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Sunday, November 19, 2006
BU-Saint Joe's tops 3-game slate
Three games on tap this afternoon in the Patriot League. Of the three, Bucknell's visit to Saint Joseph's gets top billing.

This is a matchup between two teams who lately have become accustomed to success. Bucknell's first round wins in the NCAA Tournament in the past two seasons pale in comparison to Saint Joe's record of having reached postseason play in each of the last six seasons (three NCAA and three NIT bids) and 8 of the past 11. Only once in those 8 seasons did the Hawks fail to advance to the second round (first round NCAA loss in 2003). The next season they went all the way to the Elite 8.

This one will be in Saint Joe's sold-out Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, where they just go ahead and write in 3,200 on the attendance line of the box score every game. It will be loud, hostile and full of folks who remember the way Bucknell dismantled their beloved Hawks here two seasons ago.

Back then, Bucknell had not yet begun gathering major program scalps. The win over Saint Joe's, which had been to the Elite 8 the previous year, was huge for the Bison. Now they are a team searching for their first win of the season, and searching for an identity. And they had best find that identity in a hurry, because this is a very talented Saint Joe's team.

The Hawks are long and athletic, with skilled, mobile big guys up front who can stretch the floor with their ability to shoot the three. The guards are young, but talented.

Rob Ferguson is a matchup nightmare for Bucknell. At 6-8, with range to the arc, he is the kind of quick, athletic big man that will get Chris McNaughton and/or Darren Mastropaolo in foul trouble if they are forced to guard him man to man. Ahmed Nevins is just as athletic, and although he lacks Ferguson's range on the jumper, the 6-10 sophomore is another guy who could spell foul trouble for a Bucknell team that has had iussues of just that nature early in the season.

One solution is to guard Ferguson with Donald Brown. But that leaves mush smaller three-men like Jason Vegotsky and Rob Thomas to try handling Pat Calathes. Talk about your tough matchups -- Calathes is 6-10 with guard skills. He has three-point range and handles it well enough to have played backup at the point as a freshman.

Where Bucknell has the edge is in its experience. Look for the Bison to play a lot of the matchup zone against Saint Joe's, both as a way to minimize the matchup concerns and a way to frustrate the Hawks' young freshmen in the bcackcourt, who like a get up and down tempo.

On offense, Bucknell will need to be effective in its halfcourt, running its patterns patiently to get open shots deep in the shot clock. Jacking up quick shots early in the clock will just play into the hands of Saint Joe's athletic bunch.

Also on tap this afternoon, Navy visits a Stony Brook team that already beat Colgate and just upset Penn State and Lehigh looks to help folks in Bethlehem get over Saturday's football shellacking when they host Sacred Heart in a meeting between two teams looking for their second win of the young season.
Published at 10:39 AM by Hoop Time.
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