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Wednesday, March 08, 2006
In or out?
Does Bucknell get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if it falls to Holy Cross in the Patriot League final?

Depends who you ask.

Andy Glockner of ESPN.com thinks so. In his latest Bubble Watch, Glockner writes:
Bucknell [24-4 (16-0), RPI: 51, SOS: 207] Now into the Patriot finals against annual nemesis Holy Cross. This time, the Bison are at home ... and this time, they probably don't have to win to make the field of 65. Interesting note: not only did Bison win at Syracuse, but they also won at DePaul, which just embarrassed Syracuse.
So does USAToday.com's college hoops editor Tim Gardner. Gardner's latest Bubble Tracker says:
Those teams teetering on the edge should now be rooting hard for teams like George Washington, Memphis, Bucknell and Gonzaga to win their leagues. If not, the bubble could shrink and some that look good now will be looking down the barrel of an NIT shotgun.
You can also add Tony Mejia of CBS Sportsline to the list of believers. Mejia writes:
The Patriot League juggernaut can count on an at-large bid if it somehow bows out in the conference tournament. Expect the Bison to be nationally ranked entering the NCAAs, and count on the nation's bubble teams praying that they top Holy Cross in the final. Two teams coming out of the Patriot League would definitely happen if the Crusaders prevail. Imagine that.
In today's Washington Post, Eric Prisbell echoes those sentiments:
The primary rule for fans of Maryland and George Mason is to root for the favorites, particularly in conferences expected to receive only their automatic bids. They must cross their fingers that George Washington storms through the Atlantic 10 tournament, Bucknell avoids a stumble in the Patriot League final and Nevada exerts home-court dominance through the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

All three teams would earn NCAA tournament invitations regardless of whether they won their conference tournaments. Upstarts such as Louisiana Tech, Holy Cross or Temple could make for tense moments should they get hot.
Rob Daniels, of the Greensboro (N.C.) News_Record, seems to think Bucknell is in, too:
Normally, you might not care who wins the Patriot League tournament. But this year, it's different. The Bucknell Bison, the new Princeton of college basketball after last year's first-round NCAA upset of Kansas, may be a decent at-large candidate if they fall to Holy Cross in Friday's final. The Bison are a solid 3-4 against RPI Top 50 teams; they ripped through their league at 16-0; and their RPI probably still would be in the 50s. That's a viable NCAA tournament resume.
Not everyone is convinced though. Writing in today's Patriot-News, Dave Jones says:
Bucknell's reality is this: Its road wins over the Big East's Syracuse and DePaul don't look so impressive anymore.

I think it's pretty clear this year is like any other in the Patriot League. You can win the first 16 conference games, but it means nothing if you don't win the last one.

Bucknell needs to seal the deal Friday
Jones also wrote this:
. . . if I was a BU fan, I'd be extremely nervous about this game. I see Holy Cross coming into Sojka Pavilion with a nothing-to-lose attitude against a resolute but mentally fatigued Bucknell outfit. And, with the students filtering out of Lewisburg for spring break, the juice in Sojka might not be optimum with a greater percentage of tame townies.
Apparently Jones didn't get the memo about the Bucknell students waiting on line all night to buy tickets when they went on sale at 8 a.m. Monday, though in fairness to Dave, with the school's random giveaway of 800 tickets to students who did not even have to sign up or indicate an interest to get in on the drawing, there does seem to be the possibility that some of those ended up in the hands of students who will be on the way out of town as soon as their last class ends Friday.

On the other hand, Bucknell students are not like students at some other schools. Skipping classes is rare. Few will leave early. And the 4:30 p.m. start, plus the lure of being on ESPN2, which lures casual fans the way a mirror ball lures disco dancers, ought to mean almost all of those tickets will end up in the hands of someone who will use them.

Besides, the school has arranged to keep the dorms open an extra night for students who stay for the game.

A big game on national TV. A Friday night, with no classes the next day. Sounds like a party to us. And even though the folks on the hill don't like anyone pointing it out, this is not a campus that passes on good parties.
Published at 8:30 AM by Hoop Time.
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