, maybe as many as five, will likely end up in the rotation. That might make it tough sledding for Navy early in the season again this year.
“A key for us right away is going to be to improve on some things we needed to improve on at the end of last year—our ability to play hard without fouling and taking care of the basketball. We are going to have to do that while playing some freshmen, so that is going to be a little bit of a challenge for us,” Lange said.
“We have a good nucleus back with Matt Fannin, David Hooper, Leonard Green, Greg Sprink and Corey Johnson. We don’t have to depend soley on our young kids because we have got good returning guys coming back.”
Those five players accounted for over 60 percent of Navy’s scoring last season and nearly half its rebounds. For a team that lost seven players from its roster of a year ago, that is a pretty solid core.
Fannin, a 6-6 senior forward, led Navy in scoring (10.9 ppg) and rebounding (6.7 rpg) last season.
“Fannin is a senior anchor down in the low post for us,” Lange said. “Once he gets it in the lane, he is very comfortable. He very, very rarely loses his composure when he has the ball with people around him. He can pivot. He can shoot the ball with his right hand or his left hand. He is our go to guy down there.”
If Fannin improves his free throw shooting – last year he shot just 62 percent from the line—Fannin could have a very big year.
Hooper and Johnson ranked 3 and 4 on the Mids’ scoring ledger last season, both averaging just under 10 ppg and Sprink was not far behind with his 8.7 ppg average. In fact, in league games, Sprink actually scored more than Hooper and Johnson, averaging 10.1 ppg.
Hooper, a 6-5 senior, led Navy in three-pointers last season with 51. Johnson, a 6-1 guard, was an all-rookie pick last year after leading Navy in assists and steals. Sprink also was an all-rookie selection. His 5.1 rebounds and 34 three-pointers made were third on the team last season. His 36.6 percent shooting from three-point range was Navy’s best.
Green, a 6-5 senior, is looking to regain the starting job he held at the beginning of last season, before now-graduated George O’Garro emerged to take Green’s job.
It is, as Lange said, a solid nucleus, and if the youngsters step up, Navy could once again make waves in the second half of the season.
In the meantime, the Midshipmen should be much better than they were early last season.
One thing is certain: This year’s Navy team will not lose to Gettysburg. After being on Navy’s schedule 13 straight seasons, the Bullets have been unceremoniously dumped, with our old buddy Frank Marcinek’s Susquehanna team taking that spot on the Mids schedule.
The DIII Crusaders will visit Annapolis Dec. 29, giving us a good excuse for a visit to Chickie and Ruth's for some crab soup.
Navy Schedule
Navy Roster
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The Mids took Holy Cross to the wire before losing 68-66 in their lone home loss of the second half of the season and they took American to overtime in the first round of the league tournament.
It was probably as drastic an improvement as the league has seen in a long time and if Navy continues to get better at that pace, they might be very, very good this season.
“I think another shocker is going to be Navy . . . Navy is going to get good very quickly. You mark my words. They will be in the top of the league in no time,” said Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard at the league’s preseason media day.
“When you can bring in 8 or 9 guys every year, you can improve dramatically.”
O.K., Ralph was stretching things a little. Navy is only bringing in six recruits this season.
But you get the point. Despite the near constant whining about not having athletic scholarships, Navy actually has the advantage of being able to give a virtually unlimited number of full rides to recruits. Without the NCAA’s limits to worry about, Navy can bring in as many players each year as it wants, stashing some on the jayvee team and some at the Naval Academy Prep School, where they get what is essentially a redshirt year.
As the old saying goes, if you throw enough against the wall, some is bound to stick.
Of course it doesn’t all stick. The Mids had seven juniors on the roster last season, but only four seniors this year. A sophomore from last season’s team is also gone this year.
Lange is not losing any sleep over those lost players, though. The four departees combined appeared in just 24 games, playing a total of 117 minutes, scoring 41 combined points and yanking down 21 rebounds. To put that in perspective, that was less production than Lange got from his top five returning players in an average single game last season.
All six freshmen are expected to see action at some point in the season and at least three, maybe as many as five, will likely end up in the rotation. That might make it tough sledding for Navy early in the season again this year.
“A key for us right away is going to be to improve on some things we needed to improve on at the end of last year—our ability to play hard without fouling and taking care of the basketball. We are going to have to do that while playing some freshmen, so that is going to be a little bit of a challenge for us,” Lange said.
“We have a good nucleus back with Matt Fannin, David Hooper, Leonard Green, Greg Sprink and Corey Johnson. We don’t have to depend soley on our young kids because we have got good returning guys coming back.”
Those five players accounted for over 60 percent of Navy’s scoring last season and nearly half its rebounds. For a team that lost seven players from its roster of a year ago, that is a pretty solid core.
Fannin, a 6-6 senior forward, led Navy in scoring (10.9 ppg) and rebounding (6.7 rpg) last season.
“Fannin is a senior anchor down in the low post for us,” Lange said. “Once he gets it in the lane, he is very comfortable. He very, very rarely loses his composure when he has the ball with people around him. He can pivot. He can shoot the ball with his right hand or his left hand. He is our go to guy down there.”
If Fannin improves his free throw shooting – last year he shot just 62 percent from the line—Fannin could have a very big year.
Hooper and Johnson ranked 3 and 4 on the Mids’ scoring ledger last season, both averaging just under 10 ppg and Sprink was not far behind with his 8.7 ppg average. In fact, in league games, Sprink actually scored more than Hooper and Johnson, averaging 10.1 ppg.
Hooper, a 6-5 senior, led Navy in three-pointers last season with 51. Johnson, a 6-1 guard, was an all-rookie pick last year after leading Navy in assists and steals. Sprink also was an all-rookie selection. His 5.1 rebounds and 34 three-pointers made were third on the team last season. His 36.6 percent shooting from three-point range was Navy’s best.
Green, a 6-5 senior, is looking to regain the starting job he held at the beginning of last season, before now-graduated George O’Garro emerged to take Green’s job.
It is, as Lange said, a solid nucleus, and if the youngsters step up, Navy could once again make waves in the second half of the season.
In the meantime, the Midshipmen should be much better than they were early last season.
One thing is certain: This year’s Navy team will not lose to Gettysburg. After being on Navy’s schedule 13 straight seasons, the Bullets have been unceremoniously dumped, with our old buddy Frank Marcinek’s Susquehanna team taking that spot on the Mids schedule.
The DIII Crusaders will visit Annapolis Dec. 29, giving us a good excuse for a visit to Chickie and Ruth's for some crab soup.
Navy Schedule
Navy Roster
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Knight hurt?
In his preview of Lehigh's season, Andre Williams of the Morning call reports:
Neither had any details on what the injury might be and neither attributed that report to any sources. Nothing on the Lehigh Web site or in their game notes and stories indicates that Knight was injured, but knowing Williams and Housenick, it is likely an accurate report.
Of course that begs the question: Why did Lehigh feel a need to keep it secret?
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The showing in the BCA was encouraging despite the fact that Knight did not play because of an injury and the Hawks' two biggest players, 6-10 junior Jason Mgebroff and 7-0 freshman John Gourlay, played poorly.Tom Housenick of the Daily Item also reported Knight sat out the BCA due to an injury.
Neither had any details on what the injury might be and neither attributed that report to any sources. Nothing on the Lehigh Web site or in their game notes and stories indicates that Knight was injured, but knowing Williams and Housenick, it is likely an accurate report.
Of course that begs the question: Why did Lehigh feel a need to keep it secret?
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Roll out a barrel of cliches
Yahoo!'s Dan Wetzel stopped in Lewisburg on his preseason tour and threw around a few musical cliches:
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Bucknell got its shot at greatness, got its shot at historic Kansas, got its shot at One Shining Moment and delivered.Another Bison tidbit from Wetzel :
They can't ever take that away from them, because you can certainly argue no one has ever done it better.
Speaking of assistant coaches, Bucknell coach Pat Flannery has a high-major staff. There is Nathan Davis, who managed to convince a recruit to come all the way from Encino, Calif., Mark Prosser, son of the incomparable Skip Prosser, who we will see Thursday, and the mackdaddy (to-be) Bryan Goodman.Memo to my wife: Don't drink the water when we visit Lewisburg honey.
We aren't kidding about Goodman, either. He and his wife Amy are expecting quadruplets in March. We repeat, quadruplets.
March Madness, indeed.
"My wife calls it the Final Four," Goodman said. "If you think about it, you'll go nuts. I am taking donations. (Tell people to) send money to the Bryan Goodman Foundation."
Meanwhile, Davis' wife, Miki, is expecting their first. "I tell (Bryan) his four are going to be setting screens for my one," said Davis.
Maybe Flannery needs to keep these guys at the office later.
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In the House(nick)
Tom Housenick of the Daily Item checks in with his Bucknell preview today.
Most interesting, a quote from BU center Chris McNaughton that is right on the money:
At the same time, McNaughton's comment about the league opener also drives home the fact that even after last year's postseason showing by Bucknell and Holy Cross, the Patriot League is still likely to be a one-bid conference. With so many teams blending freshmen into significant roles, aside from Bucknell, it is hard to imagine anybody having the kind of non-conference record that would merit a bid in the committee's eyes. The one or two schools who might be able to fashion outstanding non-con records don't play a strong enough schedule for it to help.
Bucknell, should it somehow tip-toe through the minefield it has scheduled out of conference with only one or two losses, might merit a second bid if they were to lose in the conference final after winning the regular season. But even that is a longshot.
Housenick is quick to point out in his look at the rest of the league, that nobody is willing to concede the league to Bucknell.
As an aside, in that same piece, Housenick is reporting that Joe Knight missed Lehigh's first three games because of an injury.
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Most interesting, a quote from BU center Chris McNaughton that is right on the money:
We know there are going to be bumps, there can be losing streaks," McNaughton said. "It's how we react to those situations. It's how we play at Navy (the Jan. 7 Patriot League opener) after facing Duke (on Jan. 2). We know what we're capable of as a team. We have to go out and prove it again."Last year Bucknell responded to those bumps by turning it on down the stretch. That experience should bode well for the Bison.
At the same time, McNaughton's comment about the league opener also drives home the fact that even after last year's postseason showing by Bucknell and Holy Cross, the Patriot League is still likely to be a one-bid conference. With so many teams blending freshmen into significant roles, aside from Bucknell, it is hard to imagine anybody having the kind of non-conference record that would merit a bid in the committee's eyes. The one or two schools who might be able to fashion outstanding non-con records don't play a strong enough schedule for it to help.
Bucknell, should it somehow tip-toe through the minefield it has scheduled out of conference with only one or two losses, might merit a second bid if they were to lose in the conference final after winning the regular season. But even that is a longshot.
Housenick is quick to point out in his look at the rest of the league, that nobody is willing to concede the league to Bucknell.
As an aside, in that same piece, Housenick is reporting that Joe Knight missed Lehigh's first three games because of an injury.
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Tough night all around
Butler 66, Lehigh 41 -- This paragraph from the AP story pretty much sums up Lehigh's night:
Box Score
No 20 Iowa 71, Colgate 53 -- Iowa was too much for Colgate, but the Raiders' Kendall Chones showed why he is getting so much preseason hype in Patriot League circles.
Just take a look at his box score line: 20 points on 9-for-15, tying two Hawkeyes for the game high with 8 rebounds.
AP wrap
Temple 69, Army 37 -- It was expected to be ugly and it was. Army scored just 12 points in the first half. Hard as it might be to believe, that is not Army's record for futility -- although their media guide does not list the mark for fewest points in a half, we know back in 2004 they scored only 9 in the first half of a loss at Bucknell. The Black Knights shot just 12-for-42 from the field on the game, and turned the ball over 21 times. John Chaney stays perfect against the Patriot League and perfect in NIT home games, picking up his career win No. 500 in the process.
AP Wrap | Box score
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Lehigh turned the ball over 19 times and shot just 25 percent from the floor in the first half. It narrowly avoided the team's worst scoring effort in coach Billy Taylor's four years. Lehigh scored just 39 points in a loss to Holy Cross on Jan. 31, 2003, during Taylor's first season at the Mountain Hawks helm.It would seem pretty obvious that Joe Knight's absence from the lineup is not because the Mountain Hawks are getting better production from the guys playing in his stead.
Box Score
No 20 Iowa 71, Colgate 53 -- Iowa was too much for Colgate, but the Raiders' Kendall Chones showed why he is getting so much preseason hype in Patriot League circles.
Just take a look at his box score line: 20 points on 9-for-15, tying two Hawkeyes for the game high with 8 rebounds.
AP wrap
Temple 69, Army 37 -- It was expected to be ugly and it was. Army scored just 12 points in the first half. Hard as it might be to believe, that is not Army's record for futility -- although their media guide does not list the mark for fewest points in a half, we know back in 2004 they scored only 9 in the first half of a loss at Bucknell. The Black Knights shot just 12-for-42 from the field on the game, and turned the ball over 21 times. John Chaney stays perfect against the Patriot League and perfect in NIT home games, picking up his career win No. 500 in the process.
AP Wrap | Box score
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Can you believe this?
A year ago the Associated Press couldn't have found its way to Lewisburg if you put them on Route 45, pointed in the right direction and gave them a map. Now that they have realized there is no good men's basketball for their guy in the State College bureau to cover in Happy Valley, they are going utterly gaga over Bucknell. Not content with the preview they did a week or so ago, they moved another Bucknell preview on the wire this afternoon.
They even included a capsule preview for use as a graphic or sidebar.
Could this mean something more on AP from BU games than the customary three or four paragraph summary filed by the BU sports information folks?
If only they had a bureau with a similar mentality in Hamilton.
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They even included a capsule preview for use as a graphic or sidebar.
Could this mean something more on AP from BU games than the customary three or four paragraph summary filed by the BU sports information folks?
If only they had a bureau with a similar mentality in Hamilton.
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Bison a Cinderella finalist?
From Pat Forde's preseason list of 40 names, games and trivial pursuit answers on ESPN.com:(
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12) Cinderella will come from the following pool of teams: Bucknell, Davidson, Old Dominion, Winthrop, Murray State, Penn and Western Kentucky. Might even be two of them in there.
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Colgate wins opener
From the Associated Press:
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Kendall Chones and Kyle Roemer scored 13 points apiece to lead Colgate to a 55-42 victory over Utah Valley State on Monday in the first round of the Guardians Classic.Box score
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Mighty strange
One day after an impressive showing in a two-point loss to Northwestern of the Big Ten, Lehigh was less than impressive in squeaking past MEAC middle-of-the packer Coppin State.
The Mountain Hawks needed a Jose Olivero three-pointer with 0.2 on the clock to pull out a 65-64 win.
For the second time in as many games, the box score shows Jason Mgebroff did not start and Joe Knight did not play. Mgebroff saw only 13 minutes of action, scoring 4 points and grabbing 3 rebounds. Senior Mike Fischman, who has started at center in both of Lehigh's games, scored 10 points, despite shooting 1 for 7 from the field, and had 6 boards in 26 minutes of action.
Both Knight and Mgebroff were listed as likely starters in the notes for the Lehigh game. Both were listed as reserves for this one. But nothing in the notes or the wire stories gives any hint as to why Knight, the Hawks' leading returning scorer, has not played.
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The Mountain Hawks needed a Jose Olivero three-pointer with 0.2 on the clock to pull out a 65-64 win.
For the second time in as many games, the box score shows Jason Mgebroff did not start and Joe Knight did not play. Mgebroff saw only 13 minutes of action, scoring 4 points and grabbing 3 rebounds. Senior Mike Fischman, who has started at center in both of Lehigh's games, scored 10 points, despite shooting 1 for 7 from the field, and had 6 boards in 26 minutes of action.
Both Knight and Mgebroff were listed as likely starters in the notes for the Lehigh game. Both were listed as reserves for this one. But nothing in the notes or the wire stories gives any hint as to why Knight, the Hawks' leading returning scorer, has not played.
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Today's games
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | PennLive.com | Yahoo!
Colgate vs. Utah Valley State,(Ames, Iowa, 4 p.m.): How to figure Colgate's foe in the first round of the Guardians Classic, the Utah Valley State Wolverines? Utah Valley State split a pair of exhibition games, getting past NAIA power Westminster College 81-72 and losing 59-57 to Division II Mesa State. UVS was 16-12 last year in its first season of Division I play, but graduated star guard Ronnie Price, who is currently on the roster of the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Seven players, including four starters, are back, along with four juco transfers.
Colgate notes (pdf) | UVS notes | USA Today matchup | Live Stats | 'Gate radio
Lehigh vs. Coppin State, (Laramie, Wyoming, 2 p.m.): Lehigh should bounce back from last night's loss when they meet Coppin in the consolation round of the BCA Invitational in Wyoming. Coppin is a young team, with no seniors and no size. Two starters do return from last year's 14-15 team that went 13-5 in the MEAC. Sophomore Darryl Proctor (13.7 ppg, 6.9 rpg) was MEAC Rookie of the Year. Two 6-7 forwards -- a freshman and a sophomore-- and a 6-6 junior swingman are the only guys over 6-4 on Fang Mitchell's guard-laden roster (9 of 14 on the roster are listed as guards, two others as guard/forwards).
Lehigh notes | Coppin season outlook | USA Today matchup | Gametracker
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While you were sleeping.
Northwestern 61, Lehigh 59
From the AP story:Vedran Vukusic scored 25 points, including the go-ahead basket with 12.8 seconds left, as Northwestern came back from a double-digit deficit to beat Lehigh 61-59 Sunday night in the first round of the Black Coaches Association Invitational.
After Vukusic's jumper from the corner, Evan Seacat recovered a loose ball on Lehigh's end of the court and was intentionally fouled by Mitch Gilfillan with 5.6 seconds left. Seacat made one free throw, and Vukusic, fouled on the inbound play, hit two more to put the game out of reach.
Northwestern (1-0) will face Charlotte in Monday's semifinals; Lehigh (0-1) will play Coppin State in the consolation bracket.
After trailing the entire first half, the Wildcats tied the game at 37 on a pair of Vince Scott free throws, then took their first lead, 40-38, on Scott's 3-pointer with 13:12 left.
After that, the lead changed 10 times before Vukusic's go-ahead shot, with neither team leading by more than three points until the final seconds.
Tim Doyle added 14 points for Northwestern.
Jose Olivero scored 16 of his 19 for Lehigh in the first half; his only second-half basket was a 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds left. Kyle Neptune added 16 for the Mountain Hawks, but fouled out with 2:18 left in the game. Bryan White had 11 rebounds.
Olivero scored the first eight points in a 10-2 Lehigh run in the first half, first hitting a pair of free throws, then sinking a pair of 3-pointers. Jason Mgebroff's layup with 11:12 left gave the Mountain Hawks an 18-7 lead.Some interesting notes . . . nowhere in the AP story, or in the Lehigh release, is Joe Knight mentioned. A check of the boxscore shows why: Knight did not play. Nothing in Lehigh's release, or in the pregame notes and releases on their site, indicates why Knight was MIA. For Lehigh to nearly knock off a Big Ten team, even one like Northwestern, while playing without Knight, bodes well for the Hawks, assuming Knight is not lost for an extended period of time.
Other good news for Lehigh: Rebounding was expected to be an issue for the Mountain Hawks this season, but against Northwestern Lehigh had a 37-24 edge on the glass.
Also of interest . . . it appears that Jason Mgebroff did not start last night . . . he played just 12 minutes, finishing with 2 points and 3 rebounds . . . 7-foot savior John Gourlay apparently is, as most Patriot League freshmen of his size are, a work in progress. The highly touted frosh from Arkansas played only 2 minutes, the "2" under minutes being the only number other than "0" in his line in the box score . . . Canadian frosh Greg Page also saw just two minutes of PT . . . with Knight out, freshman Matt Szalachowski played 16 minutes off the bench in relief of starter Mitch Gilfillan at the point . . . 19 turnovers that led to 19 NU points proved to be Lehigh's Achilles heel. Five of the TOs were by Olivero . . . Gilfillan and Szalachowski combined had only 4, but they also had just 4 assists between them . . . Lehigh plays again at 2 p.m. eastern, facing Coppin State, which lost 82-65 to Charlotte.
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From the AP story:Vedran Vukusic scored 25 points, including the go-ahead basket with 12.8 seconds left, as Northwestern came back from a double-digit deficit to beat Lehigh 61-59 Sunday night in the first round of the Black Coaches Association Invitational.
After Vukusic's jumper from the corner, Evan Seacat recovered a loose ball on Lehigh's end of the court and was intentionally fouled by Mitch Gilfillan with 5.6 seconds left. Seacat made one free throw, and Vukusic, fouled on the inbound play, hit two more to put the game out of reach.
Northwestern (1-0) will face Charlotte in Monday's semifinals; Lehigh (0-1) will play Coppin State in the consolation bracket.
After trailing the entire first half, the Wildcats tied the game at 37 on a pair of Vince Scott free throws, then took their first lead, 40-38, on Scott's 3-pointer with 13:12 left.
After that, the lead changed 10 times before Vukusic's go-ahead shot, with neither team leading by more than three points until the final seconds.
Tim Doyle added 14 points for Northwestern.
Jose Olivero scored 16 of his 19 for Lehigh in the first half; his only second-half basket was a 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds left. Kyle Neptune added 16 for the Mountain Hawks, but fouled out with 2:18 left in the game. Bryan White had 11 rebounds.
Olivero scored the first eight points in a 10-2 Lehigh run in the first half, first hitting a pair of free throws, then sinking a pair of 3-pointers. Jason Mgebroff's layup with 11:12 left gave the Mountain Hawks an 18-7 lead.Some interesting notes . . . nowhere in the AP story, or in the Lehigh release, is Joe Knight mentioned. A check of the boxscore shows why: Knight did not play. Nothing in Lehigh's release, or in the pregame notes and releases on their site, indicates why Knight was MIA. For Lehigh to nearly knock off a Big Ten team, even one like Northwestern, while playing without Knight, bodes well for the Hawks, assuming Knight is not lost for an extended period of time.
Other good news for Lehigh: Rebounding was expected to be an issue for the Mountain Hawks this season, but against Northwestern Lehigh had a 37-24 edge on the glass.
Also of interest . . . it appears that Jason Mgebroff did not start last night . . . he played just 12 minutes, finishing with 2 points and 3 rebounds . . . 7-foot savior John Gourlay apparently is, as most Patriot League freshmen of his size are, a work in progress. The highly touted frosh from Arkansas played only 2 minutes, the "2" under minutes being the only number other than "0" in his line in the box score . . . Canadian frosh Greg Page also saw just two minutes of PT . . . with Knight out, freshman Matt Szalachowski played 16 minutes off the bench in relief of starter Mitch Gilfillan at the point . . . 19 turnovers that led to 19 NU points proved to be Lehigh's Achilles heel. Five of the TOs were by Olivero . . . Gilfillan and Szalachowski combined had only 4, but they also had just 4 assists between them . . . Lehigh plays again at 2 p.m. eastern, facing Coppin State, which lost 82-65 to Charlotte.
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'Gate sets off on great adventure
It would be great if the Utica Observer-Dispatch develops some staying power and actually covers Colgate this season. We have oft been asked why we don't have more on the Raiders on the site, and the explanation has always been that nobody ventures to Hamilton to cover Colgate's games, so often there is nothing to link to.
The Observer-Dispatch is at least starting off on the right foot, with a preseason preview of the "new-look Raiders, which includes this quick synopsis from Emmitt Davis:
Depending on who Holy Cross ends up playing in San Juan, the Gate's schedule will likey be the second or third toughest in the league this year.
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The Observer-Dispatch is at least starting off on the right foot, with a preseason preview of the "new-look Raiders, which includes this quick synopsis from Emmitt Davis:
"Four of our top eight guys basically have been away from the game for a whole year: Dan Gentile, Marc Daniels, Kyle Chones and Kendall Chones," said Davis, whose team struggled to a 12-16 record last year while Gentile and Daniels were hurt and the Chones brothers were ineligible. "The challenge is getting them all back up to speed. The key is bringing everyone together. That's why we're playing such a tough non-league schedule."The Raiders schedule is definitely beefed up from a year ago, when the annual loss at Syracuse was the only major on the slate. This season, if the 'Gate can get past Utah Valley State in the opener, their schedule will likely include Iowa, Princeton, Georgetown and either UTEP or Mississippi Valley State.
Depending on who Holy Cross ends up playing in San Juan, the Gate's schedule will likey be the second or third toughest in the league this year.
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Sportscenter is next
Anybody who spent time here last season already knows we are big Kyle Whelliston fans. His Mid-Majority site is one of the best hoops havens on the Web and we are thrilled he will be doing stuff on the Mid Majors scene for ESPN.com this season (as long as his site does not suffer).
Kyle has some kind words for Bucknell in his ESPN piece on this season's possible Cinderella teams:
The Villanova game is, indeed, sold out, but there are still plenty of seats available for the Saint Joseph's game.
And the "BUCKN" thing ... That never happened either. (In fact BU sports information director Jon Terry assures me that they had enough to spell the whole name at every game. "At one point I think we even had an exclamation point," says Terry.) Ditto for the T-shirts ... we didn't sell that many and none were shipped to Lewisburg (though the official bookstore shirts were, and are, all over campus).
Also on ESPN.com: Andy Katz and Doug Gottlieb have both picked Bucknell as one of their three Mid Majors to keep an eye on this season. Says Katz:
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 OWN YOUR OWN: Still available for a limited time, Hoop Time's commemorative "Take a Walk" t-shirt as written about on ESPN.com. |
Kyle has some kind words for Bucknell in his ESPN piece on this season's possible Cinderella teams:
After a shocking 69-66 road win over Big East power Pittsburgh on January 3rd (and a subsequent win over NIT finalist St. Joseph's), the switchboard at the Lewisburg, Pa., campus was overwhelmed by media calls. Once Patriot League play began, though, Holy Cross emerged as the conference favorite and local interest waned as the Bison stumbled at modest places as American and Navy. By mid-January, the Bison were only managing half-capacity crowds and the orange-'froed arena MC struggled mightily to whip Sojka Pavilion attendees into anything resembling a frenzy. The kids couldn't even get enough people to paint their bodies to spell out the school's name -- they had to settle for 'BUCKN.'Just a few small problems: Even after the wins over Pitt and St. Joe's, Sojka was never close to full, save for the Patriot League opener when they let people in for free, bringing a plethora of the notoriously tight-fisted locals out for that game, few of which were seen again all season.
So, we're not going to be fooled into believing the Kansas win created mass acceptance. Sure, home games against Villanova and St. Joseph's have sold out already and there have even been a few 'Rock, Chalk, Take a Walk' T-shirts seen on the streets around campus, but the Bison are undoubtedly still a mid -- which is a good thing. Just don't tell anyone they have all five starters back, including underrated point Abe Badmus, sharpshooter Kevin Bettencourt, athletic wing Charles Lee and legit big man Chris McNaughton.
The Villanova game is, indeed, sold out, but there are still plenty of seats available for the Saint Joseph's game.
And the "BUCKN" thing ... That never happened either. (In fact BU sports information director Jon Terry assures me that they had enough to spell the whole name at every game. "At one point I think we even had an exclamation point," says Terry.) Ditto for the T-shirts ... we didn't sell that many and none were shipped to Lewisburg (though the official bookstore shirts were, and are, all over campus).
Also on ESPN.com: Andy Katz and Doug Gottlieb have both picked Bucknell as one of their three Mid Majors to keep an eye on this season. Says Katz:
3. BucknellGottlieb goes even further, predicting Holy Cross might make the PL a two-bid league for the first time.
The Bison return all five starters and no longer will be the sleeper team no one pays attention to until it's too late. Bucknell beat Pittsburgh and Saint Joseph's on the road last season. A win at Duke would be a bit farfetched, but beating Villanova at home isn't a reach. Saint Joe's and DePaul also could get nipped by the Bison.
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Not just Feinstein
In a Q&A piece on the upcoming season, Philadelphia Inquirer basketball writer Mike Jensen reveals he is one of the AP voters who included Bucknell on their pre-season ballot:
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With all of the players back from the team that knocked off Kansas in the NCAA tournament, the Bucknell Bison absolutely deserve to be in the 'others receiving votes' category. They received five points in the balloting. Villanova at Bucknell on Dec. 6 could be one of the more intense early-season games.
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Lehigh's hands full in opener
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | PennLive.com | Yahoo!
Lehigh vs. Northwestern, 10 p.m. (Eastern)TONIGHT) : Expect to learn a lot about this year's Lehigh team from its opener against Northwestern in the Black Coaches Association Invitational in Laramie, Wyo. Northwestern, a perennial Big Ten doormat, is no powerhouse. But the Wildcats are still a Big Ten team with Big Ten recruits and a Princeton-style offense that can give you fits.
In his sixth season at NU, coach Bill Carmody reportedly has his deepest team since he arrived in Evanston from Princeton in 2000. That, of course, is a dubious distinction since the 'Cats have had just one winning season (16-13 in 2001-02) under Carmody. Northwestern is 68-80 under Carmody, but 53 of those losses have been in Big Ten games. NU's non-conference mark under Carmody is 41-27.
Despite its historic struggles (NU has never been to the NCAA TOurnament), the Wildcats are 6-1 all-time against Patriot League teams. None of those six wins, though, came against the modern-day, scholarship-era Patriot League. NU's last win over a PL team was a 69-61 win over Bucknell in 2003.
Northwestern returns three starters and eight letterwinners, including All-Big Ten forward Vedran Vukusic, a 6-8 senior from Croatia who averaged almost 17 points and 4 rebounds per game last year.
To be certain, Vukusic will be a tough matchup for the Mountain Hawks, especially since 6-10 senior center Mike Thompson is pretty good, too. Thompson, a Duke transfer who played in just 13 games last year due to an ankle injury, averaged 10 ppg.
Northwestern also has good size on the bench, with 6-10 junior Vince Scott and 6-8 Kentucky transfer Bernard Cote´. Cote´, who Carmody calls a two-guard with a big man's body, could be a matchup nightmare, too, given his ability to shoot from the perimeter.
In the backcourt, Michael Jenkins and Mohamed Hachad both return after much of starting last season. Jenkins, a former walk-on who mans the point, is just 5-9. Hachad, at 6-4, is another matchup problem for Lehigh's small backcourt. Hachad shot 48 percent from the field last season, most by slashing to the basket. He is not a three-point threat.
It will be interesting to see if Carmody plays the taller Hachad on Joe Knight.
Knight, as will be the case a lot this season for Lehigh, will be the key. If he can get things going offensively, it opens up a lot for the rest of the Lehigh lineup. On the other hand, If NU can check Knight one-on-one, it might be a long night for Lehigh.
Between the presence of Knight, and its usually stingy style of defense, Lehigh certainly has a chance in this game. And with Charlotte or Coppin State awaiting the winner (actually, and the loser) in the second round, a 2-0 start is not out of the question if the Hawks get past Northwestern.
Even with a first round loss, Lehigh should stand a decent shot of coming home from Wyoming 2-1, since UNC Wilmington or Alabama State are likely third round foes for the team that loses the Northwestern-Lehigh game, assuming chalk holds and Butler and Wyoming win their openers in the other half of the 8-team bracket.
NOTE: The BCA Invitational will utilize the 2005 NCAA Men's Basketball Experimental Rules. The changes that will be in effect all apply to the playing floor. The three-point arc will be moved one foot farther out to a distance of 20 feet, nine inches, while the free throw lane will be extended one foot on each side. Also, a restricted area arc will be placed in the free throw lane, three feet from the center of the basket ring.
Lehigh notes (pdf) | Northwestern Notes | USA Today matchup | BCA Invitational | Purple Reign Lehigh Scouting Report | Pioneer Press Northwestern preview| Express-Times preview | Gametracker | Lehigh Radio (pay service) | Northwestern Radio
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Bison pull out opener
Four hit the floor
Friday, November 18, 2005
Bison have few questions
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Crusaders have strong core
'Pards have 1 thing going for them: O'Hanlon
Read around
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
COMING SOON!
Midshipmen should be better
Knight hurt?
Roll out a barrel of cliches
In the House(nick)
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Tough night all around
Can you believe this?
Bison a Cinderella finalist?
Monday, November 14, 2005
Colgate wins opener
Mighty strange
Today's games
While you were sleeping.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
'Gate sets off on great adventure
Sportscenter is next
Not just Feinstein
Lehigh's hands full in opener
