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Can the orange-clad lads from Giant Killer U. do it one more time? Can Bucknell find a way to beat No.1 seed Memphis, a team that entered the NCAA Tournament ranked either No. 3 or No. 4 in the nation, depending which poll you follow?

It would be easy to say no, easy to say impossible. Memphis is a team full of former McDonalds All-Americans and future NBA players. Bucknell? Well, there is a McDonalds in Lewisburg and you can get NBA games on cable there. But realistically, that is about all these two teams have in common.

Yet that is exactly why the Bison just might have a chance of pulling off another upset. And after beating Pittsburgh, Saint Joe's and Kansas last year and Syracuse, Depaul and Arkansas this season, only a fool would count them out.

That is not an upset prediction. Merely a caution that history shows those who take Bucknell lightly have been known to do so at their own peril.

If the Bison can handle what is likely to be an early onslaught of furious full court pressure from Memphis, this one could go down to the wire, and those who follow the Bison know they are very, very good in that situation. This season alone, this bunch, the core of which has been playing together for three years now, was involved in games decided by five points or less. Seven of those eight resulted in a notch in the Bison's in column.

But winning close games and making games close are two very different animals. And making this one close with be a tall order for Bucknell. The Bison have only suffered two double-digit losses all seasons. Both came against teams with pedigrees similar to Memphis. There is no question Bucknell can compete against anybody outside the top five or 10 in the nation. They have yet to prove, though, they can hang with a big dog like the Tigers.

The big dog reference is intentional. During the Tigers' press conference Saturday, Darius Washington Jr. described his team as a pack of dogs going after one piece of meat. Memphis coach John Calipari agreed, but pointed out the trouble is, sometimes his team plays that way on offense, too.

That could play right into Bucknell's hands if the Bison can force their deliberate pace on the Tigers by turning it into a halfcourt game. Memphis' offensive philosophy is pretty simple -- let the big dogs run. They prefer the style former Villanova coach use to refer to as "chuck and duck."

"It's what we do, press, run and gun . . . The main point is to try to run them and press them and try to make them feel uncomfortable. We're going to keep on trying to do what we do, play press, fast-tempo game," Washington said.

"That's our style of play. That is what we are going to try to make them play with us. If they can manage to play with us in that style of game, then it is going to be a tough game tomorrow," added freshman forward Robert Dozier, who made it pretty obvious he doubted Bucknell would be able to keep pace with his team.

Of course Bucknell has no plans to even try to play at that kind of pace. Bison senior co-captain Charles Lee made that clear during the Bison's press conference. Bucknell won't be intimidated by Memphis' style, Lee said. Lee even went so far as to argue the Bison can play that way, though he conceded probably not for a whole game. But that is not how Bucknell wins ballgames.

"Playing them on our terms, that is what we have talked about," Lee said.

"We have to slow the tempo down a little bit, play at our pace," Lee's fellow senior co-captain Kevin Bettencourt added.

Bucknell's terms are familiar to anyone who follows the Patriot League. On offense, they like to run opponents through a meat grinder halfcourt offense of patterns and screens, patiently waiting for the defense to break, or wear, down. The longer you force the opponent to play defense, the more likely that breakdown is to occur.

On defense, the Bison also prefer a half court game, mixing a tough man-to-man that is often overlooked by those writing about the Bison with the amoeba-like match-up zone that gets most of the attention. Oft overlooked is how their man-to-man sets up much of the confusion caused by the match-up. Opposing point guards are known to dribble dents in the floor standing out top trying to figure out which look they are seeing.

"That is their game. It's nothing new that we are going to see. we have to make them play our game how we made every other team play our game," Washington said, making clear his team shared its disdain for that kind of play.

"It's boring," Washington said.

Which is exactly what Bucknell wants to hear. They'd like nothing more than for Memphis' talented athletes to become bored with having to battle through screen after screen on defense. or impatient at having to make the extra passes to find a seam in the Bison defense. When teams get frustrated with Bucknell's pace and try to impose their physical will on the game, they learn the classic lesson about a team being greater than the sum of its parts.

Calipari knows that. He is not sure his team does.

"These guys have never been through this. They just think 'Well they are going to run with us.' They have no idea. They are not going to run with us," Calipari said.

"The thing you have to guard against with a team like (Bucknell) is that if they come down and grind it out, and grind it out, and slip and back door and throw it, kick out, make a shot, you cannot come down and shoot a quick, bad shot. You can take a good shot. But if you come down and shoot the leaping leaner, you've got problems. You're going to have problems in a game like this," the Memphis coach explained.

Calipari has shown his team very little film of Bucknell. Memphis' rotation consists of senior Rodney Carney and a bunch of freshmen and sophomores, who the coach figures could be hurt more than helped by trying to figure out Bucknell's many complexities.

"This is a hard game to prepare for. You don't have enough time, they run too much stuff." Calipari said.

Instead, he is trying to keep his team focused on what it wants to do.

"The whole philosophy I've always used is on defense, make the game very difficult for them and on offense make it very easy for you. . . . Make it easy for you and on defense make it hard on them. It's simple. This isn't brain surgery," Calipari said.

In other words, Memphis plans to make Bucknell play its game.

"We heard they can't handle pressure that well. We're definitely going to try to pressure them early to get a lot of turnovers and easy buckets." Dozier said.

Certainly that has been true at times this season. Duke wreaked havoc on the Bison by pressing from the get-go. Arkansas overcame a 9-point second half deficit with a full court trapping press that Bucknell broke just often enough to hang on for the win.

If the Bison don't find a way to be more effective in their press break, this game could be over before the half. If they do, then the Bison ought to be able to hang around till the end. And we all know what tends to happen when they do that.

Said Calipari, "They don't beat themselves. They will not beat themselves."
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