LATEST HEADLINES

Thursday, December 29, 2005
BU, AU face challenges
Patriot League scoreboards
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | PennLive.com | Yahoo! | Mid-Majority


BUCKNELL vs. Santa Clara 11 p.m.:Santa Clara may well be the biggest team Bucknell faces all season. The Broncos starting frontcourt goes 6-7, 6-11, 6-7, with a 6-8 kid and a 6-9 kid as two of the first three off the bench. There's another 6-11 guy on the bench (and a 7-foot transfer who is sitting out this season). The Broncs' leader is Travis Niesen, a 6-7 senior forward who is averaging 19.9 points and 7.2 rebounds. In the first round of the tournament, Niesen went off for 23 points and 14 rebounds against UC-Riverside.

Burley center John Bryant is a handful and a half. The 6-11, 329-pound freshman is averaging over 8 rebounds per game after grabbing 17 against UC-Riverside. For good measure he tossed in 16 points in that win and blocked 6 shots. It will be interesting to see if he is quick and mobile enough to defend Bucknell's Chris McNaughton, who has added a nice step-away-from-the-basket-for-the-short-jumper wrinkle to his game this season.

The other frontcourt starter, 6-7 sophomore Mitch Henke is averaging 10.7 points and 5.9 rebounds.

This will be a real test for the Bison. The Broncos have only been shooting 40 percent from the field as a team, but they have held foes to 37 percent and they have been outrebounding opponents by three per game.

The Broncos are 6-4 overall, 4-1 at home, but it is tough to gauge them by their record/schedule. So far they have beaten the teams they should and lost to the ones you'd expect they would. The six wins came over teams with a combined record of 16-37, including an NAIA and a D-II, both of which have losing records. The only win over a team with an above .500 record was at home over Pacific (6-4). The losses came against teams with a combined record of 35-6, including 9-1 Montana, 7-2 North Carolina and 9-3 Mississippi State.
Bucknell notes | Santa Clara notes | USA Today matchup |Bucknell Radio

AMERICAN at Vermont 7 p.m.: This is not last year's Vermont team. There is no Tom Brennan running the show, no Taylor Coppenrath or T.J. Sorrentine. But the Catamounts are still a pretty good team, especially in Patrick Gym, where their only loss in the last 18 home games was early this season against No. 20 Nevada. That setback came in a season-opening three-game losing streak. Since then UVM has won four of six, the losses coming against a strong Iona team and Pittsburgh of the Big East. Junior Martin Klimes (15.6 ppg) is the only starter back from last season for Vermont. Freshman point guard Mike Trimboli is ranked third in the nation in assists, averaging 7.1 per game.
AU notes | UVM notes | USA Today matchup | Live Stats | UVM radio | AU radio

Susquehanna at NAVY 7:30 p.m.:Frank Marcinek's Crusaders are a young, 2-7, Division 3 team with a roster filled with freshmen and sophomores. Center Matt Effler is the only senior on the team. He is also the only guy taller than 6-5.
Navy notes (pdf) | Susquehanna Web site | USA Today matchup | Gametracker | Susquehanna radio
Published at 8:55 AM by Hoop Time.
Help Hoop Time