A question I heard a lot today was what does Bucknell’s loss at Duke mean for the rest of the league’s teams.

The answer is simple.

Takes just one word.

Nothing.

Did the Blue Devils expose some of Bucknell’s weaknesses? Absolutely.

Are they things that other teams in the league will be able to exploit? Not unless somebody has a roster full of Mickey D’s All-Americans that I don’t know about.

Duke was able to use its superior quickness and athleticism to take Bucknell out of its offense. The Blue Devils full court pressure gave Bucknell fits. Once they trapped Abe Badmus and forced him to pass the ball back to Darren Mastropaolo, the sophomore forward had a tough time finding any of the Bison’s ball handlers to get the ball to.

But no team in the Patriot League has that kind of speed and quickness. Not even close.

That is not a knock on the other teams in the league. None of the other teams Bucknell has played had Duke’s team speed, either, with the possible exception of Villanova.

A healthy Holy Cross might be able to press Bucknell effectively. But with Torey Thomas playing 40 minutes a game, Kevin Hamilton playing nearly that many and Keith Simmons battling a cramping problem, Ralph Willard can’t even think about trying to play at that sort of a pace for any kind of extended period of time.

Nobody in the league has a big man like Sheldon Williams either. Ditto for 6-10 freshman Josh McRoberts, who pro scouts considered the best prep player to not turn pro last season. Both of them might have been first round draft picks had they entered the draft last year.

In the Patriot League, Chris McNaughton is easily the best big man. Darren Mastropaolo is probably the second best. Duke outscored Bucknell 46-18 in the paint. That won’t happen in the league.

While there was nothing encouraging for the rest of the league in the Bison’s loss, it could make life miserable for Navy and American over the course of the next week. Between the Bison’s back-to-back losses at Santa Clara and Duke, and the nagging memory of last season’s lost weekend in the D.C. area, Bucknell figures to be anything but complacent when they open league play Saturday in Annapolis.

On top of that, the Bison, who looked leg weary at Duke after flying coast-to-coast and back, will be well-rested after four days off, and well-prepared after getting a chance to get back in their practice routine after being limited pretty much to walk-throughs and shoot-arounds since Christmas.

Just ask Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who said after the game, “I would say they are ready for the Patriot League. Just so they don’t pick on Army too much.”

FROM THE MAILBAG -- Got an interesting e-mail from one of the league’s top beat writers. I won’t name the writer, but suffice to say it is someone who does not cover Bucknell and will never be accused of being a Bison fan.

Here’s what they had to say:

I had to laugh when I read your comments about the officiating in the Bucknell-Duke game. I only watched a little of the beginning of the game before leaving for work and I started laughing that Bucknell was getting screwed by Patriot League officials in Cameron. I guess it wasn't only the Bison were who stuck with a case of stage fright. I can't imagine Bernard "Anyone Can Earn a Whistle" Clinton will ever officiate in Cameron again -- or that he was there before.

Those comments were posted at halftime. The officials didn’t get any better after the break. Among the calls horrible enough to make my notebook:Abe Badmus was hit with two quick fouls around 4 or 5 minutes into the half, the second of which was Badmus’ fourth of the game.

Badmus’ infraction? He happened to be in the way when a stumbling, out of control Sheldon Williams sort of fell into him after taking four or five steps while coming across the lane. Not only did Joe Lindsey get the call wrong, he also rewarded Williams’ touchdown run by saying he was in the act of shooting when he tossed up a wild heave after crashing into Badmus.

The net result: Badmus on the bench with four personals and Williams on the line, where he sank both free throws to end the 9-0 run Bucknell had opened the second half with.

Badmus’ fifth came when Duke guard Greg Paulus tripped over his own feet while careening wildly past his defender. Badmus, who was in the vicinity but was not defending Paulus, was whistled for a phantom shove.

Then there was the offensive interference call on McNaughton on a play where he did touch the ball while it was still on the rim, but not until after Williams had touched it first.

But the Hoop Time award for worst call of the game actually goes to Lindsey for a call he didn’t make. It came about midway through the second half when Bucknell freshman Jason Vegotsky got clobbered while putting up a three-pointer from the left side. It was the only three-point try Vegotsky missed (4-5) all night. It happened right in front of Lindsey, who swallowed his whistle, then motioned and told Vegotsky to get up off the floor.

As I mentioned during that halftime post, the officiating was horrendous, but it was not why Bucknell got beat. But it did have a lot to do with the Bison getting beat by 34 points.

FROM THE MAILBAG CONTINUED: That same e-mail also included this commentary on the state of the league:

I'd think it would be an upset if (the Bison) DON'T go undefeated in the league, considering how bad everyone else is! Colgate lost to previously winless Stony Brook, Jose Olivero will lose as many games as he'll win for Lehigh (who can't get Juco Joe back soon enough) and Holy Cross, who knows about the Crusaders. The rest of the league is junk. So much for scholarships.

Junk seems a harsh assessment. I prefer the word “young.” Colgate and Lehigh are the only teams other than Bucknell that are not heavily dependant on freshmen in key roles.

Most of those freshmen are a notch or two above the caliber of freshmen the league used to attract without scholarships. But they are still freshmen, and coaches will tell you when a freshman plays a lot, it usually tells you more about the deficiencies of the upper classmen than the talents of the frosh.

Especially at the Patriot League level, where the academic standards greatly shrink the talent pool teams recruit from, not that Patriot League teams would get McDonalds kids if they didn’t have to worry about grades.