In today's Express-Times, Corky Blake reports Lehigh coach Billy Taylor has turned down an offer to become the next coach at Delaware.

The Wilmington News Journal still calls Taylor the front-runner for the job in a story today that talks about the Delaware A.D.'s plans to continue talking to candidates at the Final Four this weekend in Indianapolis. But Blake's sources say he has already told Delaware no.

But that does not necessarily mean Taylor is staying in Bethlehem. While Temple officials are denying reports in that school's student paper that Penn coach Fran Dunphy has been offered their head coaching job, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports Dunphy remains the top candidate.

Hoop Time sources indicate that Dunphy has already met with representatives of Temple's board of trustees, saying the school could be ready to announce his hiring following the Final Four.

If that happens, it could have a ripple effect that extends to the Lehigh Valley and the Patriot League. Conventional wisdom has been that Dunphy's replacement would likely be another Fran, either Fran McCaffrey or Fran O'Hanlon.

McCaffrey, a former Lehigh assistant and head coach who also played and was an assistant at Penn, just signed an extension at Siena.

O'Hanlon, the Lafayette coach, just got scholarships at Lafayette and is no sure bet to take the Penn job if offered.

But Ivy League sources have told Hoop Time that Taylor could be a candidate for the Penn job if Dunphy leaves. That makes sense is some ways. In addition to the likely higher paycheck at Penn, Taylor has a strong connection that could help him should he be interested in the position.

Taylor was McCaffrey's top assistant at UNC-Greensboro before taking the Lehigh job and played at Notre Dame when McCaffrey was an assistant there. And sources say McCaffrey is tight with Penn A.D Steve Bilsky. McCaffrey was an assistant at Penn when Bilsky was an assistant A.D. there in the early 80s.

Of course all this is predicated on Dunphy leaving Penn. Two years ago he decided against such a move when offered the job at his alma mater, LaSalle. And as the Philly Daily News points out today, if finances are the deciding factor, don't count out the deep pockets of Penn alums.

While some might view the non-scholarship Ivy League a step down from the Patriot League, and even more steps down from the Atlantic Ten, the Penn job is viewed differently from the jobs at Ivy League schools whose name does not begin with a P. The lures of a tradition of success, the tradition of Philadelphia's legendary Big Five, an equally legendary home court in the Palestra and a long commitment to hoops success, make recruiting at Penn different than it is elsewhere in the Ivies and the job is known to pay pretty well.

Whomever the coach is at Penn, they will also benefit from the school's recently announced policy to replace loans with grants for all students from families with an income below $50,000. That policy applies to all students, but it is not hard to see how it could benefit the basketball program.

Stay tuned.
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From a Bucknell Sports Information Press release:

After leading the Bucknell men’s basketball program to a second straight record-setting season, Bison head coach Pat Flannery has agreed to an extension of his existing contract, director of athletics and recreation John Hardt announced today.

Flannery, a 1980 Bucknell graduate, skippered the Bison to a 27-5 season, a second consecutive Patriot League championship and a second straight march into the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2005-06. Along the way, the Bison shattered the school and league single-season victory record and became the first team in Patriot League history to go unbeaten (14-0) in conference play.

Not to be overlooked, Flannery’s team led all members of the 2006 NCAA Tournament field with a 100 percent graduation rate, and his program’s performance in the NCAA’s Academic Performance Rate indicator was well above the national average. In addition, the Bison set a school attendance record at Sojka Pavilion this season, featuring eight sellouts and the top 10 single-game attendances in program history.

“Bucknell University is privileged to have Pat Flannery as its head basketball coach,” said President Brian C. Mitchell. “He is a leader who has not only brought tremendous basketball success to Bucknell, but he has also been a vocal advocate of the student-athlete ideal. The young men he has brought to our campus are future engineers, businessmen, writers and scientists that also play basketball extremely well. They are role models in the community who are here to experience Bucknell just like any other student. Remarkably, Pat’s teams have maintained that focus while bringing national acclaim to our institution through their championship-level play on the hardwood, and their class and poise in the arena of everyday life.”

Flannery, who just completed his 12th season at Bucknell, was awarded the mid-season Hugh Durham Award by CollegeInsider.com as the nation’s top mid-major head coach, and he is a finalist and strong candidate for the end-of-year Durham Award, which will be announced later this week.

“We are thrilled that Bucknell’s men’s basketball program will continue to benefit from Pat Flannery’s exceptional leadership,” said Hardt. “Bucknell is committed to providing Pat with the necessary support to maintain a successful Patriot League program. The last two seasons in particular have been extraordinary. Bison Basketball has reached unprecedented levels of achievement, and people across the nation have taken notice not just of Bucknell’s success, but also how the ideal of the scholar-athlete has not been compromised along the way. I look forward to working with Pat for years to come, as we strive to continue the growth of this great program.”

"I am extremely happy knowing that my family and I will continue to be a part of this great institution," said Flannery. "I thank the university leadership for the trust it has shown in the work we are doing to continue to make the Bucknell program a success both on and off the court. The entire future of Bucknell University is extremely bright."
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Bucknell recruit Zach Evans has been named to the Division 3A All California Interscholastic Federation team (if you want to see the whole list, use hoop_time@hotmail.com and the password: "hooptime" to log in.

Evans also earned first team honors on both the CIF Southern Section 3A team and, according to the LA Daily News, first team All-Division Southern Section.

Evans is also a Mickey D's All-American game nominee.
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Most of this story in today's Centre Daily Times deals with George Mason's Gabe Norwood, a State College (Pa.) H.S. grad.

But scroll down and you will find info on all-star game appearances Friday by two Holy Cross recruits. State College senior Eric Meister will be on a regional team playing in the Friday in the Altoona Mirror Basketball Classic. That game will be at St. Francis (Pa.)

Another HC recruit, Andrew Keister, will team with North Carolina recruit Dennis Horner on a New Jersey team that will play a team of mostly Division I recruits from Pa. in the Roundball Showcase on Friday at Susquehanna Twp. High School in Harrisburg.

Among the players on the Pa. team: Chester's Richard Fleming (George Mason), Trinity's Brian Morris (Richmond), Reading Central Catholic's Alex Franklin (Siena) and West Perry's Justin Fry (University of Maryland-Baltimore County).

The New Jersey squad includes , a North Carolina State recruit, and Andrew Keister, who's heading to Holy Cross.
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The Wilmington News-Journal reports today that Lehigh coach Billy Taylor is the latest candidate for the Delaware job. Delaware already has seen two of its top candidates fall through. Kevin Willard, son of Holy Cross coach Ralph and currently an assistant at Louisville, was offered the job by the school's president, only to have the trustees refuse to OK that hire. And UConn assistant Tom Moore has pulled his name out of the hat.

If Taylor leaves, he won't get to coach recruit Marquis Hall, who was just named a third team All-State pick in Oregon.

He might also miss out on coaching former Allentown Allen star Ray Barbosa, who is leaving James Madison and reportedly will transfer to either UMBC or Lehigh.

In today's Morning Call, Andre Williams reports:

According to Barbosa, Lehigh assistant coach Bob Simmons contacted Allen coach Doug Snyder inquiring when he might be released. Simmons said on Tuesday that he could not comment.

Williams also reports:

Barbosa favors UMBC over Lehigh because Retrievers assistant coach Kevin Baggett was also an assistant at JMU during Barbosa's freshman season and he was the main reason he went to JMU. Also, UMBC's academic requirements are not as stringent as Lehigh's.

Of course Barbosa should know he does not need to worry about the academic requirements. A year at a community college can take care of that.

Elsewhere on the coaching vacancies front:

The kids at the Daily Pennsylvanian are in a titter than Lafayette's Fran O'Hanlon may not find the Penn job attractive now that the Leopards have scholarships. O'Hanlon has been high on the list of speculative replacements for Penn coach Fran Dunphy, who is high on the speculative lists to replace retiring Temple coach John Chaney.
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Holy Cross recruit Eric Meister has been named MVP of the Mountain Athletic Conference. The State College Pa. star averaged 17.2 ppg this season, capping a career that saw him average over 12 ppg in 112 varsity contests. His team won the conference this season and finished second in the PIAA District 6 Class AAAA tournament.
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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Bob Smizik says Duquesne's hoops program needs more than a new coach. It needs a new conference he argues in a column today. Smizik thinks the Dukes would be better off in the MAAC or the Patriot League.

Maybe he should look closer. Although the Patriot League was 2-4 against the A-10, the four losses were by Army (vs. Temple in the preseason NIT), an early season loss by a very young American team to A-10 power George Washington and two losses by non-scholarship Lafayette to two of the A-10's better teams, Fordham and Saint Joe's. Those two A-10 teams also account for the two losses to Patriot League teams, with Saint Joe's losing to Bucknell and Fordham to Holy Cross.

If he thinks life would be so much easier in the Patriot League, he might look at the experience of the last team to leave a higher conference to join the Patriot League. American fled the Colonial Athletic Conference five seasons ago and it has not gotten the Eagles to the dance.
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Former Bucknell point guard Bill Courtney, a two-time first team All-Patriot League pick (1991, 1992) never made it to the Big Dance as a Bison player. Close as Courtney got was Bucknell's 21-9 season his senior year, when BU lost to Fordham (70-65) in the conference final.

That seems to have set a pattern for Courtney, who is going through a different sort of close-but-no-cigar experience this season, his first as an assistant at Providence.

Courtney took that job at Providence after a long stint as an assistant on Jim Larranaga's staff at George Mason, where he was responsible for the recruiting of many of the players on the Patriots' Final Four team.

In a story in Tuesday's USA Today, Courtney says Mason is lucky that he left:

"I would've convinced Jim along the way to do one little thing differently that wouldn't have worked," Courtney said. "The stars had to be perfectly aligned for this to happen, and part of that destiny was me leaving."

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(Originally posted Monday at 8:47 p.m., updated at 7:29 a.m.)

Bucknell's Charles Lee, the Patriot League Player of the Year and a two-time first-team All Hoop Time honoree has earned honorable mention honors on the 2005-06 AP All-America Basketball Teams.

Lee is the sixth Patriot League player to get honorable mention and the fifth straight league player of the year to be honored in that manner. It makes you wonder if the AP has some policy of giving the Patriot's POY token honorable mention every year.

We ask that because last season's POY, Kevin Hamilton of Holy Cross, was an honorable mention choice a year ago, but not this season, despite putting up better numbers this time around.

While we preach that you cannot judge a player solely by statistics, Hamilton was also the league's defensive POY. He an Lee were the consensus two top players in the league this year. Chances are the deciding factor in Lee winning POY over Hamilton was the fact that the Bison won the league title.

It is hard to imagine how Hamilton could not merit honorable mention again this season if he deserved it last season.

PREVIOUS PATRIOT LEAGUE AP ALL-AMERICA HONORABLE MENTION CHOICES:
2005 - Kevin Hamilton, HC
2004 - Austin Rowland, Lehigh
2003 - Patrick Whearty, HC
2002 - Patrick Doctor, AU
1997 - Adonal Foyle, Colgate
1996 - Adonal Foyle, Colgate
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During the first two rounds of the NCAA TOurnament in Dallas, Jonathan Tannewald of the Penn student publication The Daily Pennsylvanian kept showing up for the Bucknell press conferences, usually asking questions about the Patriot League's move to scholarships.

Today he puts it all together in a story that looks at the impact that has had on the Ivy-Patriot balance.

There is no real news to Patriot League fans, but it is worth a read, especially for PL hoops junkies in need of some sort of a fix.
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The All Hoop Time team is very different from the All Patriot League team announced at the conference at the end of the regular season.

The difference is simple: the league's official team does not take position into account. The first team is made up of the five players who the coaches consider the top five in the league, the second team is the next five in the voting.

In a league like the Patriot, that tends to produce a team heavy on guards and woefully shy of big men. Matter of fact, the 10 players who won all-league honors included only two taller than 6-4.

As we explained it last year, when the first All Hoop Time team was named, we take a different approach:

Here is how our team has been selected. We began by choosing the starting five we'd most like to put on the floor. That meant paying attention to positions. No four guard lineups allowed. We then proceeded to fill out the rest of our 15-man roster. Again, we looked for balance. Depth at all positions was essential.

Four of our five starters are repeat selections from last season. Three of the guys on the bench were also chosen last season. Two guys who were on our all-rookie squad last season have moved up to the "varsity" this year. Previous All Hoop Time picks are noted by the designation "(HT '05)" after their name. The All Rookie picks from last season are noted by a "(R '05)" designation.

FIRST TEAM

CENTER: Chris McNaughton, 6-11 Jr. Bucknell (HT '05)– By a wide margin, the best big man in the league. Averaged 12.8 ppg despite being double- and triple-teamed by everybody in the league, something no other Patriot League player demanded.

POWER FORWARD: Darren Mastropaolo, 6-8 Soph. Bucknell (R '05)– Mastropaolo doesn’t show up in the box scores, but he does in opposing team’s scouting reports. A tremendous screener and tough as nails defender, Mastropaolo might have led the league in charges drawn if such a stat were kept.

SMALL FORWARD: Charles Lee, 6-3 Sr. Bucknell (HT '05)– The league’s coaches voted him player of the year. Who are we to argue. Averaged 13 points and 6 boards per contest and ranked in the top 10 in five other categories. One of the two best defenders in the league, Lee is single-handedly responsible for American’s Andre Ingram not making the All Hoop Time team

SHOOTING GUARD: Kevin Hamilton 6-4 Sr. Holy Cross (HT '05)– The league’s defensive player of the year won that honor for good reason. He averaged over 3 steals per game and seemed to deflect every pass that was in the same zip code. Led the league in scoring and rebounding, too, and had more assists than four of the starting point guards in the league.

POINT GUARD: Abe Badmus 6-0 Jr. Bucknell (HT '05)– Torey Thomas had better overall numbers, but Badmus played better when the two faced each other head-to-head. Either way you cannot go wrong. Badmus averaged almost 7 ppg, a deceptive figure because he showed several times he was capable of scoring more if that had been his role. His 3.91 assists per game were second in the league, behind Thomas and he also was in the top 5 in steals and assists-turnover ratio.

Centers:
Tim Clifford, 6-10 Soph Holy Cross (R '05)– After a slow start, the Big Purple Dog came on in league play, averaging almost 10 ppg in conference action. Led the league in blocks, fifth in field goal percentage.

Brayden Billbe, 6-10 Jr. American – Good for 8 points and 5 boards a night. Ranked fourth in field goal percentage.

Power Forwards:
Andrei Capusan, 6-7 Sr. Lafayette – Not a great defender in the paint, but his ability to step away from the basket and hit the jumper helps stretch defenses. Averaged 12 points per game and ranked second in field goal percentage. Also averaged nearly 5 rebounds per game in conference play.

Matt Fannin, 6-7 Sr. Navy (HT '05)– We’ll find a sport for anybody who plays half the season on one leg and still averages 10 and 5. If we handed out a warrior of the year award, Fannin would win hands down.

Small Forwards:
Keith Simmons, 6-4 Jr. Holy Cross (HT '05)– If we followed the league model of choosing the best five regardless of position, Simmons would definitely be a first team choice. He is second team here only because he plays the same spot as Lee. Averaged 14 points and 5 rebounds per game, despite having his playing time limited much of the season due to a cramping problem. One of the best defenders in the conference, too. Perhaps Simmons’ most impressive stat: he shot almost 60 percent from the field in league play – an unheard of feat for a guard. Included in that, a 51.8 percent showing from the three-point arc.

Donald Brown, 6-6 Jr. Bucknell – Brown might actually see more time at the four than the three on this team. The league’s best sixth-man showed he could defend either spot while averaging 8 points and 6 rebounds per game in conference play.

Shooting guards:
Kevin Bettencourt, 6-2 Sr. Bucknell (HT '05)– A four-year starter for the Bison, Bettencourt’s leadership, defense and knack for making big shots in big games earns him a spot. Averaged nearly 13 ppg and led the conference in three-pointers with 79 (2.47 per game), finishing second on the league’s career three-pointers list.

Jerrell Brown, 6-2 Soph. Army – Likely to be the most controversial pick on this squad, we chose Brown over Lehigh’s Jose Olivero despite the fact that Olivero scored more (17.6 per game to 14.9 per game). Statistically, the two were close in most categories. We just liked what we saw from Brown more. Two factors weighed heavy in our decision: 1) Charles Lee calling J. Brown the second-toughest guy he has had to guard this season (after Hamilton) and 2) Comments early in the season from a writer who covered Lehigh, who told us he felt Olivero had cost the Mountain Hawks as many games as he had won for them in non-conference play.

Point Guards
Torey Thomas, 5-11 Jr. Holy Cross (HT '05)– An ironman all season for the Crusaders, who lacked a backup at the point after Pat Doherty’s foot injury wiped out Doherty’s season, Thomas averaged 11 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds per game. His only real flaw: head to head against Badmus, Thomas was 3-for-25 from the field in three games while Badmus was 6 for 12, even if you toss out his 0-for-3 showing in the championship game (discounting it because Thomas suffered a knee injury in the first half that had him doing a Matt Fannin imitation until Ralph Willard finally sat him down), Badmus still got the better of Thomas in those key games.

Joe Knight, 6-2 Sr. Lehigh – Knight’s ability to play the point gave him the edge over his teammate Olivero for what basically was the last spot picked on the team. Averaged 14.4 ppg after being forced to sit out half the season due to an administrator’s screw-up that cost him his eligibility. Also a better defender than Olivero.

LAST GUYS CUT:
Derrick Mercer, 5-9 Fr. PG, American – His day will come. Held his own against the league’s best all season.
Jose Olivero, 6-2 Jr. SG, Lehigh – A great scorer, Olivero will have another chance next season to prove he can carry his team. Failed in that role during Knight’s absence.
Kyle Neptune, 6-5 Jr. SF, Lehigh – 11 points and 5 boards per game. Could easily argue that D. Brown should be one of the three on the team at power forward, freeing a spot for Neptune at the three. But that would have meant leaving Fannin off the team, and we aren’t doing that.
Paulius Joneliunas, 6-11 Jr. C, American -- Lost out to teammate Billbe for backup center spot, but it was almost a flip of the coin. Their numbers were very similar, but Billbe did it the whole season, giving him the edge.

MVP: Charles Lee, Bucknell – There were times during the season, especially in conference play, when Lee picked his team up off the floor and carried the Bison to a victory.

Player of the Year: Kevin Hamilton, Holy Cross – The difference between Player of the Year and MVP is one that has been debated endlessly. We are awarding both, and frankly don’t really care which guy gets which honor – they are that even. If there was a third player even close to Hamilton and Lee, we might view it different, but there is not. These two were head and shoulders the best two players in the league. Rather than choose one over the other, we took the easy way out by honoring both.

Sixth man of the Year: Donald Brown, Bucknell -- Nobody contributed more off the bench. Joe Knight doesn’t count since he was a starter five times, including four of Lehigh’s biggest games of the season (both regular season games vs. Holy Cross and both league tournament games).

Coach of the Year: Fran O’Hanlon, Lafayette – Not many guys are coach of the year for finishing fifth in their league, especially not when another guy goes unbeaten in league play and wins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But doing so with a non-scholarship roster filled with undersized, slow-afoot guys the way O’Hanlon did deserves a reward. Did more with less than any coach in the conference.

Rookie of the Year: Derrick Mercer, American – Alex Vander Baan was solid all season after being forced into a starting role for HC. Bucknell’s Jason Vegotsky showed he can hit the three. Kaleo Kina had a strong season for Navy. But none of the other freshmen contributed the way Mercer did, stepping in to fill the void for AU at one of the most crucial spots on the floor. Folks expected Mercer to get chewed up and spit out by the likes of Badmus and Thomas, but the Gary Coleman look-alike held his own against the league’s best, finishing third in the league in assists and fourth in assists-turnovers ratio. In conference play, Mercer shot 46 percent from the field, ranking eighth in the league, and he hit almost 52 percent of his three-pointers in PL games (ranks third). There are a lot of reasons for American to be optimistic about its future; Mercer is at the top of that list.

Note: Last year we named an All-Rookie team. We are not doing that this year. If we did, we'd pick the four guys mentioned above, but we'd be playing with no true small forward and there is no freshman center in the conference deserving of any postseason honors.
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If you missed it Sunday, Tom Housenick of the Daily Item wrapped up the Bucknell season with a trilogy on the Bison.

Perhaps the most interesting revelation came in a story on Pat Flannery, in which the coach reveals that he has been contacted the past two seasons by other programs looking to gauge his interest in their coaching vacancies. Flannery says he is not looking to move, but he has gotten phone calls:

"I think you'd be crazy if you didn't listen when an opportunity that really fits your personality comes up," said Flannery.

Housenick's two other pieces look at the possibilities for the Bison rotation next season and recaps the past two seasons.
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It has been over 140 days since we took a day off here at Hoop Time.

That streak ends today.

Barring any breaking news on the Patriot League hoops front, we will refrain from updating until Monday, when we will announce the 2006 All Hoop Time team and hand out miscellaneous other postseason awards.

Enjoy the weekend.
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Just one question for the Razorback nation: How long are you going to whine?

RAZORBACK: THE OTHER WHITE MEAT Available now in the Hoop Time store Visit the store

Are you folks like Kansas, where even a year and another first round loss to a mid-major later, they are still talking about the loss to Bucknell, or will you start act like grownups, take it like a man and admit you got beat by a better team. Not the better collection of athletes, but definitely the better team.

You got outplayed, outhustled, outsmarted and outcoached. You lost. Bucknell won. In your backyard. In front of your fans. Deal with it.

Think it was a fluke? Come to Lewisburg next year and play the Bison again. I promise Pat Flannery could find a spot on the schedule for you

Until then, enough of the coulda, woulda, shoulda. It's boring. It's classless. It's time you got a life.

Lay off Stan Heath. He did a good job this season. He seems to have your team headed in the right direction.

Terry Wood, sports editor at the NW Arkansas Timestries explaining that to the Arkansas fans in a column today:

Much of the consternation has to do with whom the Razorbacks lost to in the NCAA Tournament.

Despite the fact that Bucknell performed better and played more consistently well than the Razorbacks all season, Hog fans saw it as their program's manifest destiny to advance in Dallas.

To be certain, Heath has not been whining. Neither have the Arkansas beat writers, most of who were privately expressing doubts about the Razorbacks; chances well before the game even tipped.

Nobody is suggesting Arkansas fans shouldn't still be discussing the loss. But we're pretty sure Dr. Phil would tell them the way to deal with it starts by accepting the better team won, at least the better team on that given Friday afternoon in March.

Kansas fans never learned that lesson and they are miserable still.
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The Wilmington News-Journal reports former Lehigh assistant Monte Ross, currently an assistant at Saint Joe's, has interviewed for the Delaware job.

Also on the Blue Hens' short list: Kevin "Son of Ralph" Willard, currently an assistant at Louisville.

UPDATE: Apparently Willard was offered the job, then Delaware reneged on the offer when the board of trustees would not approve the president's reccomendation.
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As coaching vacancies come and go, jobs open and close, creating a trickle down effect as up-and-comers fill the voids of those kicked off the ride.

There is considerable talk about Penn's Fran Dunphy taking over for John Chaney at Temple, proving ET has a better read on the situation than us (we spent the weekend in Dallas insisting it would not be Dunphy).

The Dunphy speculation has the Ivy League's boxers in a bunch over who might join their prestigious little club. From the Columbia Spectator:

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that Dunphy leaves for the Owls, the first two candidates on everyone's lips would be a pair of former assistants, Fran O'Hanlon and Fran McCaffery.

Now we won't say O'Hanlon wouldn't take the job. But if he did, it would probably be for reasons other than the Ivy League. It wouldn't be surprising for Penn to make O'Hanlon an offer he couldn't refuse. O'Hanlon will be 58 in August. This could be the contract that sets him for retirement.

That had a lot to do with Charlie Woollum leaving Bucknell back in 1994 to go to his alma mater, William and Mary. Going home was also a factor for Woollum, a Tidewater native.

That could also be a factor for O'Hanlon, a Philly guy and Villanova grad. The lure of Philly in general, and the Big Five in particular, could lure O'Hanlon to Penn.

It would be hard to imagine leaving the Patriot League, now that Lafayette has scholarships, for any Ivy job. Bucknell has made it very clear how much more potential the Patriot teams have these days with scholarships. And there is no reason to think O'Hanlon won't have the Leopards back at the top of the league with scholarships to level the field.

But the Big Five has a huge aura, especially to any hoops junkies who grew up in Philly.
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During the parade and celebration in Sojka Pavilion held last night in Lewisburg to honor Bucknell's history making season, Lewisburg Mayor Judy Wagner proclaimed today "Bison Men's Basketball Day"

Pat Flannery's reaction: "Everybody take the day off."
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Greg McDermott won't be coming to Sojka Pavilion next season after all. McDermott, who was hired as coach at Northern Iowa by former Bucknell and, at least for the moment, current UNI AD Rick Hartzell, has been taken the Iowa State job.

But don't expect Northern Iowa's style to be much different when the Panthers come to Lewisburg for a BracketBusters payback game next season. Less than 18 hours after McDermott's leaving was announced, .Hartzell named McDermott's chief assistant, Ben Jacobson, as the school's new coach.

McDermott had been mentioned as a possible replacement for Steve Alford, should the Iowa coach return to his alma mater, Indiana. McDermott's name had also been mentioned in speculation about openings at Kansas State and Missouri.

Meanwhile, it is entirely possible Jacobson could have a new boss by the time he brings his team to play in the arena his current boss helped build. Hartzell has been job hunting, and although he recently either pulled out or lost out in the search at New Mexico after being a finalist for the AD job there, he is reportedly a finalist for the AD job at Southern Methodist.

According to the Dallas Morning News:

SMU is looking at four college athletic directors: Rick Dickson of Tulane, Rick Hartzell of Northern Iowa, Chet Gladchuk of Navy and Gary Barta of Wyoming.

Barta has denied interest in the job and Dickson pulled his name out of the hat yesterday.
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Late in Sunday afternoon's loss to Memphis in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Bucknell coach Pat Flannery was forced to accept reality.

As much as he wished and wanted his team to pull this one out, it was not going to happen. As certain as he had been all afternoon that the he and his staff would figure out a way, or that his players would find one of their own, it was not going to happen.

Maybe, if hoops were like baseball, a game without a clock, eventually they'd have figured it out, they'd find a chink in the Tigers' armor and a way to exploit it.

But basketball isn't that way. There is a clock, and it was running out.

Flannery's whole way of playing the game is predicated on valuing possessions, and finally, the reality became, there was not enough time on the clock for enough possessions to overcome Memphis.

It was time to share that reality with his team, particularly with his senior co-captains Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt, time to make sure the rest of the guys on the roster could someday tell their grandkids they once played on the game's big stage.

As Lee and Bettencourt left the floor as Bison for the last time in their careers, Flannery greeted them on the sideline with a handshake and a hug, and whispered in their ear the message he shares with all his seniors in that final glory.

"When we get back, and you have some free times, we'll go get some beers,"Flannery tells them.

"They look at you like you have two heads," he said.

For four seasons the guy is reminding you drinking is against team rules, now he is saying let's go grab a beer.

Reality sets in.

After tonight's big celebration in Sojka, might be a good time for Bucknell fans to grab a beer, too.

What has happened the past two seasons in Lewisburg has been remarkable.

Magical even.

Pure lightning in a bottle.

Two straight trips to the NCAA Tournament; two straight first round wins.

Unprecedented.

History making.

All that stuff.

Because this team accomplished so many things never before done by Bucknell or any other Patriot League team, the bar has been set very high.

There was a phrase heard a lot in Dallas over the weekend: "Gonzaga of the East."

"Where do you go from here," the Bison were asked, over and over and over again.

"What do you have planned for an encore?"

"Is the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight next?"

"Is that where Bucknell is headed?"

A variation of that question was asked in all four Bucknell press conferences and over and over in the locker room interviews. And it was echoed on message boards, in barrooms and around water coolers in Dallas, Lewisburg and anywhere else Bison fans congregated to watch the games.

There is lots of reason for optimism. The Bison return a solid core. When you return two seniors who will be four-year starters -- one your standout point guard, the other an all-league center -- and a hard-nosed junior four-man who will be a three year starter, you have a pretty nice foundation to build from.

The top three from the bench will be back and seem ready for expanded roles. There are some other underclassmen who, having waited their turns, will get to show they can play a little, too.

There is a head coach with a consistent history of winning, a beautiful campus and handsome gym to attract recruits. All the media exposure of the past two seasons is also a plus.

Gonzaga of the East? That might be a stretch.

"There has to be a reality to my institution," Flannery said, responding to one of those questions.

In other words, there is a big difference between a Gonzaga and a Bucknell.

Athletic scholarships are making a big difference in the players Patriot League teams have been able to bring in, but they have not really expanded the pool of players they recruit -- at least not yet.

Not all schools are like Arkansas and Memphis, letting anybody in anybody who can ball and meet the Prop. 48 standards. Patriot League schools, at least most of them, don't recruit kids and then tuck them away someplace for a year or two to get eligible.

Can any Patriot League school, even one with Bucknell's current recruiting advantages, realistically expect to go deep into the NCAA Tournament?

Given the right draw (see Bradley), it could happen.

But every year? Or even on a regular basis?

That seems a ways off. As Flannery pointed out, there is a certain realism to the situation.

Still, the bar has been set.

Much has been said about the leadership of Bettencourt and Lee. The national media in Dallas were fixated at times on the Bison's scholarship saga -- a story we all thought was worn out last year -- and how the two guys from the last non-scholarship class were the guys who carried the team to the second round.

Potentially, the bigger story in the long run, will be how those two taught the whole program what it takes to play at that next level.

"We all know how much it is going to take to get back here," said junior Chris McNaughton. "We all know what it takes. It is going to require a lot of work."

It's McNaughton's team now; his and Abe Badmus', and Donald Brown's.

"We're seniors now. It starts now," McNaughton said. "My class now will have take care of (making sure the young players) realize what we have to do."

McNaughton was asked about topping this year's act. His answer sounded like Lee and Bettencourt already. All season long it has been Lee and Bettencourt who kept the team's ego in check, constantly enforcing the strict one game at a time approach that is all teams preach but few actually practice.

"I don't want to talk about the Sweet 16 or the Elite 8 right now," McNaughton said.

"We have an off season right now. All of us will have to get back to work. Then we have the preseason and what not. There are a lot of games to be played before we will be back here. Then we can talk about the tournament again if we are back."

Gonzaga of the East? That is still a long ways off.

Remember, it will be a couple years before you can really assess what these past two seasons will mean to the long term success of the program.

"These guys are going in the right direction," Bettencourt said.

If Flannery does not get lured to greener pastures (he is far from the highest paid coach in the league), if all the exposure gives BU the recruiting boost some anticipate, if those kids that come in continue to work as hard, or even harder than this team, who knows?
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We'll spare the details of a night in a flooded Dallas, early morning flights and the slower than slow baggage claims at the Air Tran terminal in Philly.

Nobody wants to hear us whine and even if we thought you did, we are way too tired to write about it tonight.

So just a couple of housekeeping items for today. We'll try to have a more complete update Tuesday morning.

From Bucknell Sports Information:

The Bucknell men’s basketball team concluded its greatest season ever on Sunday with a loss to top-seeded Memphis at the NCAA Tournament, and now plans are in place for a celebration in honor of the Bison team on Tuesday, March 21.

Beginning at 6 p.m., there will be a parade along Market Street in downtown Lewisburg. The parade will wind up at Sojka Pavilion, where there will be a rally beginning at approximately 6:30 p.m. The celebration is free of charge and open to the public.

Among the scheduled guest speakers are Lewisburg mayor Judy Wagner, Pennsylvania Rep. Russ Fairchild (R-Snyder/Union), Bucknell University president Brian C. Mitchell, director of athletics and recreation John Hardt, Bison head coach Pat Flannery and members of the Bucknell team.

Yes, another round of bandwagon jumping by local politicians. Some undoubtedly will need a map to find Sojka, since they haven't been there since this kind of celebration was held last year.

But with Bucknell seniors Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt having ended their remarkable Bison careers, any Bucknell fan within a reasonable drive of Lewisburg really ought to come out to give those two the recognition they deserve from the home fans.

Also, by now you have probably rehashed the Bucknell-Memphis game ad nauseum. But here are a few links to stories from today that are not specifically about the game:

Bucknell ship will miss captains, from Dave Jones of The Patriot-News

The Daily Item's G. Wayne Laepple joined the drowd watching Sunday's game at the Bull Run Inn and The Towne Tavern in Lewisburg. Here is his story.

Meanwhile, Daily Item beat writer Tom Housenick was in Dallas, putting together this notebook

Seated next to Housenick all weekend was Jake Felix of the Sun-Gazette, who filed this fine retrospective

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For the first five minutes of Bucknell's 72-56 loss at the hands of top-seeded Memphis in the second round NCAA Tournament everything went right for Bucknell. The Bison were breaking the Memphis press, their shots were falling and the defense was keeping the high-octane Tigers in check.

Then Charles Lee went to the bench with his second personal foul and things went downhill quicker than a bobsled. When Lee took a seat with 14:11 to play in the first half, Bucknell was holding on to a 10-6 lead, half of those 10 coming from the senior co-captain and Patriot League Player of the Year.

By the time Bucknell coach Pat Flannery rolled the dice and sent Lee back on the floor after Memphis senior Rodney Carney threw down a slam off an alley-oop from Tigers backup point guard Andre Allen with 8:29 to play, Memphis had built a 21-12 lead that held up the rest of the game.

"What hurt us in the first half was when Charles got his second foul. He's one of the strongest kids we have to play against that pressure," said Bucknell coach Pat Flannery.

That pressure the Bison coach was talking about was Memphis' "22" zone press, the look the Tigers switched to after Bucknell had no problems solving a man-to-man press early. It's hard to say which had more to do with the run, Lee's absence or Memphis' pressure, but the combination of the two put Bucknell in a hole it could never climb out of the rest of the game.

Eight of Memphis' points in that stretch came on layups or dunks. The other nine came on three-pointers. Three of the easy buckets and one of the threes were the result of Bucknell turnovers.

"When we went to the 22, it speeded up the game. They turned the ball over and missed shots," said Allen, who finished with six assists and three steals while scoring 8 points.

"We went back to the (22) press and it kind of rattled them a little bit," added Memphis coach John Calipari.

Even with Lee back on the floor, Bucknell continued to have a tough time against Memphis pressure, both full court and half court. Longer than a summer day and quicker than a summer romance, Memphis clamped down on the Bison all over the floor. They pushed Bucknell's guards out near midcourt to start their sets and jumped the passing lanes to disrupt the Bucknell offense when it did get the ball closer to the hole.

In all, Memphis came up with 10 steals and forced 19 Bucknell turnovers. And when the Bison did get a shot off, most of the times it came with a hand in their faces or one of the Tigers' plethora of lengthy bodies flying at them at a rapid pace.

"It was definitely frustrating. You'd think you saw something there for a second and by the time you threw it there would be three guys around it," said Bucknell senior guard Kevin Bettencourt, who finished with 12 points in the last game of his college career.

"They had quick people on the wings and they weren't letting us make those (entry passes)," said Flannery. "They are such a good basketball team, so big and athletic."

The Bison shot just 15-of-41 (36.6 percent) from the field. Chris McNaughton, who went 5 for 9 for a game-high 15 points, was the only Bison who took more than 2 shots to make more than half of those he took. Two days after burying Arkansas under a barrage of 11 three-pointers, Bucknell could manage only two against Memphis. Both of those came in the first five minutes of the game. Bucknell went 0 for 8 from the arc after that

That last stat is telling in two ways, both in that Bucknell missed the threes it did take, but also in that the Bison could only find eight open looks from the arc in the last 35 minutes of a game in which they desperately needed three-pointers to try to play catchup.

"That is as good as anybody has guarded the three against us all year," said Kevin Bettencourt, the top three-point shooter in Bison history.

Part of Bucknell's struggles from the arc probably had to do with playing a second game just one day after a tough first round win over Arkansas, a game in which Lee and Bettencourt, the Bison's both played over 34 minutes.

"We got some good looks. Legs might have played a part in it. Plus you've got some long guys flying at you. It's very difficult," Lee said.

Lee finished with 11 points, but he was just 3 for 11 from the field, and the three-pointer he hit on the first shot of the game was his only make on four attempts from the arc.

Those long guys had more to do with it than Bucknell's tired legs.

""If Bucknell had come out and made threes like they did the last game, they'd have beat us, Calipari said. "We made sure we always had someone on them and if they were going to take it there was a hand it their face."

"They are so long and athletic, and the pressure-- they get you going so fast. Even when you do get a second to get a shot you're rushing a little," Bettencourt said.

The Bison managed to hang around after Memphis' big first half run. After trailing by as many as 16 in the opening period, Bucknell cut the deficit to 10 at the break and got it into single digits early in the second half.

A pair of free throws by Darren Mastropaolo cut Memphis' lead to 38-29 with 17:33 to play. But the Bison came up empty on three straight possessions with a chance to cut it further. Particularly crushing was a charging call on Bison point guard Abe Badmus that wiped out his baseline runner that would have made it a 7-point game.

By the time the Bison scored again, five minutes had clicked off the clock and Memphis had built its lead to 46-29. Bucknell managed to get back within 9 with 8:10 to go, with a 10-0 run during which 8 of the points came at the foul line, including two from Bettencourt following a Calipari technical. But Memphis responded with a 10-2 run of its own that put the game out of reach.

"I wanted to see who was going to make plays for them if we got it to six or seven, but we couldn't," Flannery said.

Had that happened, Memphis would have had no shortage of guys to go to. Four Tigers reached double figures and three others had 8 or more.

Antonio Anderson led the Tigers with 13. Joey Dorsey added 12 and Shawne Williams and Rodney Carney had 10 each.Box score
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In his preview of today's Bucknell-Memphis game, Dave Jones of The Patriot-News says of Memphis:

They get guys arrested for smoking dope and driving 80 mph, weaving in and out of traffic and suspended for slacking on school work. Then, they get reinstated and keep playing. Kareem Cooper has done all that just this season. But, see, he's 6-11 and can shoot the lefty hook. And he's the eighth man, folks.

Varnish is supplied by the coach. Ask John Calipari a question and the answer sounds a guy you've heard before. Then you figure it out -- it's that oil slick in Reno who suckered you into meeting to pitch a timeshare.

Which leads us to this set of links a Hoop Time reader sent us via e-mail:

Njoya is the fourth Tiger to be suspended since this preseason, joining Jeremy Hunt (altercation on Beale Street), Andre Allen (patronizing a prostitute) and Kareem Cooper (marijuana arrest).

Hunt charged in assault

The epic saga of Crime and Punishment at Memphis added another chapter with one-game suspensions handed down to Billy Richmond and Clyde Wade for their role in a fight Monday night in a 78-54 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Wade arrested for credit card theft involving prison inmates

Memphis freshman Cooper arrested

Something tells us the BU pep band will once again be breaking out the chant they used Friday night: "2-4-6-8, All our players graduate."

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Scoreboards
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | Yahoo!

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."
Bucknell notes | Memphis notes | USA Today matchup | Bucknell Radio
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We just got done working on this for tomorrow's preview, and figured we'd go ahead an unveil it now:

TALE OF THE TAPE
Category	BU	UM
W-L	27-4	31-3
PPG (D)	55.1	66.2
FG pct.	.468	.452
FG pct. (D)	.384	.382
3 FG pct.	.395	.356
3 FG pct. (D)	.317	.306
FT pct.	.690	.682
RPG	32.2	41.8
R margin	+2.9	+7.2
APG	14.5	15.7
TOPG	14.7	15.7
Blocks PG	1.8	6.6
Steals PG	8.9	9.8
RPI	42	4
Grad. rate	100 pct.	25 pct.

You might ask why we posted it now. We did it because the last item on the list is graduation rates.

We found that one interesting because included in Memphis' postseason media guide is a copy of an article touting how Tigers' coach John Calipari has delivered on promises he made when he arrived in Memphis six years ago.

The column includes this passage:

"Go back and read what I said back then," (Calipari) said.

O.K. Coach.

"We're going to graduate players."

In fairness to Calipari, some of the non-graduates are guys who left early to make millions in the NBA. But a look at the study done on the academics of the schools in the NCAA Tournament by the University of Central Florida (pdf), Memphis hardly seems to be fulfilling that promise. Especially to its African American players.
Memphis is actually even with Bucknell in one category. Both schools graduated 100 percent of their white players. But while BU claims 100 percent for all players, Memphis graduates only 14 percent of its African American players.

Calipari claims that is changing. During Saturday's press conference, he said after May's graduation is held, 9 of his last 11 seniors ill have graduated.

Left unanswered is how many of his kids never make it to that senior year. The current roster includes four seniors, one of which has been suspended from the team and two others who are not listed as part of Calipari's top 8 in the rotation.

PREPPIES: You'd expect Memphis to graduate more players, given the number of prep school kids on the roster. Seven of the 15 players on the Tigers' roster went to prep school, including five who went to Laurinburg (N.C.) Prep. One of those is a sophomore, the other four played together last season there.

Since Bucknell-- the university as a hole, not the basketball team-- traditionally a very high percentage of prep school kids, we asked a number of Bucknell players if they knew anybody on their halls that attended Laurinburg. A couple knew of its basketball reputation, none knew anyone who went there.

We also called an admissions rep at a Patriot League school to ask about Laurinburg.

"I don't know that place at all," they said.

Calipari defended the school, saying it was not one of those basketball diploma mills and that it has been around over 100 years.

He appears to be right about the 100 years, and Laurinburg does not appear to be like those schools exposed by Pete Thamel's recent New York Times piece.

Among the differences between those schools and schools like Laurinburg, Oak Hill or other prep schools known for basketball seems to be that places like Laurinburg were not founded by AAU coaches as strictly basketball schools.

That does not make hoops any less important at Laurinburg. From the school's Web site:

The school is particularly noted for its rich basketball tradition, having produced several McDonald's High School All-Americans. Its most notable basketball alumni include Sam Jones NBA Hall of Famer with the Boston Celtics and Charlie Scott, an All-American at UNC and NBA All-Star.

DAY IN THE LIFE: Bucknell players are enjoying their time in Dallas, even if coach Pat Flannery won't let them on the ice skating rink at their hotel, the Westin City Center.

"Too mant people taking falls," said senior Holland Mack.

For starters, the hotel is closer to the arena than last year's Holiday Inn on the outskirts of Oklahoma City, a place Flannery referred to last year as the hotel where No. 14 seeds go.

"It's like five minutes from the gym, instead of like 40," said junior center Chris McNaughton.

A good portion of their time is being spent watching film to prepare for the games. They didn't start looking at Memphis Friday night, the coaches opting to give them some time off to enjoy the win over Arkansas. But they started watching film of Memphis at 10 this morning and expected to watch more when they get back to the hotel after a team dinner tonight.

That team dinner, if Darren Mastropaolo, Andrew Morrison, Tarik Viaer-McClymont, Jason Vegotsky and Mack, will be at Del Frisco's, a Dallas steak house that has caught their fancy.

In the little free time they have had for sightseeing, they also have visited the JFK museum and saw the infamous "grassy knoll."

But most of the time is being spent getting ready for Memphis.

"We don't want to have any regrets," said Mack.

FIRST TIMER: It's the first trip to the NCAA Tournament for freshman Jason Vegotsky. So far, it has lived up to the advance billing it got from the guys who were in Oklahoma City.

"It's awesome. I am just trying to take it all in," Vegotsky said.

While Vegotsky is making his first trip to the dance, he said the experience of Bucknell's tough schedule this season has him, and the rest of the team, well prepared.

"It really helped coming in having played against teams like Duke, Villanova and Syracuse. Playing Arkansas was not that big of a deal," said Vegotsky.

MORE ON FILM: While Bucknell has watched film of Memphis already, Memphis has not yet seen the Bison play.

"Right now we haven't had a chance to see them on tape yet," said Memphis sophomore Darius Washington, Jr.

"I've watched enough tape. We have not shown our players tape because I don't want to scare them. So we're not showing them tape yet," said Calipari.

With a young team and limited time to prepare, Calipari figures its best to focus on his own team's game, rather than confuse them trying to make them understand everything Bucknell runs.

"What we will do is, tonight, we'll show a little tape before we go on the practice floor, and we will show a little more tape. But I just want them worried about us. I don't want them seeing them making 32 passes, two backcuts, a ball screen, a fade, a backscreen fade, stagger back door layup to where their heads will be spinning. 'What was that?'

"We're going to watch tape, but we're not going to watch a whole lot of tape. I promise you that."

BRACKET CHALLENGE UPDATE: Got a cell phone call from the infamous Brother of Hoop Time, who won the Kansas postseason media guide for coming in last in last year's Hoop Time Bracket Challenge. He was upset the link on the right sidebar still goes to the entry page, which gives a message saying you can no longer enter.

Guess he figures we have had a lot of free time on our hands the last couple days and should have updated the link.

Here it is: Hoop Time Bracket Challenge Results. You will still need to enter the password: hooptime to view the results.
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No rest for the weary in Dallas. After knocking off Arkansas in the first round Friday night, several members of the team were back in the arena to take in the nightcap between Penn and Texas.

That was there time for relaxation. The Bucknell Bison will spend much of today preparing for tomorrow's second round game against No. 1 seed Memphis.

The team's schedule today includes a closed practice at noon (central) in the American Airlines Center, followed by a press conference with the players at 1:35 and one with head coach Pat Flannery at 1:55.

We will update on the team's preparations and the press conferences following those sessions.

Game time Sunday, originally announced as 3:45 p.m., will be at 1:15 (central).

SUPERSTITIONS: In the Bison locker room following the game, sophomore guard John Griffin was seen wearing a wrinkly, definitely unironed, light purple oxford shirt. Not the kind of shirt usually worn with a warm-up suit, but Griffin had a reason.

"It's superstion. I've worn it for every road game this season," Griffin said.

He was not the only superstitious member of the Bison travel party. Todd Newcomb, director of the Bison Club, watched the entire game on a television monitor in the concourse of the American Airlines Center.

Newcomb, who was helping to man the desk were players' families picked up their comp tickets, said he was there when the Bison opened their early 8-2 lead and was afraid to move for fear of messing with the good karma.

Selected links:
You will find great coverage of Friday's game using the Bucknell and Arkansas links on the right sidebar. Here are a few additional stories, too.

Soooie? Phooey, says Bucknell Dallas Morning News

No Free Ride for Lee, Just the Ride of His Life NY Times

Check Out the Big Brains on Bucknell LA Times

Upset? Only Arkansas fans Dallas Morning News

It's all Bad Patriot-News

Lee provides more late heroics Patriot-News

Lee gets grades, not scholarship checks ESPN.com

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It was Hog heaven in the stands, but Hog hell on the floor for the Arkansas Razorbacks, who never hit offensive stride against Bucknell's tough, physical defense.

There was barely an easy shot to be found for the Hawgs, who found Bucknell players in their face every time they touched the ball.

Ronnie Brewer, the Razorbacks' first-team All Southeastern Conference guard, was held to 14 points, well below his 18.5 ppg average, shooting just 3 for 9 from the field. Eric Ferguson, the SEC's sixth man of the year, suffered through a 2 for 7 game, not to mention the physical damage laid on him from a monster screen by Bucknell's Tarik Viaer-McClymont (more on that later).

As a team, the high scoring Hawgs shot 40.4 percent for the game, well below the 45.9 percent they shot all season, playing in what is considered to be one of the nation's top conferences. Their 55 points were almost 20 off their usual 74.3 percent pace.

"Our team did a great job," said Charles Lee, Bucknell's senior co-captain and the Patriot League's Player of the Year.

"It wasn't just me out there on Ronnie Brewer . . . It was a great team effort."

LEE AND KB FOR THREE: Looking for the offensive key to Bucknell's win. Start along the baseline, about 19-feet and 9-inches from the hoop. You'll find an arcing line painted on the floor that starts there. Follow it around the top of the key to a spot 19-feet, 9-inches away on the other side of the arc. The Bison won that game on that semicircle.

Bucknell shot a season-high 11 three-pointers, nine by seniors Charles Lee (4) and Kevin Bettencourt (5). The Bison went 11 for 21 at the arc, oustcoring Arkansas by 27 points there, negating the Razorbacks' 32-10 advantage in the paint.

"Three point is such a part of the game. Obviously we have some guys who can shoot the basketball around the horn. That is why it ended up being a little bit more on the perimeter. They were so strong physically on the inside. We took advantage of the situation, knocking them down," Bucknell coach Pat Flannery said.

That is not to say that Bucknell's big men were not plenty strong in their own ways. Almost every one of Bucknell's threes were the result of someone coming open off a screen, usually set by one of the Bison bigs.

"It was difficult getting around them. They were really big on cutting you off and screening hard," said Brewer, who was named to CollegeInsider.com's defensive all-American team.

"The big guys did a good job of screening for us and getting us open. It was a combination of us playing together with the screening of the big men, as well as people penetrating , having their heads up, and if the defense collapses, kicking it out," said Lee.

Without doubt, the biggest of those big screens came at the 8:35 mark of the second half from little used Bucknell senior Tarik Viaer-McClymont, who had just checked into the game after Donald Brown had picked up his fourth personal.

With Arkansas' Eric Ferguson in dogged pursuit of Bettencourt as Bettencourt made a run along the baseline, Viaer-McClymont stepped out to set a pick that flattened Ferguson like a blindsided quarterback, crumpling the Razorbacks' senior to the floor, where he laid for several minutes before getting up and limping off the floor.

"Tarik is a big physical guy," said Bettencourt, who drained the three to give the Bison a 46-38 lead. "he came right off the bench and laid that guy out."

SULTAN OF SWATS: Arkansas shotblocker Steven Hill was everything he was advertised, blocking four Bucknell shots in the first five minutes of the game to take control of the paint for the Razorbacks.

Hill didn't get another block the rest of the way, but he set the tone early in a game that saw Bucknell score only 10 points in the paint.

With Hill getting plenty of help from the rest of his team, Arkansas held Bucknell's 6-10 junior center from Germany, the Patriot League field goal percentage leader, to 2 for 6 shooting from the field and only 6 points, ending a streak of five straight double figures games.

McNaughton failed to reach double figures in only five other of the Bison's first 30 games. He also saw a streak of seven straight postseason double figures efforts end.

"They were playing two and a half people on (McNaughton) everywhere he went. They were even coming from the weak side of the lane to play him," said Flannery.

Flannery said the Bison were aware of Hill's reputation from the outset, and had gameplanned to account for his presence.

"We could drive the basketball, but instead of finishing inside, we wanted to kick it," Flannery said.

While Flannery was impressed by Hill's shotblocking ability, he was not as impressed with the officials who he thought missed a goaltending call on Hill's first rejection.

"The first one he swatted was in the cylinder, so I was really worried we were going to play European rules. McNaughton said that would be fun, but the rest of them didn't like it," Flannery said.

IN THE CLUTCH: How important was Bucknell's experience in tight games at the end of this one?

Very important, according to Flannery and Lee.

"It does wonders for you to be prepared for that," Lee said. "We know where we want to get the ball."

It was Bucknell's sixth win in seven games this season decided by 5 points or less, continuing what has been a trend since Bettencourt and Lee were freshmen.

"When we got to the two minute mark, the kids -- this senior class, we have probably had 8, 9, 10 overtime games and we've lost two of them, One to American when they were freshmen and to Northern Iowa. It's a group that has confidence when we get into that spot," Flannery said.

"It comes down to wills and the kids just don't quit."

REDEMPTION SONG: It would be tough to remember a game where Bucknell's Donald Brown struggled the way he did much of this one, especially on offense. Brown, who has been a spark off the bench at both ends of the floor all season, suffered through his worst offensive night of the season, going 0 for 6 from the field. Brown finished with 1 points, making one of two free throws he tried.

Brown has scored fewer points, taking a collar in three previous games. But in those three games, the 6-6 junior took a total of 5 shots.

But Brown helped the Bison in other ways, coming up with five rebounds, including a huge offensive board after Lee missed the front end of a one-and-one with 30 seconds to go. Brown also had a pair of assists, the biggest coming on Lee's layup that put the Bison back on top after Arkansas pulled even at 55-55 with 1:15 left to play.

"(Donald Brown) had some great plays down the stretch ... he really came through," Flannery said.

HEAR IT HERE: Postgame press conference audio, courtesy of Basketball U and the Daily Pennsylvanian:

Bucknell press conference

Arkansas press conference

THIS AND THAT: The Bucknell win ended a 19-game Dallas win streak for Arkansas, which had not lost in the Big D since 1998 . . . It's the second time in a row the Bison have won in the first round of the tournament, and it was Arkansas' third straight first round loss, a school record ... Arkansas' 55 points were a season low, three below their previous low of 58 against LSU . . . The Razorbacks' 2 for 12 three-point performance was their worst of the season . . . The win gives Bucknell a school record 27 victories for the season . . . Bucknell is now 20-1 in games in which they lead at the half . . . The Bison had only six two-point baskets all afternoon, just two in the second half.

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Two years ago, Abe Badmus might have been the last guy Bucknell wanted on the foul line with the game on the line. Of course two years ago, the thought that Badmus would be in that situation in a first round NCAA Tournament game also seemed far-fethced at best.

But that was who was on the line, and that was exactly the situation he was in when Badmus calmly stepped up and knocked down a pair of foul shots with 7 seconds left to seal the Bison's 59-55 win over Arkansas to advance to the second round of the tournament for the second year in a row.

The two free throws were the only shots Badmus took all afternoon. And they came after the team's two best foul shooters, Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt had both missed with a chance to make it a two possession game with the Bison clinging to a "slim 57-55 lead and 30 seconds to go.

To call it a clutch situation would be an understatement. Another miss would have given Arkansas a chance to send it to overtime with a three-pointer. Miss both of the two free throws, as Bettencourt had just done 20 seconds earlier, and a three would have won it for Arkansas, a two would have forced the tired Bison, who had two players with four personal fouls, to an extra five minute session.

Not to worry. Badmus, who set the situation up by coming up with a huge steal on the defensive end, calmly stepped to the stripe, took a deep breath, and hit nothing but twine on both shots.

Not bad for a guy who was just a 57.9 percent free throw shooter two seasons ago as a freshman.

"Going to the free throw line, all that really went through my head was trusting my muscle memory," said Badmus. "I have shot free throws all year, as has everyone on this team and every Division I player in the country. We all practice, Inside, outside, out of practice, in practice. It just came down to doing what I had to do, trusting my muscle memory and shooting the ball with confidence."

That confidence is the byproduct of hard work. Part of Badmus' improvement at the foul line came from a minor adjustment the coaches made to his stroke

Lots of it. When coaches talk about throwing a kid out of the gym, it usually means in response to screwing up in practice. In Badmus' case, Bucknell coach Pat Flannery throws him out to keep the Bison point guard from wearing himself out from working too hard.

"The credit has to go to him for the hard work," Flannery said. "He wears out our pitchback machine. He just wears it out. That is the only way you get better."

It wasn't always that way for Badmus.

"Coach puts everybody on the lane, puts me at the free throw line and makes me knock down a few. If I don't, we all run. I felt bad for my teammates last year because they ran a lot," Badmus said.

"This year, everybody trusts me now. It's something you have to keep working at and eventually it will come to you."

Badmus didn't put the ball up once the first 39:43 of the game.

"I was looking for my shot early on, but every time I got in the lane I just saw trees all around me. I really couldn't get it up, I had to dish it off," Badmus said.

Those dishes were often to wide open shooters on the perimeter, usually Lee and Bettencourt. Most of the time, the two Bison seniors made Badmus' passes pay off. Bettencourt was 5 for 10 from three-point range, finishing with 18 points.

Lee had an even bigger day. Going 7 for 12 from the field, 4 for 7 from the arc. As a team, Bucknell shot 11 of 21 from three-point range.

"We were just feeling it today. The bigs did a great job screening for us to get open," said Lee.

"They got a lot of big time shots. There wasn't much we could really do," Modica said.

Lee, the Patriot League Player of the Year scored nine of the Bison's first 11 points, helping to stake Bucknell to an early lead that it rode almost the entire game.

After Arkansas' Jonathon Modica, who led the Razorbacks with 19 points, scored the game's first bucket, the Bison went on an 8-0 run, 6 of the 8 coming from Lee. Bucknell led all but 44 seconds the rest of the game.

Time after time, when Arkansas would cut Bucknell's lead to a single point, the Bison defense would hold the Razorbacks scoreless until the offense could stretch the lead again. And while Bucknell's offense was hardly stellar -- they shot just 38.6 percent from the field -- every time the Bison needed a big bucket, they found it.

With 3:30 to go in the first half, Arkansas went on top 21-20 when Ronnie Brewer lost the handle trying to drive the right side of the lane, only to have the loose ball roll right to Darian Townes, who was alone under the basket after his defender went to help on brewer.

Townes' dunk gave the predominately red-clad crowd new life, but it lasted only 30 seconds, or as long as it took for Badmus to dish off a baseline drive to Chris McNaughton, who drained a 12-foot jumper in the paint to give the Bison back the lead.

Bucknell led 27-23 at the intermission, and stretched it to as many as 9 points in the second half before Arkansas battled back to tie the game at 55-55 on a pair of free throws by Modica with 1:15 to play.

At that point, Arkansas' press, which Bucknell had handled most of the game, seemed to be getting to the Bison. Matter of fact, the Hawgs nearly created a huge turnover on Bucknell's ensuring possession, when Donald Brown, with Brewer and Eric Ferguson collapsing on him for a backcourt trap, found Lee all alone under the basket for a layup with 1:01 to play that gave Bucknell the lead for good. Lee finished with 24 points to lead all scorers.

In the media room after the game, a frame by frame view of the sequence showed that Brown's pass came dangerously close to the 10-second limit teams have to cross midcourt. An isolated camera on the shot clock made it appear to come just after 10 seconds expired, but that clock is not the authoriative abriter of 10 second violations, an official making a mental count is.

The score stayed 57-55 for the next 54 seconds, with Bucknell coming up with stops on two Arkansas possesions, but unable to expand the lead when Lee, who was 6 for 7 at the foul line, missed the front end of a one and one and Bettencourt missed two after Brown tipped the rebound of Lee's miss to the backcourt, where Badmus chased it down to retain possession.

The Razorbacks got two chances to tie it on their next possession, with Vincent Hunter coming up with an offensive rebound after Brewer missed a jumper from the left side. But Badmus stole the ball from Hunter, was fouled, and that was all she wrote.

The No. 9 Bison will face top-seeded Memphis in Sunday's second round. The Tigers advanced by beating No. 16 Oral Roberts 94-78. Game time for that matchup will be determined later this evening.

Box score

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BUCKNELL 27, ARKANSA 23

Bison surrendered the first bucket of teh game, then used an 8-0 run to take a lead they held most of the half. Arkansas tied it once and led briefly, 21-20 on a fluke basket. But the Bison answered their next trip down the floor to retake the lead with a Chris McNaughton jumper from about 12 feet in the paint.

The pace is decidedly in Bucknell's favor, and Arkansas' attempts to press the Bison have gone unrewarded. Bucknell has had no trouble breaking it and getting the ball upcourt.

Bucknell's early lead has largely silenced teh sizable Arkansas fan contingent. They were briefly loud when the Hags tied the game at 17 on a pair of Ronnie Brewer free throws, and again when Darian Townes picked up a loose ball that rolled to his feet in the pain and jammed it home for the Razorbacks' only lead outside of the first two minutes.

First half notes and observations:

Arkansas' mascot, Big Red, is the skinniest hog since Pooh's friend piglet. Make an effort -- there is more to a mascot that a basketball uniform and a headpiece.

Bucknell got called for a shot clock violation around the 11:31 mark that had Pat Flannery up and questioning the call. The ball had hit the rim during the BU possession, but apparently the officials ruled it was off a deflected pass, not a shot, thus no reset.

Arkansas seven-footer Steven Hill has been the shot-blocker he was made out to be. Hill had four rejections in the half. He has also stayed out of foul trouble -- he has just one. That came on a dumb play at the top of the three-poinjt arc, when he got caught in a quickness mismatch on Bucknell point guard Abe Badmus.

Hill's only bucket of the half also on a mismatch. The Razorbacks caught 6-2 Jason Vegotsky trying to guard him down low in the Bison's matchup and threw an alley-oop over Vegotsky for an easy drop-in.

Donald Brown has been in an offensive funk in the first half, 0-3 from the field and two turnovers.

Charles Lee 4 for 6 from the field for Bucknell, 2-3 from the arc.

HALFTIME STATS:

Bucknell shooting 9-24, 37.5 percent -- 5 for 9 at the arc
Arkansas is 9-25, 1-7

Turnovers: Bucknell 9, Arkansas 8
Rebounds: Bucknell 16, Arkansas 14
Three guys with 6 each for Arkansas -- Modica, Brewer and Townes
For Bucknell -- Lee with 12, Bettencourt 6, McNaughton 1-5, 4 points

Points in the paint: Bucknell 6, Arkansas 16
points off turnovers: Bucknell 10, Arkansas 2
2 ties, three lead changes

Largest lead: Bucknell by 6 at 16:48

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Note: We will keep adding pregame notes to this post as the morning goes on, so check back often.

TICKET FRENZY: Tickets for today's games can be had, but bring your wallet. And make sure you have cash. Ticket brokers apparently don't take American Express, or any other credit cards.

That according to the scene at the concierge desk at the Renaissance Hotel this morning, where the concierge on duty reported tickets were going at steep prices. A guy in line just ahead of us when we stopped for a local paper was shelling out around $250 per seat, per session, for four in the lower bowl of the American Airlines Center.

LUCKY DAY?: Just a thought -- would you bet against an Irish lad named Patrick on March 17?

SOUNDBITES: Our friends over at Basketball U. have uploaded yesterday's Bucknell press conferences in mp3 format. To listen, point your browser to:

Charles Lee, Kevin Bettencourt, Chris McNaughton press conference

Pat Flannery press conference

ORANGE REPRESENTS: A healthy number of orange clad Bucknell fans in the building, but they will be far out-numbered by Arkansas red shirts.

A very unscientific survey during a quick lap around the plaza level concourse showed about 10 red shirts for every orange. That margin gets wider when you subtract the Texas fans who have come out for the first of today's two sessions.

WEARING OF THE ORANGE: Since last year's NCAA Tournament, Bucknell has not worn the orange uniforms often, opting for the traditional blues on the road most of the season.

But it looks as if the orange unis have been pulled out for this one.

Another win and the orange might become the subject of folklore, like Notre Dame's green football jerseys.

MUSICAL INTERLUDES: No stories this year about rented pep bands to add to Bucknell's underdog image. The Bison pep band is here in full force -- about 25 musicians.

In other spirit news, Bucky Bison will be played by marketing and promotions intern Ryan Burd, the guy usually seen running the timeout contests in Sjoka Pavilion and throwing T-shirts and other trinkets to the fans.

Burd reports Bucky's jersey has been repaired, so the long tear in the back needed to fit it over the top of the costume will not be as obvious.

Bison cheerleaders also on hand. Some schools split their allotted spirit squad numbers between dance teams and cheerleaders, but Bucknell has sent cheerleaders only. That, by the way, is a smart move.

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Scoreboards
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | Yahoo!

No. 9 Bucknell vs. No. 8 Arkansas (American Airlines Center, Dallas, Tx., 12:30 eastern, CBS):There has been a lot of talk about a clash of styles between Bucknell and Arkansas. For good reason.

TALE OF THE TAPE
Category	BU	Aub
PPG(O)	66.6	74.3
PPG (D)	55.3	65.1
FG pct.	.471	.459
FG pct. (D)	.389	.417
3 FG pct.	.389	.340
3 FG pct. (D)	.318	.374
FT pct.	.687	.694
RPG	32.3	35.0
R margin	+3.0	+0.1
APG	14.6	15.5
TOPG	14.7	13.4
Blocks PG	1.8	6.1
Steals PG	8.8	8.5
RPI	42	45
Grad. rate	100 pct.	<20 pct.

These two teams really only have two things in common: both are pretty good and both are in Dallas for the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Bucknell is the small, eastern academic school. Arkansas the power conference team from the south. It's abasketball version of Wall Street vs. Wal-Mart.

The Bison are control freaks. They like an orderly pace and conservative style, running through their halfcourt patterns on offense and sitting down in their tenacious match-up zone on defense, forcing the other team to out-execute them -- something few have been able to accomplish.

Arkansas has an illustration of a running Razorback hog on its jerseys, reminiscent in some ways of the old dribbling buffalo from Bucknell's Charlie Woollum Breakin' Bison era. They have the athletes and they like to turn them loose. They are at their best when the game is played at a breakneck pace, as evidenced by their 7-0 record in games where they score 80 or more points.

Bucknell is very athletic by Patriot League standards, but hardly a match for Arkansas on those terms. The Razorbacks are bigger, stronger, faster and better leapers. They will try to see to it that the game is played in a style that allows them to take advantage of that.

The Bison will counter by trying to negate that edge by playing smarter, looking to confuse the Hawgs' offense while wearing the Arkansas defense down mentally by relentlessly running their patterns until the Razorbacks make a mistake that they can capitalize upon -- leaving Chris McNaughton open in the post or one of the shooters alone on the wings.

To some, it might sound like a mismatch. To those who have watched Bucknell over the past two seasons, it looks quite different.

At the preseason media day gathering of Patriot League coaches, Ralph Willard talked about how he expected Bucknell to have a good chance of beating Kansas in last year's first round. The Holy Cross coach explained his reasoning. Bucknell's defense would keep them in the game, he said. If they could hit a few shots, they could win.

That same reasoning could well apply here. Arkansas is good. Maybe even very good. But the Razorbacks are not great. Certainly they would not be viewed as a better team than last season's Kansas five, which entered the tournament with a No. 3 seed. A lot of folks forget how good the Jayhawks' season was, choosing to remember only their quick exit from the dance.

This might be a good place to mention that Bucknell will start the same five guys who started that game, while Arkansas has nobody on the roster that has ever been to the dance.

The Razorbacks certainly are not the best team the Bison have faced this season. That honor would go to Duke or Villanova. Duke was the only team to actually blowout the Bison. Not that Bucknell would have won that game under better circumstances, but the lopsided nature of that one had a lot to do with the Bison's cross country travels and lack of preparation time,

Villanova blitzed the Bison early, but after the first 10 minutes Bucknell certainly held their own with the Wildcats.

Bucknell has shown over the past two seasons that it can play with the big boys -- maybe not the Top 5 types like the Blue Devils or Nova -- but certainly with most other major conference types. As Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon pointed out earlier this season, there is a huge drop-off after the Top 5, maybe even after the top 3.

Expect Arkansas to try to pressure the Bison, looking to create turnovers for easy buckets and to get the pace of the game up to a speed more its liking. If the Bison prove they can handle that pressure, they have a very good chance of advancing to Sunday's round of 32.

That will be the key to this one. Arkansas is long and athletic, and coach Stan Heath has certainly spent considerable time watching tapes of the Duke game, when the Blue Devils harassed Bucknell into 20 turnovers by trapping in the backcourt.

If Arkansas can have the same success, it could be a long afternoon for the Bison. On the other hand, if Bucknell has figured out how to handle that sort of press, they well could make their second straight appearance in the second round.

The Bison have worked hard on handling the press ever since that loss. How much they have learned remains to be seen. Nobody in the Patriot League has had the athleticism to press the Bison with any success. The few who have tried have all called it off quickly.

But those were quizzes. Today is an exam.
Bucknell notes | Arkansas notes | USA Today matchup | Bucknell Radio
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Before we wrap up a busy day in Dallas, a not on tomorrow's coverage.

We will start the day off with our usual preview look at the game, and will add any additonal pregame updates as warranted.

Due to NCAA regulations, which prohibited live accounts of tournament games on the Internet, we will not be able to post a live Gameblog. We will try to update at halftime, though, then will have a full report -- game story and notes-- following the game.

BATTLE OF THE BIG MEN: Arkansas coach Stan Heath knows his team will face a quality bug man in Bucknell's Chris McNaughton.

McNaughton, a 6-11 junior from Germany, has proven he can score against some of the best big men in the nation. Matter of fact, his showing playing for Team germany in last summer's World University Games proved he can score against some of the best in the world.

"(McNaughton) is a handful. He played very well in most of their big games," said Heath.

Nobody has been able to stop McNaughton playing him one on one all season, but it sounds as if Arkansas might try. Sophomore seven-footer Steven Hill averaged 2.81 blocks per game this season, second in the SEC. His total of 87 rejections give him 34 more individually than the Bison had as a team.

"I know McNaughton is going to be a handful to stop, but he is going to face a kid that relishes defense, relishes shot blocking, relishes shutting somebody down," said Heath. "If (McNaughton) does well, it is going to be because he earned it."

"I feel in some ways I've got one of the best defensive centers in the country on my team in Steven Hill. I'm hopeful he doesn't get in any kind of foul trouble."

There is part of the catch. Hill has fouled out five times this season and had four personals three other times. He has averaged only a little over 22 minutes per game.

That is not only because of foul trouble.

"We have tremendous size," said Heath, who has three other guys 6-8 or bigger in his rotation and a 6-9 freshman, Cyrus McGowan, who has seen limited minutes in 23 games, but has progressed to the point where Heath said he is not afraid to use him if he has to against the Bison.

"If there is one place on our team we have great depth, it is the frontcourt.," Heath said.

As high as Heath is on Hill, trying to stop McNaughton with one guy is a crap shoot at best. Villanove tried it and MCNaughton poured in 29 points. Against Duke, with Sheldon Williams and Josh McRoberts in the frontcourt, McNaughton scored 15. The big German also had 15 against Syracuse. Last season he scored 17 in the win at Pittsburgh and put up 21 on Saint Joe's Dwayne Jones, who was considered an NBA prospect. He also had 14 in the NCAA Tournament win over Kansas and 23 in the Bison's second round loss to Wisconsin.

HAWGS DO DALLAS: In an earlier post we wrote about Arkansas' traditional big following when the team plays in Dallas. Stan Heath even said the Dallas area has the highest concentration of Arkansas grads in the country.

Those loyal Razorback fans have seldom been disappointed by their team's showing in the Big D. Arkansas has won 19 straight games in Dallas, including one earlier this season against Bobby Knight's Texas Tech team in this same building.

The Hawgs' last lost in Dallas was in the 1988 Southwest Conference Tournament.

KEEPING IT CLOSE: Both teams have had plenty of close games this season. Arkansas has had 13 games decided by five points or less, going 6-7 in those games. Arkansas' six losses in the Southeastern Conference came by a total of 16 points.

The Bison have played seven games decided by five or less, going 6-1 in those. The lone loss was the double-overtime setback in the BracketBusters game at Northern Iowa.

DEFENSE THE KEY: We have already written about how important defense is to Bucknell. Here is another reason it will be a key in Friday's game. Arkansas is 5-4 in games in which it scored less than 70 points. The Razorbacks were 17-5 in games they scored more than 70.

When the Hawgs shoot below 40 percent from the field, they are 3-2. They are 11-7 in games they shoot between 40 and 49 percent; 8-0 when they make more than half their shots.

Bucknell has held six opponents under 30 percent shooting and 19 of 30 under 40 percent. In their last 63 games, going back to the start of last season, only five teams have scored more than 70 points on the Bison: Duke, Villanova (twice), Santa Clara and Wisconsin and Niagara last season.
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SCOUTING THE RAZORBACKS: Although much has been made of Arkansas' 6-1 record since inserting senior guard into the starting lineup prior to the Feb. 18 win over Florida, writers who cover he Razorbacks say you can expect Ronnie brewer to spend a lot of time running the point.

"If that match-up zone confuses people as much as they say it does, Ferguson would stand out there dribbling the ball until he pounded a hole in the floor," said one writer.

Brewer, a 6-7 junior All-America candidate, is more at home on the wing, but will likely bring the ball up the floor much of the time out of necessity. Arkansas apparently lacks a true point guard.

SCOUTING THE RAZORBACKS, PART II: After having some time to look at Arkansas on film, here's an assessment from some of the Bucknell players.

First, Charles Lee's take on the Arkansas backcourt: "They are a very good team, a very athletic team. They are very quick. They fly all over the place. Defensively we expect them to pressure us, something they do a great job of in the SEC.

"Guard wise, Modica, Ferguson and Brewer out on the perimeter is going to be tough. They really penetrate real well. They get it going from three, then you have to go out there and respect them out there as well. They are going to get in there, they are going to penetrate, then they are going to dish off to the big men, so it is going to be really important to limit their penetration, to be there on the catch , make them really earn everything they get."

Bison center Chris McNaughton also sized up the Arkansas big men: "What I have seen from the big guy, he is definitely a great force inside. He's a big guy, a shotblocker. People alter their shots and stuff. We have gotten ready for that. We definitely have to be strong inside, finishing hard. Thomas and Townes are two other big kids who are very athletic. They have some good moves inside. They can shoot a little bit and Thomas can take you off the dribble."

But despite the impression Arkansas has made on film, McNaughton said the Bison are not intimidated.

"They didn't invent basketball new or anything like that. We've seen stuff like that all year," he said.

TROUBLE BREWING:Brewer truly is a special talent. The son of Ronnie Brewer Sr., one of the "triplets" that led the Hawgs to a Final Four berth in 1978, where they finished third in the nation (they played a consolation game back then), leads the Southeastern Conference in scoring, averaging 18.5 points per game.

Most season honors get handed out after the season ends, but already Brewer has earned first team All_SEC recognition, as well as being named to CollegeInsider.com's Defensive All-America team.

Brewer has also earned first team NABC All-District 9 and first team USBWA All_District VII honors, putting him in the running for both organizations All-America teams. Brewer is also a finalist for the Wooden Award, presented to the college player of the year.

He is not the only CollegeInsider.com Defensive All-American the Bison will face this season. Also named to that squad were Randy Foye of Villanova and Duke's Shelden Williams.

Brewer has scored 15 points or more in 25 of Arkansas' 31 games and has 76 career double figures games.

"It is going to be a great challenge," said Bucknell co-captain Kevin Bettencourt. "He is an NBA prospect. He is big and athletic, he can do so many things. He is a special player."

MORE ON THE HAWGS: This is Arkansas first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2001, when they lost in the first round to Georgetown . . . This is the Razorbacks 28th tournament bid, tied for ninth-most in the nation . . . The team has actually only played in 27 tournaments, having been forced to pull out of the field in 1944 because of an auto accident . . . Ferguson, Brewer and Modica all all 1,000 point career scorers . . . In addition to Brewer's first team All-SEC honors, Modica was named to the all-league second team and Frerguson, who spent most of the season coming off the bench, was named the SEC's top sixth man . . . The Razorbacks have two wins over Top 10 teams, having beat Florida at home and Tennessee on the road.

HELP IS ON THE WAY: The Bison coaching staff has been down a man since arriving in Dallas yesterday.

Assistant Bryan Goodman did not make the trip on the team's charter, staying behind with his wife Amy following the deathMonday night of one of the couple's quadruplets.

But according to BU assistant Nathan Davis, Goodman is en route to Dallas via a commercial flight to be here with the team for Friday's game.

NOTE: We are also covering North Carolina State this weekend for Wolfpacker Magazine. We will have at least one more update on Bucknell and Arkansas after we get done covering the NC State press conference.
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NOTE: With our conncetivity limited to dialup thanks to the NCAA's exorbitant $30 per day charge for wireless, we will concentrate on original content and coverage from Dallas. While we will not be surfing the Web to find all the links we do during the regular season, we have added links to the media covering Bucknell and Arkansas to the right sidebar. We will update those links as needed to make sure Patriot League fans can easily find coverage from other sources to compliment Hoop Time's reporting.

An early theme here in Dallas is the possibility of a home court edge for Arkansas, which traditionally has drawn a lot of fans when they play in Dallas, dating back to the schools days in the old Southwest Conference, which annually held its postseason tournament in the Big D.

In those days, over 50 percent of the crowd would be decked out in red and calling the Hawgs.

Arkansas coach Stan Heath downplayed how much of a crowd advantage his team might have against Bucknell, pointing out all schools got the same ticket allowance and that most of the arena was sold out long before the pairings here were announced.

But fans willing to pay ticket broker prices can always find tickets, as Bucknell can remember from the number of Kansas supporters in Oklahoma City last year, which, like Dallas is for the Arkansas fans, was within driving distance. Many members of the Arkansas media contingent are expecting RV caravans to descend to paint Dallas red and cheer on their team.

"The state of Arkansas, they are in love with the Razorbacks," said AU senior Jonathon Modica during Thursday morning's press conference. "We've made their whole year."

"They are going to come out in numbers, all in red, calling the Hawgs," junior guard Ronnie Brewer added.

But Bucknell senior co-captain Kevin Bettencourt said the Bison are not worried about Arkansas having any homecourt edge.

"I know Dallas is not too far and I know they travel well. We have been on the road many times," Bettencourt said. "We have only played like 11 home games this year in a 27 game schedule, so we have been in a lot of different hostile environments.

" We have been to Duke. We have been to Syracuse. We have played in front of some places So if it is like a road game with all the fans Arkansas brings, we'll be ready to challenge it."

Ultimately, Bettencourt said, its is the players between the lines, not the fans in the bleachers, who will determine the outcome.

"It's the same game no matter where you are or who is in the stands. We'll be ready to handle it," Bettencourt said.

FAMILY MATTERS: Bettencourt's brother Ted, who played at Holy Cross, faced Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament in 1993, a first round game won by the Razorbacks 94-64.

With that history, Bettencourt said he knew all about the Razorbacks' tradition when he saw the match-up flash on the screen during Sunday's selection show.

"When I saw Arkansas (as BU's first round opponent) the first thing I thought about was that my brother played Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament back in 1993, that was my first reaction," Bettencourt said. "I know all the history of this Arkansas program, so I was real excited about that match-up."

Bettencourt said he is not worrying about settling any scores for the family.

"(Ted) didn't ask for any revenge. He just said to go out and do your best. He is not going to give me any added pressure, he knows how difficult this game is. He just told me, like we have all told each other, to just go out and enjoy the moment. The NCAA doesn't happen every day, so just enjoy it."

"But," added Bettencourt, "I am sure he would like it if we could get some revenge for him."

GETTING DEFENSIVE: A big topic of discussion during both the Bucknell and Arkansas press conferences was the Bison's defense in general, their matchup zone in particular.

Arkansas coach Stan Heath said he was impressed with what he has seen on film. He also is impressed by the Bison's national rankings in the top five for both scoring defense and field goal percentage defense.

Heath said a lot of times a team will have an impressive scoring defense number as a result of a slow, patient offense that limits possessions. But Bucknell's ranking in field goal percentage defense shows the scoring defense numbers are because of the way the Bison play D.

"Their defense probably doesn't get the credit it deserves," Heath said. "They are the only team in the country in the top five in both of those areas. That is special."

Responding to repeated questions from Arkansas media types, the Bison players and coach Pat Flannery explained what makes the BU defense so tough.

"The key to our defense is really being on the same page. We have a lot of guys who have been together a long time. We have learned each others strengths and weaknesses on both ends of the floor, especially on the defensive end. We realize who is going to need help in certain spots and we do a great job of helping each other out," said Bison senior co-captain Charles Lee.

"We might have some weaknesses here or there, but we get over that by playing great team defense. That is what makes our team," added junior center Chris McNaughton.

Flannery was quick to point out that his match-up is not some recent novelty that turned Bucknell into the winning team it has been the past two seasons.

"It's something that didn't come off the moon or out of left field. We have played it for a long time, at every place that I have been. It is something that has evolved over time. I've been in this business 25 years. We've played with it. We've tweaked it," Flannery said.

It also helps to have the right guys playing it.

"Don't get misconstrued, I've got some pretty good players that can keep you in front of them," said Flannery.

"The kids have been together for a while. They know each other and know where to cover for each other and where to react. As a result, when you are more confident, you are better at it. These kids believe in it and they play hard."

Added Lee: ""We have also gotten lucky and some teams have not shot the ball well. Maybe that is because we are always contesting shots."

Brewer said the Razorbacks plan is to get out on the break, beating the Bison down the floor when they get the ball.

"We are going to push the ball so they won't be able to get back and get set up in their matchup zone," he said.

Modica indicated he will take a similar approach: "I'm just going to get out and run. I'm just going to run and hopefully they will throw it up to me."

That is something Bucknell knows it needs to be prepared to stop.

"Their transition, obviously they are great athletes and players, so they get the ball up and down very quickly. We're going to have to find a way to cheat off of that so we can get back and give ourselves a chance to defend," Flannery said.

WHO IS THE UNDERDOG?: Despite the fact that Bucknell is the mid-major from the lowly Patriot League and Arkansas is the big name from the powerful Southeastern Conference, and the higher seed, the Razorbacks seem to be viewing themselves as the underdogs in Friday's game.

"I think the reason some people may think Bucknell is going to win this game is, for one, they have a solid, pretty good team.. At the same time, we haven't been on the national scene in a long time and this is our first time in the tournament in a log time. We haven't gotten on national teleivision a lot, so people haven't gotten a chance to see us play," Modica said.

"I think it gives our team extra motivation, because the first thing they said when they put the pairings together is they picked Bucknell, without even giving us a chance," added Brewer.

By "they", the Razorbacks were referring to some of the many national media folks who have been predicting a Bucknell win.

That is different than last year, when the Bison were such heavy underdogs against Kansas that most people just assumed the Jayhawks would win.

"It is a different role in the sense that we have been here, we've played. But the challenge isn't any different in playing an SEC team, or a Big 12 or an ACC. The challenge is still the same, to figure out a way to compete with their athletes, their ability and their play," Flannery said.
(Note: we will update with some more from the press conferences later this evening)
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We are finally connected here in Dallas, after a morning of technical glitches and righteous outrage at the thought of being charged $30 per day for a wireless Internet connection at the American Airlines Center.

Wireless was free last season in Oklahoma City, and is at most arenas throughout the season. Apparently the NCAA has caught the oil company mentality here in Texas, although at those rates, oil prices seem to pale in comparison.

That led to a lengthy hold time with an AOL customer service rep to upgrade to an unlimited dial up account.

Bucknell has finished its press conference and is in the midst of its shootaround at the American Airlines Center.

We'll have a full report on that and the press conference following the shootaround.

12:45 p.m. (Central)

Bucknell has completed its shootaround. Like last year, Pat Flannery ran the team through a series of light drills.

Fan favorite, Holland Mack, finished several drills with crowd pleasing dunks, including one where to took off from the foul line. One of Mack's finishes drew the ire of Flannery, who loudly chastised the senior forward.

Charles Lee and Josh lInthicum also threw down a fews dunbks, but most of the Bison were content to lay it in at the finish of drills like the classic three-man weave.

More to follow.
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Ran into Bison Club honcho Todd Newcomb and the rest of the BU athletic department staff at dinner, Newcomb reports all but four of Bucknell's 550 ticket allotment was sold to BU alums and season ticket holders.

Unlike last year, when several Kansas fans joined the Bison Club to buy tickets through BU, no Arkansas fans were allowed to do so this year. Newcomb said the four that were not sold to BU folks went to Memphis fans who did join the Bison Club.
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We had hoped to have some updates on Bucknell this afternoon, but thus far we have had no access to the team.

Their hotel is on the other side of town from the media headquarters, and we had planned to go over there this afternoon to try to catch some players and coaches. But the team had some sightseeing time this afternoon, after their charter arrived around 11:30 a.m. local time. That was to be followed by a closed workout at a local high school gym, then a team dinner, so we might not have any contact until tomorrow at the press conference.

We will update things as we can, still holding out some slim hope for something happening later this evening.

Since we left the Harrisburg area at 4 a.m. to catch our flight from Philly-to Houston-to Dallas, this might be pretty much written off as a travel day, with an early night to get rest for a busy day tomorrow.

There does not seem to be a lot of buzz in Dallas about the weekend's games, but that could be because we are isolated at a hotel in an industrial area and, other than the cabbie that shuttled us over here and the bellhops here, we have yet to really have any interaction with the locals.

There was not much in the Dalls Morning News, but they do have a special section planned for Friday.

as we mentioned, we will update as things worth posting develop, so check back often, especially beginning tomorrow when we will have coverage of both team's press conferences and a full set (or two, maybe even three) of notes.
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If you are a fan of Bucknell and Patriot League hoops, and find this site to be an important source of information, please consider helping keep the site alive and advertising free by making a donation to Hoop Time. No amount is too small or too large! Just click the Help Hoop Time button on the right --------->
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Still time to enter the Hoop Time Bracket Challenge page at go-native.com. The password for the Challenge is: hooptime
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The Bucknell team is leaving (probably left by the time you read this) Lewisburg at 7 this morning, busing to Harrisburg for a charter flight straight to Dallas.

Media travel is not quite that smooth. At 4 a.m., Eric Thomas of the Shamokin News-Item, Tom Housenick of the Daily Item, Jake Felix of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette and I piled into ET's jeep and headed to Philly, where ET, Tom and I were catching a 7:30 to Houston, with a puddle jumper from there to Dallas. Jake will arrive in Dallas almost the same time, despite leaving Philly a half hour later and traveling through Orlando.

Needless to say, that does not leave any time this morning for a full update. We've gone ahead and posted some generic links to sports sections where you should be able to find stuff on the game this morning. Most likely we will make that a standing feature somehow during the tournament, freeing our time to produce more original content.

For those who didn't discover Hoop Time until this season, or those who want to relive last year's Bucknell NCAA tournament experience, just hit the links under the "Deja Vu" heading below. Those will take you to the Hoop Time Archives. The archives are weekly, so you can scroll down through everything leading up to and including the Kansas game with the link labeled "Kansas." The "Wisconsin" link covers the Sunday game and aftermath.

Last year we were forced to leave Oklahoma City after the Kansas game to catch a flight back to Washington D.C. to cover the Holy Cross women's NCAA first round game in College Park, Md. on Sunday.

The final buzzer had barely stopped sounding. Donald Brown was popping his jersey. And our brother called my cell phone asking, "O.K., what's plan B?" There was no plan B. The commitment to cover the other game had been made before the decision to head to Oklahoma City and had to be honored.

Besides, if Bucknell lost, we'd have burned a long-time (and decent paying) freelance association, not to mention a check that was being counted on to help pay for the OKC trip. If they won, we'd catch up to them in Syracuse.

We left that women's game immediately after the post game press conference, scurried up 83 to York, Pa., where we knew the game would be on the local CBS affiliate, and watched the first half at Damons, then broke land speed records to get back home for the second half, writing the story from the women's game as we watched.

Our reservations are through Sunday night in Dallas.

We will try to swing by the team hotel later, with an report on the mood of the Bison and the Dallas atmosphere expected late afternoon or early evening, so be sure to check back.

The Bison are set for a press conference around 11:30 Thursday at the arena, followed by their public shootaround. Arkansas will also hold a press conference and shootaround, so we will get a chance to talk to Stan Heath and some players, and to see them on the floor a little.

For the most part, you cannot tell anything about a team from these shootaround sessions. These are more for the fans that the teams. Aside from stretching out and getting used to the shooting background, there is not a whole lot of work done. Last year, Pat Flannery ran the Bison through some light drills. Most of the teams in Oklahoma City didn't go that far. For most it was a short shooting session, then a dunking show for the fans.

Basketball will be the focus, and certainly the number one priority, but if Bucknell does things like it did last year, the players will also get some free time to explore the city.

"I promise you number one, the kids are going to have fun. They are going to enjoy it," Flannery said during Monday's conference call. "They are going to enjoy it every step of the way. They deserve it."

They also will likely hold a more serious practice at a local facility away from the American Airlines Center. Last year Bucknell was assigned a local high school gym.

Not sure where any of the other teams practiced in Oklahoma City, but we know most of them stayed in the downtown area, near the Ford Center. Bucknell, as a 14-seed, was assigned a Holiday Inn that was more motel than hotel, located several miles up an interstate on the outskirts of OKC.

This year, the No. 9 seed Bison are at Westin City Center on North Pearl St. in Dallas. Certainly sounds like an upgrade.

Flannery is happy with that seeding. In the conference call he said it was a compliment to the team and the league, mentioning the respect the Patriot League gained from the combination of his team's NCAA performance and Holy Cross' showing in the NIT.

"It shows you a little bit about your league and a little bit about the research they do," Flannery said.

At the same time, he quickly downplayed the team's seeding -- the highest ever to a Patriot League team, saying, "That was a nice honor, but its not going to get us a single point or a single rebound."

By the way, lost in all the tourney hoopla Monday, Bucknell finished the regular season ranked tops among "others receiving votes" in both polls.

And speaking of polls, want to know which coach voted Bucknell No. 13 in the final week (Joe Mihalich of Niagara), or which week Pat Flannery ranked his own team highest (19th in week 13 -- and his was not the highest ranking the Bison got that week, Saint Joe's Phil Martelli had them at No. 18 in week 13), check out USA Today's flash piecethat lets you click around to see each coach's ballot each week of the season.

That should keep you busy until we update from Dallas.

DEJA VU:

Kansas game

Wisconsin game

TALK HOOPS:

March Madness chat with Dallas Morning News college basketball writer Brad Townsend (2 p.m. Eastern)

ARKANSAS LINKS:

Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Hawg Illustrated

Arkansas Razorback Sports Network

BUCKNELL LINKS:

Daily Item

Eric Thomas' blog (Shamokin News-Item beat writer, posts his stories here)

Williamsport Sun-Gazette

DALLAS AREA PAPERS:

Dallas Morning News

Fort Worth Star Telegram

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Sad news today from Lewisburg.

In an update bulletin on the Patriot-News Web site, PennLive, Dave Jones reports:

Sophia Lale Goodman, the weakest of quadruplets born Jan. 12 to Bucknell assistant basketball coach Brian Goodman and his wife, Amy, died last night at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.

Dave last week wrote a very touching story on the Goodmans and the quadruplets. In that story he wrote of Sophia's fragile condition.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Brian, Amy and Sophia's surviving siblings.
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(Originally posted Mon. night at 11:13 p.m.)

When Bucknell coach Pat Flannery addressed a media audience during a conference call Monday afternoon, it was clear his team will have its work cut out for it Friday when it takes on Arkansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

His staff began breaking down the Razorbacks shortly after Sunday night's selection show, taking advantage of the video archives on the Arkansas Web site to get a look at the Hawgs while awaiting delivery of game tapes from a service that records televised games all season long.

TUESDAY MORNING READAROUND Bucknell leads tourney teams in graduation (Bloomberg News) Clash of styles awaits Bucknell (Patriot-News) Bucknell brandishes balance, experience (Ark. Democrat-Gazette) Bucknell takes Princeton plan, expands on it (Ark. Democrat-Gazette) Arkansas to meet Bucknell in NCAA tournament (Daily ITem) Bucknell getting plenty of attention now (AP) It's Hog Heaven For Razorback Fans (KTHV Little Rock) Bring on the Bison (Ark. Democrat-Gazette) This Isn't Kansas Anymore: (Hawg Illustrated) Heath happy about four years of improvement (Pine Bluff Commercial) Hogs Need To Be More Than Happy (Ark. Razorback Sports Network)

Even on a small screen, the Razorbacks made a big impression.

"We know we have our hands full with their athleticism. Certainly the league they play in is one of the best leagues in the country," Flannery said.

"They are long and they are very athletic. If you go in weak with stuff, they really can reach out and grab you and knock balls away, They get a lot of turnovers that way."

Long is coachspeak for all arms and legs. It goes beyond being just tall. It means having the kind of wingspan that allows a guy to play bigger than he is. And Arkansas is long.

The Razorbacks trot out a starting lineup with just one guy under 6-5. Their wings are the size of Patriot League big men, their big men taller than small trees.

Flannery said his team didn't know a whole lot about Arkansas yet. The staff was still putting together the full scouting report. When the time comes to share it with his team, they will know plenty.

"We have worked hard on them and will give them a lot on them," Flannery said.

That doesn't mean the players had not gotten a glimpse of the Razorbacks.

"So far from our tape and what our coaches have told us, they are going to be very physical. There's definitely some physicalness in there," said Bison senior co-captain Charles Lee, who at 6-3 will be giving up a couple of inches to almost any Razorback he is matched against.

"It is very early in the week, so preparation hasn't quite kicked in to full gear yet. From preliminary scout, we have seen that they are a very athletic team. We have noticed their defense. Offensively, they are going to really crash the glass and they have some great offensive threats in (Ronnie) Brewer and (Jonathon) Modica. The big boy down there definitely alters some shots. That is definitely something us guards, as well as the big men, will have to be wary of."

The "big boy" Lee referred to is 7-footer Steven Hill, a 248-pound sophomore who has blocked 87 shots this season. Hill has had a tendency to foul trouble. He is averaging only 22.3 minutes per game and has been disqualified five times. But the Razorbacks don't get a lot smaller when he sits down.

The starter at the four, Charles Thomas, is a 6-8 sophomore who averages 10 points and almost 5 rebounds per game. Darien Thomas is a 6-10 kid who comes off the bench after having started a dozen games. He has blocked 52 shots himself. For a little perspective, the entire Bucknell roster has blocked 53.

The Hawgs also bring 6-10 sophomore Vincent Hunter and 6-9 freshman Cyrus McGowan off the bench.

Modica is a 6-5 senior guard and second-team All-Southeast Conference pick who averages 16 points per game. He'd be the superstar on most teams, here he plays second fiddle to Brewer, the 6-7 All-SEC first team son of Ronnie Brewer Sr., who was one of Arkansas famed "Triplets" who led the Razorbacks to the Final Four in 1978.

A legitimate All-America candidate, Brewer averages an SEC-leading 18.5 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest.

"At times the Brewer kid is sensational. At other times he is just really good. He can score and has the pedigree. He's been a basketball player," Flannery said.

The only place the Bison matchup size wise is at the point where 6-0 Abe Badmus will take on Arkansas' Eric Ferguson, a 6-1 senior who moved into the starting lineup late in the season and seemed to be the thread that pulled the team together. After a 16-8 start, the Hawgs went 7-1 in their last 8 games, coinciding with when Ferguson was inserted into the first five.

Despite the Razorbacks' considerable size advantage, don't expect Flannery to try anything out of the ordinary when the Bison take the American Airlines Center floor Friday afternoon.

"You have to do what you do, what you have done during the course of the year, or you confuse your kids," Flannery said.

He might resort to some gimmicks in practice this week, like playing five on seven to try to simulate the way Arkansas plays the passing lanes and swarms on defense ("It's really hard to simulate," Flannery said).

But the last time Flannery tried getting cute was the Villanova game, when he started Donald Brown instead of Darren Mastropaolo, then second-guessed himself after the loss for letting the Wildcats dictate style.

"We'll play the way we've been playing," said Flannery.

That means relying in defense first. The Bison rank second in the nation in scoring defense, fourth in field goal percentage defense. Their matchup zone has been known to give opponents fits, especially teams who have not seen it before.

"People haven't shot the ball very well against us," said Flannery. "That is what happens sometimes. As far as what we do and how we do it, we have five guys that believe in it. We will put guys on the floor that will work hard on it. That kind of an attitude is what allows us to establish ourselves."

"We all buy into it. We all realize that is what gives us our best opportunity to win. Whether we play man to man or matchup or whatever, the main thing is we play good team defense," Lee said.

"We have a lot of returning guys, We have played a long time together. That doesn't just help offensively. Defensively, we all know what our strengths and weaknesses are and help each other out."

Another thing Bucknell has going for it is experience. While eight of Bucknell's top nine in the rotation were key players in last season's opening round upset of Kansas, none of the Razorbacks has ever been to the Big Dance. This is Arkansas' first bid since 2001.

"(Last year's experience_ is going to help us tremendous amount. Now we are used to this big stage. We have taken a lot from last year. Last year was last year. We recognize that. But I think we got a lot of confidence from that game and it is something that has carried over throughout the year," Lee said.

"It is really going to help us. We grew up from that experience and really handled being hunted all year. I'm just hoping that we come out and are relaxed, now that we have had a year to really see what it is like."

"Going into the tournament, the fact that they know how to travel, and we know what to expect as far as the media attention, how to handle that -- a couple of things we were on this year really helped us to be able to handle those kind of things, That part of it we can handle," Flannery said.

Another edge for the Bison could be the their road warrior mentality. While Arkansas didn't play on an opponent's floor until its conference season got underway, Bucknell has traveled all over the country, literally taking on all comers. Bucknell has wins at Syracuse and DePaul and played Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium a day after flying back east from two games on the West Coast.

"I've said all along, people make a big thing out of Kansas, and it was, it was historic. It was wonderful. But going up to Holy Cross, again, if you have ever been to Worcester, there's not a whole lot of people going in there to win ballgames. Going up there and winning on the road just took these kids and made them realize, and wins at Pitt and Saint Joe's, gave us a lot of confidence," Flannery said.

"Knowing that you have been in against some people like that helps to prepare you for anything that comes down the road. It doesn't mean you will always execute. But it does mean that you are prepared and you know physically what some people are capable of doing and you prepare in a certain way," Flannery said.

The Patriot League season helped, too.

"Our league isn't the exposure that you have down in the SEC, but we think going to places like Hamilton and Worcester prepare us during the year, plus our out of league schedule was tremendous as well," Flannery said.

"Things leading up to it will be things we can handle. It will come down to the ballgame."
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The Bucknell Bison continue to make Patriot League history, drawing a No. 9 seed for the NCAA Tournament (complete bracket), the first ever single digit seed for a league team. The previous best seed for a league team was a No. 13 drawn by Holy Cross in 1993. The Crusaders lost in the first round that season, dropping a 94-64 decision to Arkansas.

Ironically, the Razorbacks will be Bucknell's first round opponent at 12:30 p.m. Friday in Dallas' American Airlines Center. The other half of the Oakland Regional pod playing in Dallas the first two rounds is No. 1 seed and No. 16 Oral Roberts. The Bison would meet the winner of that game if they get past Arkansas in the first round.

Also playing in Dallas the first two rounds are four teams from the Atlanta Regional. No. 2 seed Texas will meet No. 15 Penn and No. 7 Cal will face No. 10 N.C. State.

While many will bemoan the seeding, which results in a second round game against a one seed, the Bison did draw the most favorable regional possible for the winner of that 8-9 game. Of the four No. 1 seeds -- Duke, UConn, Villanova and Memphis -- Memphis would appear to be the weakest. As an aside, the tournament seeding bears out the strength of Bucknell's schedule, having already played two of the four No. 1 seeds -- Duke and Villanova.

At the very least, a matchup with Memphis could be great fun for any Sojka Psychos who make the trip. The Tigers roster includes Kareem Cooper, who has been busted for marijuana possession and Andre Allen, whose rap sheet includes an arrest for patronizing prostitutes. John Calipari's team is full of great athletes, but it is very young and, at times, undisciplined. It might be interesting to see how it would handle Bucknell's

If the Bison were to win two games in Dallas, they could get a rematch with one of the ranked teams they upset last season. The winner of the Dallas pod would meet the survivor of No. 5 Pitt, No. 12 Kent State, No. 4 Kansas and No. 13 Bradley in the Sweet 16. Those four will play in Auburn Hills, Mich. in the first two rounds.

The other eight teams in the Oakland Regional are (6) Indiana, (11) SDSU, (3) Gonzaga, (14) Xavier -- four teams that will be in Salt Lake City the first two rounds, and (7) Marquette, (10) Alabama, (2) UCLA and (15) Belmont. The latter four start tournament play in San Diego.

Of course before thinking about Memphis, or a rematch with Pitt or Kansas, the Bison need to get past Arkansas, a team that upset Florida, Alabama and Tennessee during a six-game, stretch-run win streak that got the Razorbacks into the dance. ESPN's scouting report says Arkansas has good size, but does not rebound well and either does not shoot the three well or doesn't guard the arc (maybe a combination of both), having been outscored by 78 points from three-point range on the season.

It will be Bucknell's second time playing in Dallas for the tournament's opening round. In 1989, the then-Charlie Woollum coached Bison dropped a 104-81 decision to Syracuse in a first round game at Reunion Arena in Dallas. Bucknell has never played Arkansas.

READAROUND LINKS:

Arkansas to face Bucknell in NCAA Tournament (AP)

Bucknell earns ninth seed, will take on No. 8 Arkansas in opener (Daily Item)

Four Pa. teams go dancing (Patriot-News)

Hog Calls : Razorbacks happy to be at the Big Dance in Dallas (NW Arkansas Times)

Bison to provide tough challenge for Razorbacks (NW Arkansas Times)

Texas Two-step (Eric Thomas)

Previewing the Oakland Regional (Sporting News)

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(Update: The originally posted link to the Bison anthem had an error, but we missed it and did not get any e-mails reporting it until this afternoon. It has been corrected.)

A Hoop Time exclusive -- celebrate Bucknell's back-to-back trips to the Big Dance with the ultimate in BU jams --- the Bison Anthem by Bucknell senior forward and Bison fan favorite Holland Mack. Yes, it is the song they play as Bucknell takes the floor.
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We will know for sure what seed Bucknell will be when the field for the NCAA Tournament is announced this evening.

Until then, though, there is time for one last look at the cult of bracketologists on the Web.

Looking at the predictions, it is obvious this is not an exact science. It's more like hoops feng shui, with different "experts" all having a different sense of where to position the 64 teams to achieve the best basketball chi (there's a reason some folks consider bracketologists "ying yangs").

At Bracketology 101, the Bison are forecast as an 8 seed. So does Stewart Mandell at Sports Illustrated's Web site. That could be good news for Bison fans in Pennsylvania, since many forecasters expect UConn and Villanova, both anticipated No. 1 seeds (that is not rocket science) to be placed in Philadelphia for the first round. Where there is a one, there is an eight (and nine), so the chances of Bucknell being within driving distance of their fan base would look good in that scenario.

An eight or nine would also, theoretically, give Bucknell its best shot at a first round win. The downside is, it also would present the most difficult scenario in terms of making it further than they went last year, since any first round win would almost certainly bring one of those one seeds in the second round. In that scenario, it would most likely be UConn, since the committee does not allow first and second round rematches of regular season games and Bucknell has already played Villanova (that link, by the way, goes to a list of all the rules used in setting up the brackets).

Bracketology 101 does not predict actual matchups or first round sites, but they list Kentucky, UAB, Arizona and California as projected No. 9 seeds. Mandel goes further, placing the Bison in Philly against Cal in the first round, with UConn awaiting the winner (assuming they don't become the first one seed in history to lose to a 16 when they meet the play-in winner).

Greg Doyel, CBS Sportsline's bracketeer, also projects the Bison in an 8-9 game in the first round, though Doyel says as a No. 9 seed. Doyel does not project matchups or destinations, but his No. 8 seeds are Marquette, North Carolina State, Arizona and Northern Iowa. That would mean the Bison would likely meet one of those first three mentioned.

The guy most folks credit with starting this whole bracketology fad is ESPN's Joe Lunardi. Lunardi's latest prediction, posted Saturday, has Bucknell seeded 11th, and headed to Jacksonville to meet No. 6 seed Georgetown. Under that scenario, fans might want to use the day off between rounds to get a rental car and catch some spring training baseball before returning to Jacksonville for a second round game against the winner of Lunardi's projected (3) LSU - (14) Winthrop game.

For those who think Bucknell has a chance to get to the Sweet 16 this year, Lunardi's projections would have the Bison move on to Minneapolis where they would face the survivor of (7) Nevada (25-5), (10) Northern Iowa (21-9) (who wouldn't like to see that one again on a neutral floor?), (2) Texas (26-5) and (15) MEAC champ Delaware St. (20-12). Another win and the Bison could get a rematch with Villanova with a trip to the Final Four to the winner.

Maybe Lunardi is on to something. Or maybe the guys at Bracketography.com were looking over his shoulder while he was filling out his bracket. Bracketography also projects a Jacksonville meeting between the (11) Bison and the (6) Hoyas. All similarities end there, though. Bracketography would have the winner of the game meet the winner of (3) UCLA and (14) NW State, the Southland champs, en route to the Oakland, Calif. regional.

Also placing Bucknell as an 11 in the Oakland regional is FoxSports.com's Michael Lazarus, who includes the comment: "Syracuse win wound up looking good after all."

Lazarus has the Bison in Dayton the first round, with the (2) Ohio State-(15) Davidson winner awaiting if they get past (6) Arizona.

Somehow Jacksonville holds a special fascination for the bracketology gurus. Bracket Racket also has the Bison playing there as an 11, though they project Michigan State as a first round opponent, with the Washington, D.C. regional in the sweet 16 should the Bison get past the (3) LSU - (14) Pacific winner.

And then there's Bracket Express, the bracketology page of the Draft Express Web site. They also have Bucknell headed to Jacksonville. The difference there is, they say the Bison will be a No. 12 seed, meeting No. 5 Boston College in a first round game that will certainly have all the Holy Cross fans on Bucknell's side.

Like Bracket Racket, Draft Express has the Bison in the D.C. regional if it advance to the Sweet 16. To do that, they say the Bison would need to beat winner of (4) Florida and (13) South Alabama.

Of course all speculation will end this evening at 6 p.m., when the real experts pick the real field and set the real matchups.

As an aside, we will once again hold the Hoop Time Brackets Challenge. The site we used for last year's contest is defunct, so we are still searching for the best option for hosting the contest. We will announce details Monday.
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Bison finish 17-0 run through Patriot with win over HC

(Originally posted Friday at 8:51 p.m., links added at 8:11 a.m.)

There are no nets hanging in Sojka Pavilion. What was left of them after Bucknell's shooters scorched them in the second half of the Patriot League Championship game were cut down by the celebrating Bison following their 74-59 win over visiting Holy Cross.

Available on a cool T

It was the second year in a row Bucknell got to break out the scissors. No one is certain, but it might have been the first time they ever cut down the nets at home. The three other times in modern history that Bucknell won its league tournament title it happened on someone else's floor,including last year when they won the title on Holy Cross' home floor in Worcester.

"I can't say it was different than doing it up there because for me, as a coach, it was my first time doing it and I will never forget it," said Bucknell coach Pat Flannery. "But being an alum, it was especially gratifying."

And it was special for the orange clad crowd of 4,110 that filled Sojka Pavilion, with the obvious exception of the 400 or so Holy Cross fans who made the trip. The Bison student section chanted "Undefeated" as the clock ran down, then stormed the court in celebration of the Bison's unprecedented 17-0 run through the conference regular season and tournament.

That such a celebration would take place began to be apparent early in the second half. Buoyed by a momentum-boosting three-pointer by Kevin Bettencourt that sent the Bison to the locker room at intermission with a 42-38 led, Bucknell came out and took control with an early 15-2 run, holding the Crusaders without a basket for a stretch of over seven minutes

"The start of the second half, defensively we were able to adjust to some of the things they did in the first half," said Flannery.

Bucknell also picked it up a little on offense, too. After a solid 46.9 percent shooting effort before the break, the Bison came out and hit 61.1 percent (11 of 18) in the second half. It started with center Chris McNaughton, who was forced to sit the final seven minutes of the first half after picking up three fouls. Leading 45-42, the Bison went to the 6-11 junior two straight trips down the floor, quickly extending the lead to 49-42.

"(The first half foul trouble) just made me more aggressive coming out in the second half. It kind of motivated me," said McNaughton, who finished with 14 points of 7 of 9 shooting.

After a Kevin Hamilton layup stemmed the tide temporarily, Bucknell scored 11 unanswered points, including five by reserve forward Donald Brown, who overcame a 1 for 5 start to finish with 14 points. All five came courtesy of drives by BU point guard Abe Badmus, who beat his man off the dribble and dished to Brown when the Holy Cross big men came to help.

By the time Holy Cross' Keith Simmons stopped the run with a long three that cut Bucknell's margin to 65-50, it was pretty clear the Crusaders would not be staging any miracle comeback like the one that almost overcame a big Bucknell lead in last year's championship. Not with point guard Torey Thomas sitting on the bench nursing an ankle that he turned badly in the first half and Simmons and Hamilton running on fumes after being forced to play yeoman's minutes to make up for Thomas' absence. The Crusaders never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.

"Once Torey went down, it was, as Yogi said, deja vu all over again," said Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard, whose team has battled enough injuries to script a season of ER this year. The guy who would have came in for Thomas, Pat Doherty, has not played since early in the season due to a foot injury. Simmons and Hamilton have both battled an assortment of ailments all year. Adding insult to injury, Hamilton lost a thumbnail in the second half to boot.

"It was Murphy's Law," said Simmons. "When Torey went down, I shook my head. I said, 'Oh no, this can't happen again. Not now."

Thomas tried to play through it, but by the time Badmus beat him off the dribble for those two dishes to Brown, it was obvious he was not able to help. Thomas sat and watched the final seven minutes of the game.

What Thomas saw was a textbook example of a deeper, more physical team wearing down an opponent. By the end, when Simmons came out with 1:43 to play, he had run out of gas.

"We just kept working them, making Hamilton and Simmons play defense and they got tired," said Bucknell's Charles Lee, who added the tournament MVP trophy to his collection of post season honors. Lee finished with 16 points.

Bettencourt led all scorers with 23, including six three-pointers. Always a streaky shooter, the senior from Salem, Mass. hit the first trey he took and never stopped hitting them.

"He is always dangerous because if you give him an opportunity to shoot the basketball, he is going to knock it down," said Willard. "He is a senior. He is going to make big plays."

McNaughton was the fourth Bison in doubles, scoring 14 points on a 7 of 9 shooting night.

Hamilton led Holy Cross with 20 points, playing all but a minute of the game. Simmons, who Willard had planned to get significant rests by subbing for him around the long TV timeouts, ended up playing 38 minutes, finishing with 19 points. Tim Clifford also reached double figures for Holy Cross, scoring all of his 10 points in the first half, eight of them at the foul line, where he was perfect.

Foul shooting kept Holy Cross close in the first half. The Crusaders went to the line 20 times before the intermission, making 17. After the break they shot only five free throws in what can only be called an extremely inconsistently officiated game.

NOTES: The loss was the first ever as a No. 2 seed in the Patriot League Tournament for Holy Cross, which twice won the championship as a two seed, including in 1993 when they beat Bucknell in the Bison's old Davis Gym . . . HC was 8-0 as a two seed coming in . . . The win was Bucknell's fourth in a row over HC, dating back to last year's final, and their fifth in six games . . . Lee became the first player in league history to win back to back tournament MVP honors . . . He is the seventh player to win regular season Player of the Year and Tournament MVP in the same season.

Box score

Gameblog

All-Tournament team and MVP

Bucknell notes

Postgame quotes

AP story

Eric Thomas

Daily Item: Game story | Sidebar

Boston Globe

Boston Herald

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All-Tournament team

Keith Simmons (HC)
Kevin Hamilton (HC)
Charles Lee (BU)
Kevin Bettencourt (BU)
Chris McNaughton (BU)

Tournment MVP -- Charles Lee, Bucknell
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25 minutes (give or take) till tip off
Reports of the Bucknell student section's demise have proved premature. The Psyhcos are here, and they are already loud.

Chants of "This is our house" and the call and reply "'Ray" "Bucknell" have been going on for about 20 minutes now.

Despite spring break, Holy Cross has mustered about a dozen musicians for a pep band. But the color purple is definitely in the minority here. This is a very orange crowd.

The officials just came out. Surprise, surprise, no Rich Giallella.

Last word on start time from ESPN was to expect a 4:45 tip. One of the facts of mid major life is that you don't get to start your championship game until the ACC finishes the quarterfinal game being shown just before your game, in this case Wake Forest and North Carolina State.

5 minutes till tip
The students in the section behind the bucket HC will shoot at first are equipped with long, tubular, blue and orange balloons, which they are already waving enthusiastically, even before any Crusaders have gone to the free throw line.

About the only Bucknell fans not wearing orange are a bunch of Blue Man Group imitators in the stands at the north end.

Among the signs:

Holy Cross' Last Crusade

Bucknell Bison Patriot league,uNdefeated

We must protect this house
and the usual ESPN variations designed to get the holders their 5 seconds of fame.

And in the Holy Cross student section, one with a picture of a buffalo saying "Endangered Species"

They did a countdown to air time on ESPN, and when they hit zero, this place was nearly as loud as it was when McNaughton finished a fast break with a dunk during the semifinals win over American

Bucknell 7, HC 7 (15:54 first)
HC a turnover on its first possession, a Thomas carry
Bucknell with three offensive rebounds on its first, but can't convert

Tim Clifford's first personal comes at the 17:20 mark. The 'Saders cannot afford for him to get in foul trouble

McNaughton, hedging a screen at the top of the key, gets a steal when Thomas loses the handle and takes it in for a huge slam, hanging on the rim long enough for Clifford to beg the refs for a technical. None is called.

HC is shooting 75 percent (3-4). Bucknell is 3-8 (37.5 percent), most of the misses on that first possession. McNaughton 2 for 2, 4 points for BU

Bucknell 17, HC 14 (11:40 first)
A handful of empty seats in the HC section, otherwise this place is pretty full.
Vander Baan picks up two fouls in the space of 20 seconds. Not good for HC.

Torey Thomas just came up limping after missing a layup trying to drive on Badmus in transition. Another bad omen for HC?

Team fouls stand at HC 6, BU 4 ... both starting power forwards -- Vander Baan and Mastropaolo with 2 each

Bucknell 17, HC 17 (11:18 first)
Officials check the TV monitor on a Hamilton shot at the 11:18 mark to see where his feet where. They rule it a three-pointer, tying the score at 17-17.

So far HC's big men are 2 for 5 from the field. Bucknell's bigs are 3-5, with McNaughton accounting for all three makes and four of the shots.

Bucknell 27, HC 21 (9:08)
Thomas is back in but the ankle looks tender. He is moving very gingerly

Vander Baan gets his third personal at the 9:43 mark. Donald Brown makes the free throw to convert an old-fashioned three-point play.

Bison on a 7-2 run

Bucknell 29, HC 28 (7:52 first)
McNaughton's second personal comes on a horrible call by an official who called it on the wrong guy. Even if he had called it on Donald Brown, it would have been a bad call, since all Brown touched was the ball and the officials was on the far side of the court, completely screened. Maybe he has x-ray specs?

Minutes later an equally horrendous call on Lee when the officials first miss the jump ball when Mastropaolo ties up Clifford, then misses the travel as Clifford tries to get out of the double team.

Hard to believe these guys are the best the Patriot League can muster. But with Big East and ACC Tournaments underway, as well as A-10 ... the cream of the crop is elsewhere and we are stuck with these guys.

Bucknell 34, HC 34 (3:46 first)
McNaughton gets his third personal around the 7:15 mark. Clifford is living at the line without even being at all aggressive going to the basket. He has shot 6 free throws, making them all.

The officials are keeping Holy Cross in the game. They have already shot 14 free throws, making 13. Bucknell 5 for 5 at the line.

It's curious, given that HC has mostly been shooting jumpers while Bucknell is aggressively attacking the hoop.

So much for defense, eh? The Bison shooting 44.4 percent from the field, the Crusaders 45 percent

Bucknell 42, HC 38 (halftime)
It is becoming a habit in Sojka, big Bucknell buckets at the buzzer of the first half. This time it is Bettencourt, who drains his fourth trey of the half to send Bucknell to the break with momentum.

The cheers as the Bison leave to floor quickly turn to a much-deserved chorus of boos as the officials follow out the same corridor.

By the way, the guy who made the phantom call for McNaughton's second was John Hughes. Jeff Plunkett has certainly not distinguished himself with the whistle in the first half either.

In the first half, Bucknell called for 13 fouls, three each on McNaughton and Mastropaolo. Tim Clifford has been to the line 8 times and has made all 8. Overall, HC is 17 for 20 from the stripe in the half.

Bucknell has shot just 6 free throws, making 5. Vander Baan with three personals for HC. Hamilton with two, nobody else withg more than 1 for the Crusaders.

Hamilton with 12 points to lead HC, Clifford with 10.

For Bucknell, Lee and Bettencourt each with 12, McNaughton with 8 before sitting the last 7:17 of the half with three fouls.

Bucknell shooting 15 of 32 from the field (46.9 percent), 7 for 12 from the arc.
Holy Cross 9 for 21 (42.9 percent), 3-8 at the arc.

HC has 10 turnovers, BU 5. Rebounds 18-13 HC.

Riddle me this: How can the team with 14 points in the paint have shot just 6 free throws while the team with 6 points in the paint has shot 20? The answers: Jeff Plunkettt, John Hughes and, to a much lesser extent, Billy McCarthy.

At one point, Kevin Hyland shot two free throws with a foot on the foul line, and no call.

Almost makes you miss Giallella.

To Bucknell's credit, they have played through all that.

Bucknell 49, HC 42 (14:36 to go)
Lee on a breakaway is grabbed by Simmons, right in front of Hughes, negating a breakaway and no intentional foul call.

McNaughton with two buckets already in the half, he now has 12 points. Lee with a trey has 15 now.

Holy Cross turned it over its first two possessions, then got buckets from Simmons and Hamilton to cut it to 45-42 before McNaughton's two buckets.

Bucknell 54, HC 44 (11:52 to go)
D. Brown's dunk off a baseline drive and dish from Badmus gives Bucknell the first double digit lead of the game. It followed Bettencourt's fifth trey.

Bucknell 56, HC 44 (11:27 to go)
Brown's dunk brought an HC 30 sec. timeout. On Bucknell's next possession, the ran the same thing, with Brown laying it in and drawing a foul on Clifford.

Bucknell 57, HC 44 (10:04 to go)
Give the refs credit, they are bad both ways. Vander Baan's fourth comes on a ticky-tack call in the backcourt after a BU rebound. These guys are not just bad, they are inconsistent. Team fouls stand at 4 for HC, 1 for BU now.

All-tournament team ballots have been distributed on press row. My ballot has Hamilton, Simmons, Lee, Bettencourt and McNaughton. Tournament MVP I won't fill in until the game is decided.

Bucknell 58, HC 44 (7:53 to play)
Turnovers re killing the Crusaders. They now have 18 in the game, 8 this half.

Simmons just picked up his fourth personal, three in this half. Team fouls now at HC 6,BU 1.

Brown now in double figures for Bucknell, the fourth Bison to reach double digits.
Brown has 10 on 4 for 9 shooting after starting the game 1 for 5.

HC shooting percentage down to 37.5 percent (12-32), they are 3 for 11 this half.

Bucknell 66, HC 53 (3:27 left)
Simmons stays in with four, what choice does Willard have? He drains a three to end an 11-0 Bucknell run, but Brown answers at the other end to keep the lead at 15.

Brown's second personal, at the 6:48 mark, is just Bucknell's second team foul. Some consistency eh?

Thomas spending a long stretch on the bench. Must be the ankle.

HC using threes to stay in the game, two by Simmons and one by Kyle Cruze since Bucknell's run. But they are trading baskets. Bucknell is now 9 for 16 in the second half and is shooting 24-48 (50 percent) for the game.

Bucknell 72, HC 57 (1:32 left)
HC gets it down to 11, only to see Bettencourt convert a 4-point play on a made three and one with the shot clock running down. What did Jeff Jones say about his threes being like daggers.

My Tournament MVP ballot: 1) Lee, 2) Hamilton, 3) McNaughton ... they have no room for honorable mention, but if they did it would go to Simmons, who has played like a warrior this afternoon. He just came out after falling while trying to chase down a BU fast break. Looked like he had nothing left to give.

Bucknell 74, HC 59 (FINAL)
Bucknell lets the shot clock run out on its last possession as bedlam breaks out in Sojka. Definitely the loudest moment of a loud season here.

The Pscyhos storm the court and no criticizing it this time, after a championship game, it is fitting.

Bucknell finishes the game shooting 52 percent from the field, 26 of 50, including 10 of 18 from the arc.

Championship hats already on the Bison player's heads.

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No. 2 Holy Cross at No. 1 Bucknell, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2): So whaddya know, here we are again. As Yogi would say, it's like deja vu all over again.

For the fifth time in as many years, and the 10th time in the league's short 16 season basketball history, Bucknell and Holy Cross meet in the Patriot League Tournament. No two other teams have met in the tournament more often. Bucknell holds a slim 5-4 edge in the previous nine playoff meetings between the two.

It's the second straight year, third overall, the Bison and the Crusaders will meet in the final. The other time was in 1993, when Holy Cross came into old Davis Gym and knocked off Bucknell for the crown. Last year the Bison returned the favor, winning in Worcester.

Given the history, it comes as no surprise that these two are meeting in the postseason. They have done so six of the past seven years. Matter of fact, almost anybody who doesn't wear brown and yellow expected this game to be played on March 10 since before the first ball was thrown up back in November.

The storylines abound here. HC's Kevin Hamilton and BU's Charles Lee, the two best players in the league, and two of the best in the history of the league, meeting in their final league game. The mirror image point guard matchup between Bucknell's Abe Badmus and Holy Cross' Torey Thomas. The two coaches with the most career PL tournament wins in the Bison's Pat Flannery (15) and the Crusaders' Ralph Willard (12). The only two teams in league history to win a postseason game. The league's two best defenses. Kevin Bettencourt of Bucknell facing his big brother's old team.

It's pick an angle, any angle.

For all the similarities, though, there are some very big differences. Differences between the two teams. Differences between this year's scenario and years past.

In those two previous title bouts, the two teams came in very evenly matched. In both cases they split the regular season series and in both cases, on paper, they looked very close.

You'd have had a difficult time making an unrebuttable case for either team in both of those years. Holy Cross fans like to paint last season's Bucknell win as a big upset, hanging their hats on the Crusaders' better regular season record, especially in conference play, where Bucknell finished 10-4 to Holy Cross' 13-1. But those two teams were not three-games apart. Matter of fact, throw out Bucknell's little midseason swoon, which happened to coincide with the absence of both the team's head coach and the loss of its starting power forward, and it is not hard to argue Bucknell had the better regular season, with wins at Pitt and at Saint Joe's.

Those two teams were very close. Aside from the game being played in Worcester, it was hard to assign either a significant edge. They were the same way back in '93.

Holy Cross fans point to both games as sources of inspiration. The '93 game proves they can win at Bucknell, they argue, last year's game proves a road team can win in the final.

The differences, though, are too big to ignore. Bucknell is deeper, more experienced, better in the frontcourt and healthier in the backcourt. The Bison are, as their record, including a sweep of the regular season series, shows, quite simply the better team.

Those purple faithful like to point to the second of those two games, a come-from-behind 57-52 Bucknell win in Worcester, as evidence that they are capable of playing with Bucknell. A more realistic interpretation would be that it was a game that showed Bucknell could beat HC in its own building, even when the Bison did not play at the top of their game.

On top of that, they are playing in their own building, which will be packed with over 4,000 fans, 90 percent of whom will be doing their utmost to be bad hosts. Its a building where the Bison lost once all season -- to No. 2 Villanova, a building where they have won 26 in a row against other Patriot League teams.

No sense getting into discussions about what if Pat Doherty didn't have that bad foot, or what if the rest of Crusaders had been healthy all season. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. None of that matters here.

There is no doubt Bucknell is the better team this year. That has been established. Matter of fact, they have proven themselves to be the best team in league history. Pick a team, any team, from the league's past or present, this Bucknell squad would win at least 7 or 8 out of 10, even if you play 5 on each team's floor.

Does that mean Bucknell can mail this one in? Of course not. Holy Cross is a good team, with some extraordinarily good players. In this era of the three-point shot, almost anybody can pull off an upset if they can enough treys. The Crusaders have guys who can shoot the rock, and they play tough defense that ought to keep them in the game. It would be an upset. A big upset. Maybe the biggest in league final history. But it is not out of the question.

It's just that for Holy Cross to pull off the upset, it will have to play a near-perfect game and hope that Bucknell does not bring its A game.

Don't believe us? Then ask Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard. In his latest post over at CoachRalph.com, Willard puts it like this:

We have no margin for error, as Bucknell is too deep, too talented and too well coached for it to be otherwise.

There are those who would tell you all the pressure is on Bucknell. It is hard to see how that is the case. Bucknell already knows this won't be its last game. As regular season champions, they are guaranteed no less than an NIT berth, and most supposed experts are saying the Bison make the Big Dance even if the stumble in the final.

Holy Cross, as Willard said, has no margin for error. For the Crusaders, a loss means time to get out the golf clubs. Their only chance of postseason play is by beating Bucknell.

Even if it is the other way around, Bucknell has a veteran squad that has faced adversity and tough opponents all season long and has shown a knack for handling the pressure of close games in hostile environments. The same five that will start Friday's game started against Kansas last March in Oklahoma City.
Bucknell notes | HC notes | Eric Thomas preview | Boston Herald preview | Tom Housenick column (Daily Item) | USA Today matchup | HC radio| Bucknell Radio

BONUS READS:

Bettencourt, Bucknell eye the big dance (Salem (Mass.) News)

Time Out (Emotional story on the Goodman quadruplets by David Jones of the Patriot-News -- you might need a tissue for this one)

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(Originally posted Thursday night at 10:12 p.m., links added at 7:15 a.m.)

Breaking news out of Easton. According to the Lafayette athletics Web site:

Lafayette trustees have unanimously approved a revised financial aid policy for student-athletes as part of a broader plan to strengthen the College's intercollegiate athletics program within the Patriot League and to support the College's overall academic mission.

According to a release on the Lafayette athletics Web site, basketball scholarships will begin eith this year's recruiting class. Men's soccer and women's field hockey are also to get scholarships starting with next year's recruiting classes.

The Leopards will offer three basketball scholarships per year, with a maximum of 12 total once the program is fully phased in.

Express-Times

Morning Call

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Bucknell's Charles Lee, who last week won the Patriot League's Player of the Year award, has added more honors to his lengthy resume. The three-time All-Patriot selection has been named to College Insider'sMid-Major All America team.

Lee also won College Insider's Patriot League POY honors, echoing the award he was given by the league's coaches last week. Bucknell coach Pat Flannery earned the site's Patriot League coach of the year honors and Holy Cross senior Kevin Hamilton was named College Insider Patriot League MVP.
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According to Bucknell officials, a "very limited number" of tickets will be available at Sojka Pavilion for Friday's Patriot League final between Bucknell and Holy Cross.

Those tickets, which were returned unsold by Holy Cross, will first be made available to students earlier in the day. The remainder will go on sale to the public at 2:30 p.m. at the Sojka box office.

There had been reports of about 200 student tickets going unclaimed by BU students who had been selected at random to receive tickets paid for by the University prior to the start of the tournament. Those reports were accurate, Bucknell officials said, but those tickets were snapoped up in a matter of hours Wednesday night after an e-mail was sent to the student body offering them to any students in need of tickets.
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If you missed Wednesday night's chat with Charles Lee, here is a transcript of that session:

Hoop Time: We are joined in the room by three-time All-Patriot League selection and this year’s Player of the Year, Charles Lee of Bucknell.

Hoop Time: Welcome to our second Hoop Time Chat Charles, thanks for joining us.

CL3: Thank you for having me

Hoop Time: Charles, I noticed you and Andre Ingram seemed to have a friendly greeting before the game Sunday. Are you two friends off the court? Are there any other Patriot League players you are friendly with off the court?

CL3: Actually him and I are not really friends off the court but we do have such a great relationship on the court. I have a lot of respect for him and think that he is such a great player and competitor. I think the same way about a lot of other guys in the league as well.

CL3: I think that when I leave though I want to keep in touch with some of the guys that I have gotten to know in the league.

Hoop Time: How is your off court relationship with the HC guys?

CL3: I get along well with those guys too. I think that a lot of it is the whole respect thing again. I think that they are great guys who just go out there and play and don't really run their mouth a lot. They are a bunch of classy guys who leave it out there and really play between the lines.

Hoop Time: You are graduating, you won't see the other teams again. Who does run their mouths?

CL3: HAHA. Even though I am graduating I don't want to start any team wars. I just think that it should be known that there are some teams out there that do a lot of jawing. I will just leave it at that.

Hoop Time: In high school, you played in all-star games in DC and Montgomery County and went to the Five-Star camp. Who was the best guy you played against in those high school days?

CL3: Though I played against a lot of great players in my day. I would have to say that the guy that gave me the toughest time was Jarret Jack. We played against each other all the time in AAU and he always seemed to have my number but I did manage to get him here and there. I was glad though in my senior year that we got to play along side each other.

Hoop Time: Why did you not wear the all-white sneakers for the quarterfinal match-up with Army? I saw you went back to them for the American game.

CL3: The truth is that they were supposed to be just filler shoes until the coaches were able to order some more team shoes. While I had them though I started to play pretty well and they were so comfortable. Then I got the nickname "Whiteshoes the Entertainer" which I kind of liked. I tried to change it up for playoffs but the other shoes just weren't working for me.

Hoop Time: Who are some of the guys that helped you grow from your freshman year into the player you are now? And along the same line, What former BU player influenced you the most?

CL3: I think that it is a combination of people that helped me out. I think that most of all Coach Flannery and his staff were a tremendous support for me. Then I look towards people like Mr. Pavlechko and Prof. Sweeney who continuously gave me some encouraging words. I think that the team as a whole was also great about helping me out. Then outside of the team there were my parents as well as Lindsey Geosits. She was some one on campus that was really there for me and helped me a lot.

Hoop Time: You, Kevin and Tarik have been the leaders of the team on and off the floor the past two seasons … your suite is like the team’s social hall … who will inherit that role next year?

CL3: I think that the most likely to carry on the social hall will be Donald, Rob, Chris, and whoever their replacement for Holland is. I could also see John Griffin trying to establish a nice little bachelors’ pad for the team to come and hang out at.

Hoop Time: How much of an influence does the crowd have on you during a game at Sojka Pavilion. What effect does the crowd have on the opponents?

CL3: I think the crowd has transformed into something that is great for us and unfortunate for other teams. They have been so instrumental in a lot of our wins. They do a great job of getting into other players’ heads. I think that our team has done a great job of using the fans as energy instead of as a distraction. In other words we aren't playing towards the crowd which can happen a lot of times.

Hoop Time: What's the loudest gym you have played in?

CL3: We have been at some pretty hostile environments but I think that Duke took the cake. From tip to buzzer it was rocking in there

Hoop Time: Were you nervous going into the game against Kansas last year? What was the team's mentality going into the tournament?

CL3: Yes I was real nervous. I knew that we could go into the tournament and make some noise but we were going to have our hands full with a great Kansas team. The team's mentality was that we could win this game. We felt that we had nothing to lose and were not going to leave Oklahoma without giving it our all.

Hoop Time: Do you think the Bison deserve an at large bid to the Big Dance? Will you be nervous on selection Sunday?

CL3: I think that we deserve one but we can't hang our hats on that. I think that we have proved to be a top tier team. Hopefully, I will not have to be nervous on selection Sunday but if we do happen to fall to Holy Cross on Friday then yes I will be real nervous.

Hoop Time: If you could play any team in the tournament, who would you want to play?

CL3: Geez. I haven't even thought about that. We have taken the approach of looking at one game at a time and for right now my focus is on Friday against the Crusaders. If we don't get a win on Friday then we may not be playing anybody in the tournament.

Hoop Time: Shifting gears a little, let's talk about Friday's game. Does the team feel any added pressure since the championship game is at home this year rather than at the Hart Center and since they are THE Patriot League team, much like many people saw Holy Cross last year?

CL3: No we don't feel any extra pressure. I think that the game is high pressured enough that it doesn't matter where we play it, it's going to be a dog fight. We may be the team in the Patriot League but that means nothing to Holy Cross. They are coming in here to win a championship and they don't care who they have to beat to get it. There are no guarantees.

Hoop Time: In the early days of the league, Lehigh was the big rival because of the old East Coast Conference ... has Holy Cross become Bucknell's archrival in hoops these days?

CL3: I think so because both teams have been consistently good and fighting for the top spot in the Patriot League. Year after year these two coaches have done a great job of bring in some great talent in order to challenge for tops in the league. It's a race to the top with Bucknell and Holy Cross always running along side one another.

Hoop Time: How do you see the matchups with Holy Cross's players for this game? And along the same line, What problems does Holy Cross present to the team and to you specifically?

CL3: I think that we are mirror images of one another. The matchups will probably be the same as they have been all the other times we have played them. It will be key for us to limit their penetration and make them work on defense. They have some great scorers along with great role players and we have to make their scorers take tough, contested shots all game.

Hoop Time: Tell us a little about Kevin Hamilton, most folks think you are the two best players in the league

CL3: I think that he is a great competitor and player. He has lead his team to great seasons year after year. He scores, plays defense, and rebounds. What else could you ask a player to do? I think that he has continued to get better every year and is the reason why Holy Cross continues to be a dominant team in the league. We will have to put manners on him from the tip.

Hoop Time: How is playing for Coach Flannery? Is there anything that he does to help make the team work so well? What are Flannery's halftime speeches like?

CL3: I have enjoyed playing for Coach Flannery. He has taught me a lot on the court as well as given me some helpful real life tips. He has a great mind for the game and is the reason why we have been so successful. He is just as hyped for the games as we are. His halftime speeches are geared towards telling us the good things as well as the bad things that we are doing in the game thus far. I think the thing that has helped this team is his
consistent message of playing together.

Hoop Time: Does the team, or you personally, engage in any pregame rituals?

CL3: We are not a team that is huge on rituals. The only thing that we continuously do is the circle thing during introductions. John Griffin is the only player that has all of these crazy and strung out rituals. I just make sure that I get a prayer in before the game to thank God.

Hoop Time: Outside of Hamilton, who is the toughest guy to guard in the league?

CL3: I would have to say Jarrell Brown from Army. Not only do they set a ton of screens for him but he does not stop moving. He moves real well without the ball and they are so focused on getting him the ball that they screen the piss out of whoever is guarding him.

Hoop Time: Tell us what the atmosphere's been like on campus this week - and what you expect Sojka to be like on Friday afternoon?

CL3: The students are so pumped for the game on Friday. Everyone keeps coming up to me and I know the other guys on the team too, and keeping telling us how proud of us they are and how they would love to see us finish the season with a win on Friday. The Pavilion will be rocking and there will be a lot of orange and blue in the crowd. I expect a crazy environment. Perfect for a championship game!!!

Hoop Time: What other schools did you consider when you were being recruited?

CL3: South Florida, Central Florida, Air Force, Colgate, and Niagara

Hoop Time: What made you decide on Bucknell?

CL3: I was intrigued by the sense of community that this University had. The academics was also something that really drew me to this wonderful place. Most importantly, Coach Flannery and his staff did a great job selling the program. They had a real game plan in place to get the program rolling and I wanted to be a part of that

Hoop Time: What lessons did the team take away from their losses? What went wrong vs. Santa Clara, only game where the team was "upset." The Bison have gotten off to slow starts in the past in big games. What will we expect from the team and you so this doesn't happen Friday night?

CL3: I think that we learned some things but more importantly some things got reiterated. We realized that people are going to be gunning for us and we have to be ready to play. We came out slow and that hurt us. It was good to see us come out with a fire on Sunday against American. Getting off on a slow start is what hurt us the first time we played Holy Cross. Against good teams we really have to make sure that we come out with a fire. On Friday we will be ready to play and will set the tone early.

Hoop Time: Being one of the few players who has seen both Duke and Villanova firsthand, who do you think would win that matchup?

CL3: I don't know if I could really call it. I think that it could go either way. If Villanova is shooting well then I would say Villanova because I don't know if Duke's guards could keep up with those guys. But Duke has that inside out game that is so hard to guard. I would love to see that game.

Hoop Time: Folks, as you all know, players in the Patriot League don't just play ball, they need to study a little too, so we are going to let Charles get to the books after one last question ... Word around campus is that you've been working pretty hard on your golf game in Davis Gym. Any truth to these rumors and if so are you planning a competitive debut at some point?

Hoop Time: and I will add a quick follow, who do you suppose might have asked that one?

CL3: I think I have a real good idea about who asked that. I am going to have to talk to them about this. But yes I have been working on my game and am taking on any challengers after the season. Though I don't get to hit the links very often I still got it.

Hoop Time: Well Charles, Bucknell fans hope you won't be starting the golfing any time in the next few weeks. Thanks for joining us and good luck Friday

CL3: Thank you for having me. See you on Friday.
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Down in Colonial Athletic Association territory, Harrisonburg, Va. (James Madison), Dustin Dopirak writes that CAA teams like Hofstra, who are hoping for an at-large bid, are rooting for teams like Bucknell:

"We don't want any upsets," (Hofstra coach Tom) Pecora said. "We want Air Force, George Washington, Memphis and Nevada to win their tournaments. We don't want other teams sliding in to take an at-large bid."

Throw in Bucknell and you've got every bubble squad's favorite teams this week. Of the five, only Air Force is not an absolute NCAA Tournament lock, and of their five conferences -- the Mountain West, Atlantic 10, Conference USA, Western Athletic and Patriot, respectively -- only Conference USA has a second team (Alabama-Birmingham) with any at-large hope."

That is not a new sentiment. Matter of fact, we posted it only so we could ask the question: Is Dustin Dopirak related to Ryan Dopirak, a Hoop Time cover boy back in our old print version days. Ryan Dopirak won varsity letters at Bucknell in 1993 and 1994 as an end of the bench kind of guy. He eventually transferred when Pat Flannery replaced Charlie Woollum as BU's coach, a move we always though was shortsighted on his part, because his style of play was far better suited to Flannery's style than Woollum's.

Jake Curtis of the San Francisco Chronicle says Cal feels the same way.

Eric Thomas has been a busy guy. The Shamokin News-Item's Bucknell beat writer has a good piece on the Bison's Abe Badmus today and a warning for overconfident Bucknell fans. As usual, E posts them both on his blog to make it easier for us to link to them since the News-Item's site updates late in the day.

The Daily News Transcript in Mass. takes a look at two of its former high school players of the year. One is Northeastern's Bobby Kelly, the other, Holy Cross sophomore center Tim Clifford.

Not all the Patriot League hoops news is about Bucknell and Holy Cross. In today's Easton Express-Times, Corky Blake reports the Lafayette faculty has endorsed scholarships. While not needed, the endorsement is viewed as a key step to Lafayette's joining the rest of the league in offering non-need-based aid to basketball players. A decision is expected at next month's meeting of the school's trustees

There's an column in The University Daily Kansan called "Free for All" that is filled with non sequiturs, most of which are lame, at best. But one of them just begs to be posted:

"This girl was wearing a Bucknell sweatshirt outside of Anschutz today. It still hurts."

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Holy Cross failed to sell its entire allottment of 500 tickets for Friday's final at Bucknell. The unsold tickets will go on sale at 2:30 Friday afternoon at the Sojka Pavilion box office.

No word yet on exactly how many were being returned. A woman who answered the phone at Holy Cross said she was not sure. All she knew was a package with the unsold tickets had just been overnighted to Bucknell.

Bucknell officials had no word yet on how many were being returned.
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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.
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Best of our knowledge, this is a first: Patriot League championship game tickets scalped on e-bay.

The winning bidder pair $100 for what appear to be a pair of tickets in the Bucknell student section.
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For want of a better RPI, Lehigh ended up playing on the road in the Patriot League semifinals, leading Corky Blake to point out in his column today in the Express-Times:

You have to wonder how Sunday's Patriot League men's semifinal would've played out had the game been contested in Bethlehem instead of Worcester, Mass.

But Lehigh coach Billy Taylor, last seen trying to convince Andre Williams of the Morning Call that his team deserves an NIT bid, tells Blake

:"I don't put much merit in the RPI."

Hey, nobody is saying the RPI is a perfect formula. But while Taylor and his team are on the practice green working on their putting, Holy Cross and Bucknell are still playing hoops.

Taylor defends his team's schedule, pointing to games against Villanova and Washington. But the truth is, the Mountain Hawks played two Division 3 teams and their out of conference strength of schedule ranked No. 168, while Holy Cross played none and had a OOC SOS of 94. For two teams with identical 18-11 regular season records, that proved to be the difference between sleeping in your own beds for the first two rounds of the tournament and riding a bus six hours to spend a weekend in a hotel.

Lehigh's OOC schedule included two teams in the RPI top 50 and two others in the top 100. But it also included 8 teams that were above 200 in the RPI, including one, Stony Brook, with an RPI above 300.

Taylor points to RPI 22 George Washington, with its non conference strength of schedule of 323, as an example of how winning is more important than strength of schedule. That is true. But Lehigh lost home games against 227 Princeton and 224 Towson, and road games against 212 Cornell and 262 Sacred Heart.

Granted the Mountain Hawks were without Joe Knight for those games, but whose fault was that? And they certainly expected to have Knight available when they made their schedule.
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Last time we checked in with former Holy Cross backup center Neil Fingleton, the 7-6 British giant was looking for a new team after being cut by the Austin Toros of the NBDL.

Available now in the Hoop Time store

So where is Fingleton now? Back with his old English club, the Teesside Mohawks of the English Basketball League, who appear to be well entrenched in the cellar of the EBL's Division 3 North, according to the latest standings we could find, with a 1-9 record. Fingleton played for the club from 1996 to 1998, before coming to the states to play at Holy Name H.S. in Worcester, where he was a McDonald's All-American before heading off to North Carolina, and later to Holy Cross.

From the Dec. 7 issue of the British paper

The Evening Gazette:The game saw the debut of 24-year-old, 7ft 6in ex-All American High school and Boston Frenzy star Neil Fingleton.

Apparently "star" is one of those words that are used differently in "English English" than "American English."

Here's a search page from the Evening Gazette's Web site listing stories in which Fingleton appeared. Most of the mentions are in box scores. Despite seeming to score in double figures most games, there are few mentions of Fingleton in the game stories we bothered to read.

The Brits are certainly no power in European basketball. But Fingleton did not make the country's team for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. In fairness to Fingleton, one of the team's centers (or centres, as the Brits spell it) is John Amaechi, who played with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Utah Jazz and the Houston Rockets. The team also includes stars like Fabulous Flournoy.

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Bucknell students began lining up at 10:30 Sunday night for a shot at tickets to Friday's Patriot League final between their Bison and the Crusaders of Holy Cross.

Reports from Lewisburg did not indicate any tents were set up, but many brought sleeping bags to await the 6 a.m. special student presale of tickets.

That session lasted from 6 to 8 a.m., with about 400 students buying tickets during that period. Another 800 already were assured tickets through the random drawing for 800 tournament tickets that the University had bought to distribute prior to the first round last week.

The remainder of Bucknell's approximately 3,500 tickets for the final sold in about two hours after going on sale to the general public at 11 a.m.

Holy Cross' allotment of 500 tickets is not sold out yet, according to a woman who answered the ticket sales phone number listed on the HC Web site. A recording on that phone line warns that tickets for the final are being sold only to Holy Cross students, alums and season ticket holders. And they will check to verify that status, it warns.

"Response has been pretty overwhelming," said the woman. "We don't anticipate any left over given the response we have had so far."

Any unsold tickets from the HC allotment will be returned to Bucknell and would go on sale at the door Friday.

LOCKED OUT -- An off day today for Bucknell, with the team being told to stay away from the gym. Bison coach Pat Flannery reportedly forbid his team from even coming in on their own, individually to shoot around.

"Pat all but locked them out," said Bucknell SID Jon Terry. "I think he was even thinking about getting a chair and sitting in the lobby to make sure nobody sneaked in because that is almost what it takes to keep guys like Abe Badmus and Charles Lee out of the gym."

The Bison will resume practice Tuesday.

TRAVEL PLANS -- With Holy Cross on spring break, the Crusaders are planning an early trip to Lewisburg. Plans call for the team's bus to leave Worcester Wednesday afternoon, with a Thursday practice in Sojka Pavilion.

POLL BULL -- Bucknell checks in with 83 votes in this week's AP Poll, second among others receiving votes. The Bison are first in the others category in the latest Coaches Poll.

Alabama Birmingham jumped into both polls this week after upsetting then No. 3 Memphis. No real argument with that, given UAB's 22-5 resume that also includes wins over Old Dominion and Oklahoma St.

Besides, given the apparent curse of being ranked as a Mid Major the last month or so, does any team really want that at this point of the season?

No updated Mid Major Top 25 as of 7:30 p.m.

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE -- Bucknell coach Pat Flannery has been named a finalist for the 2006 Hugh Durham Award, which is presented to the mid major coach of the year. Flannery, who won the mid-season version of the award, is one of 15 in the running for the honor, which will be announced during teh Final Four.

NIT OR A NUT? -- According to an Andre Williams column in the Morning Call, Billy Taylor is campaigning for an NIT bid for Lehigh after they lost to Holy Cross in the Patriot League semis.

Taylor is touting Bucknell's postseason success last year, along with Holy Cross' NIT showing a year ago, to justify a bid for his team.

But it takes more than a good record in a bad conference to justify a postseason bid, and lopsided losses to Villanova and Washington are not impressive credentials when you didn't make a better showing than the Mountain Hawks did in the remainder of the non conference schedule.
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(Originally posted Sunday at 3:51 p.m., links added at 7:33 a.m.)

Joe Knight needed 18 shots to get his game-high 23 points, going 6 for 18 from the field.

It was that kind of afternoon for the Mountain Hawks, who shot just 20 of 63 (31.7 percent) from the field.

Jose Olivero had 13 points, but he was 4 for 20 from the field.

Keith Simmons with 20 to lead HC. Kevin Hamilton had 18, 14 from the foul line, where he missed just once.

It was a physical, foul-filled game, which explains why Bucknell fans didn't get a final until well after the Bison's win over American was over, even though the Bucknell game had all the TV timeouts.

The two teams combined to shoot 72 free throws. HC was 32 for 44 at the line. Lehigh 23 of 28.

Box score

AP recap

Boston Herald

Morning Call

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(Originally posted Sunday at 8:04 p.m., links added at 7:17 a.m.)

After his team dropped a 64-50 decision Sunday to Bucknell, American University coach Jeff Jones began his postgame press conference with one sentence that summed things up about as well as any sports writer will do with an entire story.

“Bucknell was just too much for us,” said Jones, whose team saw its season end the same way it did last year, with a loss to the Bison in Sojka Pavilion in semifinals of the Partiot League Tournament.

Jones was right.

It was too much Chris McNaughton for the American. Too much Charles Lee. Too much Kevin Bettencourt. Too much Darren Mastropaolo. And too much Bucknell defense.

Way too much Bucknell defense.

Bucknell held American without a field goal the first 4:54 of the game and just one bucket in the first 7 minutes, forcing four turnovers and five missed shots on AU’s first 10 possessions while starting the game with an 8-0 run en route to an early 11-2 lead.

The tone was set during those first seven minutes, with Bucknell’s first 11 points coming from four different players. Mastropaolo started things, scoring on Bucknell’s first possession off a nice feed from McNaughton off a high-low set. Lee scored the next two Bucknell baskets, the first a layup in transition on a nice outlet pass from Bettencourt, who came up with the steal on defense.

Then McNaughton got in on the act, finishing in transition with a thunderous dunk off another pass from Bettencourt.

Derrick Mercer got American on the board with a runner in the lane at the 15:06 mark, but Bettencourt, who missed his first two three-point tries, found the range on his third.

American did manage to come back to tie the game at 11-11 on a Brian Gilmore free throw with 9:15 to play in the half. But the major themes of the game – balanced scoring and tough defense, were set in those first seven minutes and a third theme came on Bucknell’s next possession, when Mastropaolo answered with a hook shot over 6-11 AU center Paulius Joneliunas at the other end, giving the Bison a lead they never relinquished.

American tried guarding McNaughton, Bucknell’s 6-11 junior center one on one, something few Patriot League teams are willing to do. McNaughton responded by going 8 for 9 from the field, his lone miss on a blocked shot by AU’s Jordan Nichols that looked awfully close to a goaltending call.

“We really didn’t have much of an answer for McNaughton,” said Jones. “He really exposed our lack of interior defense.”

American had no answer for Bettencourt, either. After missing his first two tries from the arc, the senior co-captain went 4 for 4 from three-point range the rest of the way, finishing with 16 points to share team-scoring honors with McNaughton.

“You work so hard. They make you guard the entire possession. Then all of a sudden, bam, (Bettencourt) knocks down a three and it takes a little bit of the life out of you,” said Jones. “His baskets are like daggers.”

Lee, the league’s Player of the Year, who spent the afternoon driving into the lane and either scoring himself or kicking the ball out to an open man. Lee had 15 points and dished off four assists. Lee also played his usual great defense on American junior guard Andre Ingram, who came into the game shooting under 25 percent from the field in seven career games against Bucknell, most of which he has spent a big part of the game guarded by Lee. Ingram, American’s leading scorer and a two-time all-league pick after being the league’s rookie of the year as a freshman, managed just five points while going 2 for 8 from the field.

“I have a lot of respect for Charles Lee. He’s the best player I have ever had to defend and play against in the Patriot League,” said Ingram. “He showed why he is the player of the year. He’s a phenomenal player.”

“He makes the big plays, the tough plays,” said Jones.

And then there was Mastropaolo, who went three for three from the field and helped hold American’s frontcourt players to a combined 1 for 10 shooting performance when he was not busy setting screens for Lee and Bettencourt.

“Darren is the reason Charles, Abe (Badmus) and I get open,” said Bettencourt.

“(Mastropaolo) is a great screener. That might not sound that sexy, but when you have shooters like a Bettencourt or (Jason) Vegotsky, or when you have great players like Lee, that puts the offensive players at an advantage. That puts the defensive players at a disadvantage. He is an important cog in that machine,” said Jones.

Put those pieces together and you come up with an offense that hit 24 of 50 (48 percent) from the field and a defense that held American to a 17 for 47 (36.2 percent) shooting effort.

“They showed great balance,” said Jones. “They are a great example of a team having stars you can rely on. They are very efficient. But what sets them apart from other good teams is that their role players not only understand their roles, they do them extremely, extremely well. And they all play great defense.”

While Bucknell kept the lead after Mastropaolo’s hook shot, American did not go away, thanks to the play of Linas Lekavicius, who scored 21 points, most by taking the ball to the rack when he got a mismatch with one of Bucknell’s big men on the perimeter against the Bison’s matchup zone. But he was a one-man show. American managed only 5 assists all afternoon, its lowest total of the season.

Lekavicius shot 8 for 15 from the field. The other 10 guys who saw action for AU combined to make 9 of the 32 shots they fired up.

“They became a one-man team and the other guys stood around a little,” said Bucknell coach Pat Flannery.

Lekavicius cut Bucknell’s lead to 5 on a layup with 2:24 to go in the first half, but the Bison responded by closing the half with an 8-0 run, taking a 35-22 lead at the intermission when Lee’s three pointer bounced around the rim and fell in at the buzzer.

"They just seized the game at that point," Jones said.

In the second half, twice AU cut Bucknell’s lead to 9 on Lekavicius three-pointers. But each time the Bison answered by scoring the next 4 points, keeping American’s comeback hopes from gaining any traction.

“They are a terrific team,” said Jones, who called the Bison the best he has seen in the league since AU joined in the 2000-2001 season. “They’ve got terrific individuals but the thing that makes them the best, or near the top is that those individuals fit together very nicely.”

The win send Bucknell into the league final for the second season in a row and breaks the school record for wins in a season. The Bison’s 25-4 record is the best in modern school history, bettering the 24-5 record of Bucknell’s 1984 East Coast Conference regular season championship team.

Box score

Gameblog

Notebook

Eric Thomas

Daily Item

Patriot-News

Washington Post

Sun-Gazette game story

Sun-Gazette sidebar

Pottsville REPUBLICAN(Pat Flannery's hometown paper)

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Darren Mastropaolo does not light up the stats sheets. His rebounds and points, about three-and-a-half of each per game, hardly impress the casual fans, who tend to see the game, and judge players, by those sorts of numbers.

They don't keep stats for charges drawn, or picks set, or individual defense, so Mastropaolo's contributions get overlooked by the fans. For the same reason, writers who call him the second-best big man in the Patriot League get flack for such statements every time they make them.

Coaches judge players differently than fans, though. They watch hours of film, breaking down what opponents do on offense, trying to figure out ways to stop them. They see the things that don't show up in box scores, and they notice Mastropaolo.

"If you were in our locker room and heard our scouting reports, he gets an awful lot of credit from opposing teams," said American coach Jeff Jones after his team lost to Mastropaolo and the Bison Sunday in the league tournament semifinals.

"He is not a scorer, that is definitely not one of his strengths. He is a space eater. That might seem insignificant, but offensively and defensively, he occupies space and puts a body on people that allows McNaughton and his other teammates to move freely," said Jones.

"It's like a nose guard in football, taking on the double team and allowing the linebackers to move around . . . He is an important cog in that machine."

Jones also raved about the way Mastropaolo helps Bucknell's scorers get open.

"He is a great screener. That might not sound that sexy, but when you have shooters like a Bettencourt or (Jason) Vegotsky, or when you have great players like Lee, that puts the offensive players at an advantage. That puts the defensive players at a disadvantage. He is an important cog in that machine," Jones said.

And Bettencourt said Mastropaolo's three for three shooting against American was no fluke.

"I think you will see down the line, he can score. He doesn't maybe get the opportunities. He had three baskets today, three for three. He can do some things, it's just not his role right now," Bettencourt said.

MUTUAL ADMIRATION SOCIETY -- Pre-game introductions are handled a little different in tournament games. Instead of introducing the visiting team first, then the home side, players are introduced by position, one from each team, with the two meeting at halfcourt for a quick shake of hands.

But when swingmen Charles Lee of Bucknell and Andre Ingram of American, two guys who have matched up eight times over the past three seasons, greeted each other, they went beyond the usual handshakes, hugging briefly, and exchanging a pat on the back and a quick whisper in each other's ear.

So what was that all about?

"I have a lot of respect for Charles. He is the best player I have ever had to defend and play against in the Patriot League. I just told him congratulations on being the Player of the Year. He has had a great season. He showed why he was Player of the Year tonight. He is just a phenomenal player. He moves without the ball well, defends like crazy; he is a great player," Ingram said.

"We always have a few words for each other every time we play. It's just respect, thatafterwards

Told afterwords what Ingram had said, Lee expressed appreciation for the compliments and returned them in kind.

This was the last time the two will meet, at least in college. Ingram will be back next year for another season, but Lee is set to graduate in May.

BEST EVER? -- Jeff Jones has only been around the Patriot League for five seasons, but in that short time, he has seen some pretty good teams in the league. The 2002-2003 Holy Cross team went 13-1 in league play, 26-5 overall, beating Jones' Eagles in the league final for the second straight season.

AU was also on the short end of the 2003-2004 final, won by Lehigh.

None of those teams quite measure up to Bucknell in his estimation.

"I thought a year ago, going into the Patriot League tournament, that Holy Cross' team last year was the best one I'd seen in my four years in the Patriot League. I certainly believed that. But this Bucknell team, I think it is safe to say, is the best Patriot League team that I have seen," Jones said. "They don't have any glaring weaknesses."

REVENGE FACTOR -- To those with longer memories, last year's Bucknell win at Holy Cross in the final evened the score from the 1993 final, when second seed Holy Cross stole the title from the top-seeded Bison in Bucknell's Davis Gym.

To others, especially Holy Cross partisans with shorter memories, this Friday's game is the Crusaders' chance to exact revenge for last season.

"I am sure they will try to use it as some sort of motivation. I know we probably would. It wasn't a good way for their season to end last year. They felt they deserved it. I am sure they are going to come try to take it to us, just like we did to them last year," Bettencourt said.

Lee said last year's game has little relevance beyond motivation.

"That team they had last year was a lot different. They have different guys doing different things now. We will be a lot more focused on the first time we played them this year and the second time we played them this year instead of last year, instead of worrying about last year. Last year is over," Lee said.

"Hopefully we can try to celebrate on our home court. It will be a new experience," Bettencourt said.

And the Bison senior said Bucknell fans need not worry that Holy Cross will have a motivational edge.

Said Bettencourt, "We'll be ready."

TEDDY FACTOR -- Every time Bucknell and Holy Cross meet, somebody can be counted on to bring up the fact that Bettencourt's older brother, Teddy, was a four-year letterwinner for the Crusaders and captained HC's 1006 team.

Matter of fact, Ted Bettencourt was a freshman on that HC team that stole the '93 championship game in Davis. But his younger brother said that won;t make a whole lot of difference to him as he prepares for Friday's final.

"We are just excited to be in the championship game. Holy Cross is just another team. I know they build that up because of my brother going there, but this will probably be the 12th time I have played them," Bettencourt said.

"It's the championship game. I don't look at who we'll be playing. It is not any extra incentive. They are a good team. They are well coached and I have a lot of respect for them. That is where it ends."

THIS AND THAT -- Bucknell has now won 20 in a row against Patriot League opponents, 26 in a row at home against league foes and 12 in a row overall at Sojka . . . Bucknell is the 16th No. 1 seed to advance to the league final in 16 seasons of Patriot League play . . . Bucknell's seniors have won 76 games in their Bucknell careers, fifth most of any class in school history . . . a win in the final would move them into a tie for third on that list with the classes of 1993 and 1986 . . . a win in the final and a win in the NCAA Tournament would ties the class of 1989 for second . . . No. 1 on that list is the class of 1987 . . . That mark is probably safe for now, the Bison would need to reach the NCAA championship game to equal their 82 wins . . . This year's juniors, though, should have a shot at that mark. They have won 62 games thus far in their first three years . . . Lost in the shuffle of the opening round win over Army was Bettencourt's 1,500th career point . . . with his 16 against American he moved past Mike Joseph into fifth on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,524 . . . Bettncourt needs 11 points to tie Jaye Andrews for fourth on that list.
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From the Bucknell Web site:

Tickets for the championship game will go on sale on Monday morning beginning at 11 a.m. at the Weis Center or Elaine Langone Center box offices. A special student-only sale will take place from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Monday morning at the Sojka Pavilion box office. Valid Bucknell ID is required to purchase a ticket during that period.

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75 minutes to game time
About 200 tickets still remain for this afternoon's game. The 200 remaining is approximately the number of tickets turned back by American Saturday.

Approximately 500 tickets that were available went on sale at 11 a.m., and the line stretched around the corner of Sojka Pavilion towards Seventh Street in Lewisburg when the box office opened.

A quick check about five minutes ago showed the line was gone, so if you are in near Lewisburg and thought the game was already sold out, there is still a chance to get tickets.

30 minutes to game time
If you are planning to tune in at 1 o'clock to watch American and Bucknell, you might be in for a shock. CSTV, in what might be a breach of its contract with the league, is showing a Big East women's quarterfinal live in that time slot. The Bucknell-American game has been shifted to tape delay.

The Bucknell officials, who asked not to be identified, are furious with the shift, which the league and the school were not informed of until this morning.

"We have people gathering at alumni clubs all over the country to watch the game," said one BU official.

League executive director Carolyn Schlie Femovich said contractually the network is supposed carry the game live. The league will examine its legal options, but there is nothing it can do to change things at this point.

A check of the broadcast schedule on the CSTV Web site does say when the game will be shown. We will try to find a producer or someone to get that answer.

23 minutes to game time
A group of three AU blue shirts are seated directly behind us in the first row.

We take back what we said earlier in the season about them not getting dates -- one is a very cute young lady. (Wonder if that comment will bring that AU guy who complained about the mentions of girls and dating in an AU recruiting brochure to our doorstep for protests).

Speaking of that, in our chat Wednesday with Kevin Bettencourt of Bucknell, he said girls are the subject of a lot of questions when recruits visit a campus. Seems to us that makes those brochures even more legitimate, not that we thought they were the least bit offensive to begin with.

19 minutes to game time
Among other subjects of conversation with Schlie Femovich:

The Joe Knight situation still has not been completely finalized by the league's presidents. They are still sorting out issues like individual player and coach records, among other things.

Schlie Femovich said she had hoped it would all be resolved by now, but the league presidents do not meet in person until June and it has been difficult coordinating their schedules for a conference call or other consultations.

That does not mean it will not be settled until that June meeting, though. It should be sooner.

"We want to put the issue to rest," she said. "We are close."

The league continues to evaluate its tournament options and would prefer to return to a neutral site if one can be identified that will both generate good attendance numbers and be affordable.

Lacking such a site, the higher seeds hosting is preferable to a single, on-campus site because, as a one-bid league, the conference wants to give its best teams the best chances of advancing.

"Annapolis would be a great site. The fans love going there. But nobody wants to play Navy on its home floor in the tournament," Schlie Femovich noted.

2 minutes till game time
Finally tracked down a time for the tape-delay broadcast of this game on CSTV. It is supposed to be shown tonight at 10:30.

Davis nearly full, except for an almost empty section that was part of the Au allotment and some scattered seats in the section that was occupied by Army fans in the first round.

Bucknell 6, AU 0 (16:11 first)
Bucknell students begin pogoing before the tip.

First possession Bucknell runs a high-low set to Mastropaolo, who scores off the assist from McNaughton. Mastropaolo also helps create a turnover on AU's first possession.

The "Gary Coleman" chant is heard each time AU's Derrick Mercer touches the ball.

AU with turnovers on three of their first five possessions. A missed shot on the other two.

Charles Lee with four of BU's first 6 points, the last bucket, a short baseline jumper in a crowd, brings a quick AU timeout

Bucknell 8, AU 0 (15:09 first)
Andre Ingram's first shot is an air ball, and results in a thunderous dunk by McNaughton in transition.

In 7 career games against BU, Ingram has shot 23.8 percent from the field.

Bucknell 11, AU 6 (10:46 first)
Derrick Mercer's runner at 15:03 is AU's first bucket.

Three's the charm for Bettencourt, who drains a trey after missing the first two he took. Puts BU up 11-2.

Through the first 8 minutes, AU has 1 field goal and 4 turnovers.

Arvydas Eitutavicius gives AU an offensive spark with back-to-back buckets just before the second media timeout.

AU now shooting 3 for 8 (37.5 percent) Bucknell at 5-11 (45.5 percent) 4 of BU's 6 misses are from the arc, where they are 1-5 so far.

Bucknell 20, AU 14 (5:58 first)
After Eitutavicius adds another Bucket to make it 11-10, Lee checks back in to guard him.

Travis Lay hits one of two free throws to tie it 11-11 at the 9:15 mark, but BU right back on top when Mastropaolo hits a hook shot over Joneliunas.

Bucknell's guards being aggressive taking smaller AU guards to the hole.

After the tie, Bucknell on a 9-3 run, 4 points from Mastropaolo and 5 from Bettencourt, who just hit his second three in a row after missing his first two.

Bucknell 24, AU 19 (3:22)
AU's mascot takes the floor during the media timeout. If the Eagle was any shorter it would be Derrick Mercer. It wears a 5 on its jersey, same as Garrison Carr, who is taller than nobody else in uniform except his teammate Mercer.

Ingram hit his last two shots, the second a three-pointer. He is now 2-5.

AU shooting 7-20 (35 percent), Bucknell 11-21 (52.4 percent).

Bucknell 35, AU 22 (Halftime)
When Billbe picks up his second personal, AU goes small, with 6-8 Brian Gilmore and 6-5 Jordan Nichols up front. Bucknell goes to McNaughton two straight trips and Jeff Jones hustles 6-11 Joneliunas back in.

With 22 seconds to go, Bettencourt chases down a loose ball after an Ingram miss and gets the timeout while falling out of bounds to give Bucknell the last possession. Lee's three-pointer bounces around the rim and falls in, sending the Bison off the floor at intermission to a thunderous roar.

At the half:
Bucknell 15 of 26 from the field (57.7 percent), 4-9 from three-point range.

Bettencourt with 11 points leads all scorers. McNaughton has 8 on 4-4 shooting. Lee 7. Mastropaolo 3 for 3, 6 points.

AU 8 for 23 (34.8 percent), 2-5 from the arc. Eitutavicius and Lekavicius with 6 each. Ingram with 5.

Interesting note: neither team reached the 1 and 1 in the first half. Both teams with 6 team fouls. Mastropaolo and Billbe each have 2, nobody else with more than 1 foul in the half.

AU did get to the line 5 times, making 4. Bucknell 1 for 2 (Donald Brown).
Rebounds are 15-12 Bucknell. Turnovers: Bucknell 5, AU 7.

Points in the paint: BU 12, AU 6.

Elsewhere, Holy Cross leads Lehigh 32-26 at the half in Worcester.

Bucknell 41, AU 30 (15:46 left)
McNaughton can't miss. His first shot of the second half a step out jumper from the top of the key finds nothing but twine. He is now 6 for 6, 12 points

AU got within single digits at 37-28 on a trey by Lekavicius, but Brown answered and the lead was back to double digits.

Bucknell 43, AU 30 (14:34 left)
McNaughton finally has a miss, but not without controversy. His shot was blocked by Nichols, and appeared to be goaltending, at least to Pat Flannery, who reacted in disbelief at the no call.

Bucknell 46, AU 35 (11:27 left)
By the way, should Bucknell win and advance to the final, it would host that game at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2. Bucknell starts spring break that afternoon, but school officials have made arrangements already to provide an extra night of housing in the dorms for students staying for the game.

Officials using the whistles more this half. Nichols third personal at 12:36 is AU's sixth team foul, matching their first half total.

Bucknell has 4 fouls so far. Badmus and Mastropaolo each with three.

Billbe and Nichols with three each for AU.

Where would AU be without Lekavicius. He has 15 points, almost half of AU's total.

Three Bison in double figures already: McNaughton (7-8, 14 points), Bettencourt (11) and Lee (10).

Bucknell 56, AU 42 (7:04 to play)
Bucknell in the 1 and 1 at the 10:55 mark.

Lekavicius hits a trey to get AU back within single digits at 49-41 with about 9:10 to go.

Lee answers with two free throws to push it back to 51-41.

Bucknell playing a very small lineup in this stretch, with McNaughton, Lee, Badmus, Vegotsky and Bettencourt.

During their shootaround Saturday, Bucknell worked on attacking traps, anticipating AU would try that tactic. The Eagles trapped once in the first half, resulting in an easy bucket for McNaughton, and have not tried it since.

Bettencourt his a three right before this timeout, his fourth straight after missing his first two. He now has 14 points.

Bucknell will be in the double bonus with American's next foul. Bucknell's next personal will have AU shooting 1 and 1.

Bucknell 58, AU 45 (3:26 left)
Badmus picks up his fourth personal with 6:45 to go. AU immediately tries full court pressure when John Griffin replaces Badmus at the point.

At the 3:58 mark, Ingram pump fakes, gets Lee in the air, takes two dribbles around him and bricks a pull up J off the front of the rim. Ingram now 2 for 8 from the field.

Bucknell down to 47.9 percent from the field after a couple misses in a row. Lee (5 for 12) and Brown (2-7) the only Bison below 50 percent who have more than 2 shots.

Lekavicius now has 20 of AU's 45 points.

Bucknell 60, AU 49 (1:43 left)
With 2:44 to go, Travis Lay makes a pair of free throws to get Au back to single digits once more at 58-49. McNaughton answers with an 8-foot baseline jumper to push it back to double digits.

Bucknell 64, AU 50 (FINAL)
Crowd on its feet roaring approval the final 22 seconds. Bucknell mercifully takes a 35 second shot clock violation with 3 seconds to go, not even looking at the hoop.

McNaughton (8-9) and Bettencourt each with 16 for Bucknell. Lee with 15.

Lekavicius' 21 the only double figures for AU.

Bucknell finishes 24-50 from the field (48 percent). Bison 11 for 12 from the foul line, 10-10 in the second half.

AU 17-47 (36.2 percent) from the field. 12-15 at the line.

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No. 3 Lehigh at No. 2 HolY Cross, 1 p.m.: The rubber match between these two teams who split in the regular season. Lehigh won by a point at home on a last second bucket by Jose Olivero. Last week in the rematch at Worcester, HC jumped on the Mountain Hawks early and posted a 12-point win.

Lehigh has not won in Worcester since 1998 and has never beaten Holy Cross in a league tournament game (0-4). Holy Cross has only lost twice at home to PL foes in the past two seasons -- both to Bucknell (last year's final and in the regular season this year).

Both teams have standout guards. Joe Knight and Jose Olivero for Lehigh, and Keith Simmons and Kevin Hamilton of HC, are all-league players. So is Torey Thomas, the Crusaders point guard. That threesome gives Holy Cross an edge in the backcourt and Tim Clifford is a huge edge inside against Lehigh. The only place Lehigh has an edge in comparing starting lineups is at the four.

But Lehigh's bench, while lacking any real offensive firepower, is deeper than Holy Cross'. If one of Ralph Willard's guards get in foul trouble, or if Keith Simmons' cramping problems surface again, the Crusaders will have a tough time keeping their unblemished postseason record against the Mountain Hawks.

Likewise, if Clifford and backup Kevin Hyland both foul out like they did againstNavy in the first round, HC could be in trouble.

Bottom line, while Holy Cross' first five is probably better, the margin is slim. Their margin for error, even slimmer.
Lehigh notes | HC notes | Morning Call preview | USA Today matchup | HC radio

No. 4 American at No. 1 Bucknell, 1 p.m.: American shot the lights out against Lafayette in the first round. If they do that again, Bucknell's long home win streak could be in jeopardy.

That is not likely to happen though. For starters, the Bison have owned AU's Andre Ingram his entire career. And Bucknell's defense is a far cry better than Lafayette's.

The Bison seem on a mission, and in front of what will be a packed house at home, it will take a Herculean effort for American to pull off the upset. The Bison are better at every position and while American does have a decent bench, Bucknell is better there, too.
AU notes | Bucknell notes | USA Today matchup | Gametracker | AU radio | Bucknell Radio
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Tickets for the American at Bucknell semifinal game of the Patriot League Tournament will go on sale at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Sojka Pavilion box office.

Bucknell officials say in addition to the approximately 300 tickets that were returned from the other three schools in the Lewisburg pod, the league will make a limited number of other tickets available knowing that most Army and Lafayette fans will not make the trip back to Lewisburg after their teams were eliminated Friday night.

The section reserved for the pep bands at the north end of the Sojka Pavilion court should also be available since American does not have a band at the tournament.

That game will tip at 1 p.m.
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Forget what you heard about that jaw injury slowing down Kevin Hamilton.

Just check the lead of Rich Thompson's story on Holy Cross' 78-50 win over Navy in the Boston Herald:

Holy Cross senior guard Kevin Hamilton didn’t let a badly mangled jaw get in the way of a good night.
Wearing a protective mouthpiece and a sizable chip on his shoulder, Hamilton netted 19 points with 10 rebounds and four assists to lift Holy Cross to a 78-50 thrashing of Navy in a Patriot League quarterfinal last night at the Hart Center.

Hamilton was not the only star for the Crusaders. Keith Simmons also had 19 and Tim Clifford finished with 15 in 21 minutes of action, including 8 of HC's first 10.

Clifford and Kevin Hyland both fouled out, a curious situation given that 22 of Navy's 46 shots came from the arc and none of the Midshipmen's frontcourt players scored more than 5 points.

The game was decided before the half, with HC holding Navy scoreless for almost 7 minutes during an 18-2 run that gave the Crusaders a 33-17 lead. Hamilton, Simmons and Clifford each reached double figures before the intermission. Navy never got the deficit back to single digits.

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Last year Joe Knight torched Colgate for 45 points in the first round of the playoffs.

Friday night, the Raiders made sure Knight didn't beat them again. Did a darned good job of it, too, holding the Lehigh star to 6 points on 2 for 12 shooting.

Not only that, Colgate also found a way to limit Knight's backcourt running mate, Jose Olivero, to 9 shots and 10 points, well below his average of better than 17 per game.

So the Raiders pulled off the upset right? Err, uh, not exactly. Seems they forgot about Bryan White, and White made them pay, putting up a 13 point-10 rebound double-double. And late in the game, White made sure his contributions would count by coming up with two huge steals to seal the win.

John Conceison tells the story in the Express-Times:

With 5.1 seconds to play, Colgate had the ball, trailing 46-44. Soon after the inbound pass, White picked off Todd Checovich's feed inside intended for Kendall Chones, was fouled and connected on two free throws with 2.2 seconds left. White, who had been 1 of 6 from the line, then intercepted Colgate's inbound pass at midcourt to end it.

What Conceison's story doesn't mention is how Colgate put itself in that situation at the end by shooting 4 for 12 (33.3 percent) at the foul line, or how Lehigh could have had a more comfortable lead at the end if it had done better than its 10 for 19 (52.6 percent) showing at the stripe.

Colgate played without Kyle Roemer, the team's leading scorer, who missed the game, and the last two regular season games, due to a concussion.

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Too much talent, too many athletes, and way, way, too many made shots.

In a nutshell, that is what American has that Lafayette does not. That and a berth in Sunday's Patriot League semifinals after a 75-62 win over the Leopards in the first quarterfinal game at the Bucknell pod.

American had three players in double figures and shot 58.3 percent from the field, coming just shy of Colgate's tournament record (61.2 percent), thanks to a flurry of misses in the game's final four minutes.

Linas Lekavicius led American with 18 points. Paulius Joneliunas added 10 and Andre Ingram chipped in with 11.

"They present a lot of size and athleticism for us," said Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon. "They have all the components. They can score inside and they can score outside.

The Eagles shot an amazing 70.8 percent from the field in the first half, hitting 15 of 17 in the opening stanza. Both of the misses came from Ingram, who had 9 of his 11 in the half.

Lafayette managed to get within 7 at the break on a three by Bilal Abdullah, and was down just 6, 51-45, with 12:15 to play. Then American went on an 11-1 run to put the game away.

At that point, the only suspense was whether or not American would break Colgate's record. But the Eagles went 2 for 11 from the field the rest of the game, including 5 missed layups.

Lafayette managed to close the gap to 10 with 3:15 to play, but could get no closer.

Paul Cummins led the Leopards with 16 points. Andrei Capusan, in his last game in a Lafayette uniform, added 14.

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(Originally posted Friday, 11:15 p.m., Links added 10:46 a.m.)

Usually when you say a team stole a game, you are referring to an underdog coming through with an upset.

Friday night in Sojka Pavilion, Bucknell gave that phrase a different twist in a 59-47 win over a stubborn Army team.

The Bison forced 17 Army turnovers, 15 the result of Bucknell steals, to advance to the semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament.

It was hardly the kind of game the crowd of 3,946 expected to see when the No. 1 seeded Bison hosted the eight seeds from West Point. Most of the orange-clad crowd seemed almost shocked when Army held a 21-19 lead with 4:07 to go in the first half.

Then came the first of two key spurts for the Bison. Fueled by a pair of steals, Bucknell closed out the first half with an 11-2 run, taking a 30-23 lead to the locker room at intermission despite hitting only 5 of 18 shots in the first 15 minutes of the half.

In another interesting twist, Bison coach Pat Flannery actually attributed the slow start to Bucknell playing to fast.

"The way it started out, our kids were a little rushed. It is the playoffs, and they played that way," said Flannery.

Bucknell swingman Charles Lee, who overcame a 1 for 5 first half to finish with 12 points, agreed. "We definitely wanted to come out and set a tone for the playoffs," said the Patriot League's Player of the Year. "Because we had that mindset, I think we came out playing a little too fast."

At the break, it seemed like the Bison has settled in. And when they stretched their lead to in the first five minutes of the half, it looked like they were ready to put Army away.

Not quite yet, as it turned out. The Bison, who again struggled from the field early in the half, hit just two buckets the first 6:12 of the half, the rest of their points in that stretch coming at the free throw line. And when Doug Williams and Matt Bell (13 points) combined for 6 straight Army points while Bucknell was going another four minute stretch without a field goal, missing the front end of two one-and-ones in that stretch as well, all of a sudden it was a 4-point game and the crowd was getting nervous.

Then Bucknell did what it does best. After Kevin Bettencourt hit a three to push the lead back to 7, Abe Badmus came up with a steal, went coast to coast for a layup, and the Bison were on their way to a 14-0 run that put Army away. Keying that run, three steals and a clamp down defense in the halfcourt that held Army without a point for almost seven minutes.

By the time the Black Knights broke the scoreless streak with a John Moonshower three-pointer, the Bison had built an insurmountable 18 -point margin.

"That is what good teams do, they get spurts," said Army coach Jim Crews.

Asked if Bucknell turned it up a notch on defense after his team got within four, Crews replied, "It felt like that, I don't know if they did."

Badmus, who finished with 5 steals and 8 assists, had his own explanation.

"Some people got in some other people's faces to step it up," he said. "I don't know about turning it up. People just had to realize the game was at stake."

It didn't hurt Bucknell any that they managed to get to the foul line 26 more times than the Black Knights, who did not shoot a free throw all night. Even though Bucknell was hardly money at the charity stripe, missing 10 of those 26, it was still a huge advantage for the Bison.

"That is what good teams do," said Crews. "They get to the line."

Good teams also advance to the semifinals of their league tournament on nights where they might not seem to hit on all cylinders on offense. The Bison finished the game 19 of 43 from the field (44.2 percent) and had three guys -- Chris McNaughton (14), Bettencourt (13) and Lee (12)-- in double figures. But take away the two spurts and the numbers would be a lot lower.

None of which matters at this time of the year, when winners live to play another day and losers pack their uniforms in a trunk with mothballs.

The Bison will take on No. 4 seed American, a 75-62 winner over Lafayette in the evening's first game, in Sunday's semifinal.

NOTES: The win pushes Bucknell's record to 24-4, equalling the school's best-ever 28-game record, which was held by the 1983-84 team that won the East Coast Conference regular season title . . . That 1983-84 team finished 24-5 . . . It was Bucknell's 219th straight against Patriot League foes and its 25th straight league win in Sojka ... Bucknell has now won 11 in a row at home since losing to No. 4 Villanova on Dec. 6 of last year . . . The Bison have beat Army 12 games in a row.

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Army might be a bit relieved to see the crowd. After playing here to a full house Saturday, they see a lot of empty seats where the American and Lafayette fans were for the first game. Many of them apparently not sticking around for the nightcap.

Rich Giallella one of the three officials tonight, prompting Corky Blake of the Express-Times to ask if Giallella has earned a Bucknell varsity letter this season.

A more veteran crew than he worked with in the many other games we have seen him. Perhaps that will keep him from feeling he has to make every call.

While there are those empty seats we mentioned, there are not many of them, and none are in the student section.

The biggest BU pep band of the season, with the possible exception of the Northern Iowa game, on hand.

Bucknell 6, Army 4 (14:51 first)
Bison set the defensive tone early, forcing a turnover on Army's first possession.

Charles Lee already with 2 rebounds, a block and he just hit a 19 foot jumper for Bucknell's sixth point.

Army with three team fouls so far, Bucknell with none.

Bucknell 9, Army 6 (11:54 first)
Bison players with T.P. R.I.P. on their socks in marker, honoring 11-year-old Tylor Pfeiffer, a Bucknell ball boy who died in a tragic house fire Monday in nearby Trevorton.

Both teams 3-10 from the field so far.

Army 16, Bucknell 13 (5:50 first)
Lee, the league's Player of the Year, struggling offensively. Just missed a layup and is 1-5 from the field. Bucknell shooting 9 treys already, making just 2. They are 5 for 18 from the field, 27.8 percent.

Army 7 for 17 from the field (41.2 percent).

Army 21, Bucknell 19 (3:41 first)
Bucknell retook the lead on a foul line jumper by McNaughton, but Matt Bell put Army back up with his second three of the game. Seconds later he picked up his third personal. Charles lee at the line after the time out.

McNaughton on fire, 4 for 4, including two foul line jumpers. But Kevin Bettencourt and Lee are a combined 2 for 9 so far.

Army has 6 turnovers, Bucknell 2. Army winning on the boards 13-11.

Bucknell 25, Army 21 (1:27 first)
Bison on a 6-0 run, 4 from Donald Brown.

Bucknell now shooting 40.9 percent (9-22) , Army at 39.1 percent (9-23)

Bucknell 30, Army 23 (Halftime)
After a slow start, Bucknell hitting on all cylinders the last 3:41 of the half, outscoring Army 11-2 in that span.

McNaughton leading all scorers with 10 points. He is 5 for 6 from the field, the lone miss a three-point try at the end of the half.

Bucknell at the half, 11 of 25 (44 percent) from the field.

Army 41.7 percent (10 of 24). Bell leads the Black Knights with 6.

Team fouls in the first half: Army 9, Bucknell 2.
Turnovers: Army 9, Bucknell 3.
Bison with 7 steals.

Hurting Bucknell, a 5-10 showing at the foul line.

Bucknell 36, Army 26 (15:52 to play)
Talk about wanting it more, In one sequence around the 16 minute mark, the Bison hit the floor three times in scrambles for loose balls after an Army turnover. Then, after a missed shot, the Bison got the offensive rebound, resulting in a pair of free throws for Brown, who hit the first, missed the second, only to have a teammate grab the offensive rebound, eventually resulting in another Army foul, the Black Knights' fourth, sending Charles Lee to the line, where he made one of two.

Bucknell 41, Army 33 (11:30 to play)
Bucknell just 2 of 6 from the field the first 8 minutes of the half. But the Bison have shot 8 free throws already, making 6.

Abe Badmus finally took the open three that Army has been giving him all night and knocked it down.

Meanwhile, no sooner had Rich Giallella actually got one right, conferring with Joe DeMayo after DeMayo wrongly called a ball out of bounds off Army, than he blew a similar call on a ball that went off an Army players back under the Bison basket but was given to Army anyhow.

Army hanging around thanks to two threes by Jarell Brown and two buckets inside by Doug Williams in the second half, accounting for all 10 Army points.

Bucknell 48, Army 37 (8:05 left)
Army pulled to within 4, 41-37, on back to back buckets by Bell. Then Bucknell responded with 7 unanswered to push the lead to double digits.

The little run went like this: Bettencourt jumper and one. Badmus steal and layup, Lee 10 foot runner. Bettencourt now has 11, McNaughton 12, Lee and Donald Brown each with 7.

J. Brown and Bell with 10 each for Army.

Bucknell 55, Army 37 (3:34 left)
Bucknell on a 14-0 run. Army has not scored in 6:28.
Lee heating up, he has 7 of Bucknell's last 9, including his first trey of the evening,. Now in doubles with 12 points.

Bucknell 55, Army 43 (2:08 left)
A moonshot rainbow J by John Moonshower with 3:12 left ends the Army drought. Bell followed with a three to cut Bucknell's lead to 12.

Both teams shooting identical 18 of 42 from the field, but Bucknell is 14-24 from the line and Army has not shot a free throw.

Bucknell 59, Army 47 FINAL
The usual suspects finish in double figures for Bucknell -- McNaughton (14), Bettencourt (13), Lee (12).

Bucknell shoots 19-43 from the field (44.2 percent), including 5 of 16 from three. The Black Knights 20-47 (42.6 percent), 7-18 from three.

The big difference: Bucknell 16-26 at the foul line. Army did not shoot a free throw.
Rebounds: Bucknell 31, Army 26
Turnovers: Bucknell 11, Army 17
Steals: Bucknell 15, Army 2
For Army, Matt Bell with 13, J. Brown with 10.
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A sparse crowd on had for the tip of the first game at the Bucknell pod.

Under Patriot League ticket policies, each school is guaranteed a block of 500 tickets. But Most of the three visiting teams did not take their full allotment, and even then, about 300 total were returned unsold.

Included in the crowd, the infamous Matt B., who made the trek from Washington to watch his beloved AU Eagles in the first game of tonight's twinbill. Matt asks that we let everyone know he is not dead or in jail.

At tip off Matt was one of about 300 fans in Sojka. Also in that crowd, about a half-dozen AU Blue Shirts. Not a big bunch, to be sure, but far better than the Lafayette Zoo Crew. Not a single black Zoo Crew shirt is in sight.

AU 9, Laf 2 (17:29 first)
Brayden Billbe's second bucket brings a quick timeout from Fran O'Hanlon as his team falls behind 9-2 early.

AU 11, Laf 7 (15:12 first)
AU has hit 5 of its first 6 shots, the only miss a three by Andre Ingram, who is 1-2 at the arc.

Lafayette 3 for 7 in the early going.

Pat Betley (Laf) leads all scorers with 5 on 2 for 2 shooting.

AU 18, Laf 9 (12:39 first)
Lafayette has to shoot well to win and so far they are not. Leopards 4-11 from the field.

AU now 8-11. Ingram with 5 leads American.

AU 26, Laf 15 (7:50 first)
Andrei Capusan, Lafayette's best player, has spent a lot of time on the bench already. Capusan started, but came out before the first timeout, which came at the 17:56 mark. He reentered, picked up a personal, and went back to the bench.

Capusan returned at the 11:41 mark, but thus far has only 1 rebound and 1 foul by his name in the box score. Capusan is 0-2 from the field.

He is not the only Lafayette player struggling to find his shot. The Leopards are 6 for 19, 31.6 percent from the field so far.

AU 37, Laf 29 (1:48 first)
Back to back threes by Cummins brings a quick timeout by Jeff Jones as Lafayette cuts the lead to single digits for the first time since it was 20-12 with about 12 minutes to go. Cummins now with 11 points, including 3-3 on treys.

AU 41, Laf 34 (Halftime)
Fran O'Hanlon has to be happy to be within 7 given how poorly the leopards shot most of the half. AU led by double digits much of the first half, but a trey by Abdullah at the buzzer cuts AU's lead to 7 at the break.

American is 17 for 24 from the field (70.8 percent), 15 of 17 inside the arc, yet only has a single digit lead.

Abdullah and Cummins with three treys each for Lafayette. Cummins with 11 total points, Abdullah 9. The Pards shot 12 for 29 (41.4 percent) in the first half.

For AU, Andre Ingram's 9 leads the way. Billbe with 8.

American with a 16-12 edge on the boards.

AU 47, Laf 40 (14:43 second)
Foul troubles for Lafayette: Andrew Brown picked up his third at the 18 minute mark. Capusan had three in the first half.

Seen wondering the halls of Sojka at the half -- Rich Giallella, who apparently will be one of the officials working the Bucknell-Army game. Giallella was having a tough time finding the right locker room. Imagine that, Giallella looking lost.

AU 53, Laf 45 (11:42 second)
These two continue trading baskets. Capusan has come on offensively in the second half. He now has 12 points for Lafayette.

That might have helped Lafayette close the gap, but at the other end, Paulius Joneliunas has also come on. He is also in double figures with 10.

AU 64, Laf 46 (9:25 left)
Back to back threes for Garrison Carr stretch AU's lead to 18, its largest of the game.

American is still shooting 70 percent (26-37). They are 5-11 from the arc.

Linas Lekavicius now also in double figures for AU with 11.

AU 64, Laf 48 (7:35 left)
AU has missed four straight shots, including a layup, dropping their field goal percentage to 65 percent.

The PL tournament record is 61.2 percent from the field, by Colgate against Army in 1997.

AU 68, Laf 51 (4:29 left)
Getting sloppy in Sojka. The only thing still in suspense is that field goal percentage record. AU down to 63.4 percent.

AU 71, Laf 60 (3:04 left)
With over three minutes to go, Lafayette is pressing and fouling intentionally.

If they continue, AU's FG percentage might hold up. It is down to 61.9, but if they don't shoot more field goals, they will break that Colgate record.

AU 75, Laf 62 (FINAL)
No record for AU. Bunches of misses down the stretch dropped the Eagles to 58.7 percent from the field.

Lekavicius leads all scorers with 18 points on 6 for 7 shooting. Ingram (11) and Billbe (10) also in double figures.

Cummins (16) and Capusan (14) in doubles for Lafayette.

Lafayette finishes 23-57 (40.4 percent) from the field,
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When tickets for the Bucknell pod sold out in a matter of a few hours in Lewisburg, the message boards and rumor mills shifted into high gear with complaints about botched handling of the sale by the Bucknell box office.

Chief among the complaints was the fact that no limit was placed on how many tickets an individual could purchase.

That was true, there was no limit. But Bucknell officials say there was no widespread abuse as had been reported in some circles. One story that seemed to gain legs was a report that someone in line witnessed a person in front of them buying a block of 100 tickets. Adding fuel to that fire was the report that it was a "townie", not a student who bought them.

Bucknell athletic department officials heard those reports and conducted an audit of the sales. That check found that the largest single purchase of tickets was 24. And while they were not bought by students, they actually were bought by someone from the campus community.

According to Tim Pavlechko, an assistant A.D. at Bucknell, the 24 tickets were bought by a secretary from one department on campus, with money pooled by the professors, who had to teach class when the tickets went on sale.

Pavlechko said beyond that, most of the larger purchases were groups of eight, bought by students in similar situations.

There was no limit for a couple of reasons, the biggest of which being that there had never been a demand for early round tickets like there was at Bucknell this year. Also, the league has no guidelines in place, and technically, the ticket sales are uner the league's control.

That is also why tickets are not free to students and staff as they are in the regular season at Bucknell. They are simply not Bucknell's tickets to give away, although the school did purchase 800 at face value to give away to its students. Those were distributed in a random drawing.

Those who got froze out on Monday had a chance to get tickets this afternoon when about 300 that were returned from the other three schools in the Bucknell pod were placed on sale.

While nobody camped out to get them, by 3:30, a half hour before the box office opened, there was already a line stretching across the front of Sojka Pavilion.
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Patriot League scoreboards
ESPN | CBS Sportsline | PennLive.com | Yahoo! | Mid-Majority
No. 6 Colgate vs. No. 3 Lehigh, (at Holy Cross) 5:30 p.m.: Emmett Davis says his Raiders view the tournament as a chance to redeem themselves after what can only be described as horrible. The Colgate coach says he is encouraged heading into tournament play because his team played better at the end of the season, winning two of their last three.

But those two wins came against Navy, the only team, other than Army, Colgate has managed to beat in conference play. Toss Mississippi Valley State into the mix with the service academies and you account for the five wins over Division I foes that the Raiders have managed since the first week of December.

It is hard to remember a league team doing less with more. Which is why the Raiders could be a dangerous first round foe for a Lehigh team that suddenly finds itself on a two-game losing streak after winning 11 of its first 12 in the league. Colgate lives and dies by the jump shot. This season, it has mostly died. But Colgate has a bunch of guys capable of stroking threes and if more than one of them get hot at the same time, they could be a very tough out.

Of course if Joe Knight goes nuts the way he did when these two met in the first round last year, it will take an awful lot of three-pointers to beat the Mountain Hawks. If Knight scores 45 on them again, the only hope Colgate has is another NCAA intervention. That is not likely to happen, so as long as Lehigh doesn't get caught looking past Colgate to a potential rematch Holy Cross, the team it lost to in both the regular season finale, costing the Hawks the homecourt in the first two rounds, and the tournament semis last season.
Lehigh notes | Colgate notes | USA Today matchup | 'Gate radio

No. 5 Lafayette vs. No. 4 American, (at Bucknell) 5:30 p.m.: This one is pretty simple: the team that shoots the ball best wins. American swept the regular season series, winning at Lafayette last week in a game where the Eagles shot well and the Leopards did not.

American has the edge inside, at least from a size perspective. Lafayette's Andrei Capusan is better offensively than any of American's big men, but rebounding has been a problem for the Leopards all season. The 'Pards have also had problems taking care of the ball at times. But Lafayette does have a bunch of guys who can shoot the ball, and if they get it going on the perimeter, American might have trouble keeping pace.

As if Lafayette, the only team in the league with no scholarships, doesn't have enough personnel problems, Corky Blake reports in today's Express-Times:

Junior guard Jamaal Hilliard, struggling with a broken finger on his shooting hand, broke a finger on his other hand. Sophomore swingman Matt Betley, who's been a rebounding machine of late, stepped off a curb near Kirby Sports Center and badly sprained his ankle.

The matchup to watch in this one is the two freshman point guards. AU's Derrick Mercer, the league's Rookie of the Year, is lightning in a half-pint bottle. What the Gary Coleman look-alike lacks in size, he makes up for in quickness and basketball smarts.

Lafayette's Andrew Brown joined Mercer on the All-Rookie team announced Wednesday. Brown is not big -- he's listed at 5-11 -- but Mercer is one guy he has a decided height advantage over. In the two regular season games, Mercer has had the edge, averaging 9 points and 5 assists against the 'Pards. Brown averaged 5.5 points and 4 assists in two games against American. But Brown did have a 7-3 edge in steals.

In four seasons in the league, American has never lost a first round game. Lafayette was one and done the last two years.
AU notes | Lafayette notes | USA Today matchup | Morning Call preview | AU radio

No. 7 Navy at No. 2 Holy Cross, 8 p.m.: There is a long history in comic books of masked men playing hero. If that tradition extends to the basketball court, Navy might as well keep the ship running, because its visit to Worcester will be short.

HC's Kevin Hamilton was fitted for a special mask Wednesday to protect his jaw, which was injured in Sunday's win over Lehigh. Earlier in the week, HC coach Ralph Willard was skeptical about Hamilton's prognosis. But in today's Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Jennifer Toland reports Hamilton returned to practice Thursday and is expected to play.

Willard said Wednesday that even if Hamilton could play, he did not know how effective the three-time all-league pick would be. But Hamilton, last season's league Player of the Year and this year's Defensive Player of the Year, even at 75 percent, is better than anybody in a Midshipmen's uniform. So are Keith Simmons and Torey Thomas.

Depth is a problem for the Crusaders, but as long as those three are able to go, Holy Cross should return to the semifinals for the fifth time in six seasons.
Navy notes | HC notes | USA Today matchup | Gametracker | HC radio | Navy radio

No. 8 Army at No. 1 Bucknell, 8 p.m. The 8 p.m. start gives the Bucknell students an extra hour to "prepare" for the game, which should make the usually boisterous Sojka Psychos even rowdier. That could make for an intimidating atmosphere for a young Army team that has just one senior on the roster.

Not that the Bison should need an extra edge. The Bison are better at every position and that talent edge extends well down Pat Flannery's bench.

Bucknell is 12-3 all-time in first round PL tourney games. Army has not won a first round game since 1996, when the No. 7 Cadets upset No. 2 Navy. That was one of Army's two tournament wins in 15 seasons in the league. The other came the previous year, when the Black Knights beat Bucknell in another 7-2 upset. That was the last time Bucknell entered the postseason with at least a share of the regular season championship. The Bison tied with Colgate, both going 11-3 that season, but lost the top seed on a coin flip (the RPI was not a tiebreaker back then), then laid a first-round egg by allowing Army's Mark Leuking to go off for 43 points, a tournament record that stood until Joe Knight lit up Colgate last year.

That game, by the way, was on Army's homecourt. The first two rounds were played at a single, on-campus site back then and it was Christl Arena's turn in the rotation.

The coin flip was not without controversy. It was supposed to be held at the league offices, but a snowstorm forced then league executive director Connie Hurlbut to do it in her kitchen with no eyewitnesses present. Conspiracy theorists in Lewisburg theorized that the league wanted Colgate to get the top seed to protect Adonal Foyle, who was bringing the conference unprecedented exposure back then. Of course none of those folks dreamt the Bison would lose in the first round, they just were upset at the prospect of playing the final in Hamilton.

No such worries this year. Take care of business and the Bison will host the final.
Bucknell notes | Army notes | Eric Thomas preview | USA Today matchup | Bucknell Radio

TICKETS UPDATE: Bucknell's allotment sold out in a hurry when they were placed on sale Monday. But a limited number of tickets returned from other schools will be available at the door beginning at 4 p.m. Friday. One reason those returns are limited is because a lot of Bucknell fans bought tickets by phone from the other three schools after BU's sold out.

ADDITIONAL READING:

Tom Housenick's column

Andre Williams profiles Lehigh's Joe Knight

Sports Network PL tourney preview

Washington Post preview

Ken McMillan profiles HC's Keith Simmons

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His team battled back after a tough home loss against Bucknell to defeat Lehigh and claim the No. 2 seed in the Patriot League tournament, avoiding a five hour bus ride by gaining the homecourt advantage for the first two rounds of the tournament. His lineup includes three all-league picks and another kid who made the All-Rookie team. The fifth starter is a 6-10 giant who came on in conference play to establish himself as one of the top big men in the league.

So why isn’t Ralph Willard smiling?

Probably because the veteran Holy Cross coach knows all too well how fragile his team’s situation is as it tries to return to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in five seasons.

All season long the Crusaders have been held together by trainers tape and Ace bandages, persevering through a run of injuries and health woes that would have relegated most teams to the second division. Sophomore point guard Pat Doherty, last season’s Rookie of the Year has missed almost the entire season with a foot injury that just would not heal. Freshman forward Colin Cunningham is just now getting fully acclimated on the court after having his early season minutes severely limited by a broken nose that slowed his development. And that’s just the guys on the bench.

Two-time all-league pick Keith Simmons has labored through an odd cramping problem that has limited his minutes much of the season, starting point guard Torey Thomas started one game with a bruised knee and strained a groin during that game, heroically playing through both injuries in no small part because with Doherty out, the Crusaders had no other point guard. Kevin Hamilton, a three-time all-league pick and last season’s Player of the Year has played through injuries to a toe, a hip and his back, not to mention a bout with the flu.

All the injuries made it tough for Willard’s team to develop on court chemistry, limiting both the time and intensity of the practices.

Still, they battled through all of that to earn the homecourt edge for the first two rounds of the tournament, only to see its odds of advancing to the final lengthened considerably by yet another injury.

“We are going into that game with a question mark about Kevin Hamilton,” Willard told the reporters on the phone line for Wednesday’s pre-tournament media conference call.

“He received a blow to the jaw at the last part of the Lehigh game. He has a sprained capsule where the jawbone meets. I am not sure of the technical term. All I know is he can’t eat anything solid; hasn’t eaten anything solid since Sunday. (Tuesday) he tried to practice and got whacked there again. He is going to spend the day today trying to get fitted for some kind of special mask that would afford him some protection. We’re not sure how that is going to go, so his status for Friday, right now, is questionable. It leaves us with some possible adjustments we will have to make going into the tournament.”

Hamilton has said he is going to play, but Willard is not as certain. Even if Hamilton does manage to take the court for Friday night’s opening round game against Navy, Willard won’t know until the game is actually underway how well or how long the league’s leading scorer will be able to play.

“I’ll be honest with you. (Tuesday) he got hit and he was in agony. There were tears rolling down his eyes. Kevin is a tough kid. He doesn’t cry. And there were tears rolling down his eyes from the pain. He hasn’t been able to eat. He really hasn’t had any solid food. My wife made him some stuff last night and put it in a blender and I brought it to school with me because he’s not eating. My question is how effective he is going to be even if he is able to be even if he can play, how effective he will be with probably not practicing from now until the game,” Willard said.

Complicating matters is the fact that Hamilton is Holy Cross’ emergency point guard when Thomas sits down. That only happens when Thomas gets into foul trouble for the most part. Thomas has been playing close to 40 minutes most nights. But now, even that backup point guard situation becomes cloudy for HC.

“It is a double-edged sword and now with Kevin’s situation, I don’t know if I am going to be able to do that. I’m asking Kevin to play 40 minutes, too. Obviously, when you have somebody that is leading in scoring, steals and rebounds, you want to have that guy fresh at the end of the game, too. We’re really in a Catch-22 with both of those guys. Both are obviously great at stealing the basketball and great defensive players, but they have had to scale back how many chances they can take because I can’t afford either one of them to get in foul trouble . . . I’d love to get Torey some rest, but right now we don’t have that luxury,” Willard said.

Simmons is another question mark. It has been over a month since he suffered the severe full body cramping he experienced earlier in the season. But he has still been forced to the bench in key late stretches in games against Lehigh and Bucknell.

“The cramping issue is something we don’t know from game to game. He has that condition where he loses a lot of sodium. There is nothing you can do about it except change your diet, hydrate and electrolyte. We’ve done all of those things. Keith is just having to deal with it,” Willard said.

“I’m trying to give him blows around the timeouts in order to give him a two, three, four minute blow during the course of the game. The problem with that is, he has to ride the bike in the locker room at halftime — I’m sure he’d rather do that than listen to me speak anyway-- because we can’t let him cool down too much. At the same time I’ve got to get his heart rate down so he doesn’t perspire too much. We’re walking a fine line with Keith. He’s done an outstanding job.”

Not knowing who will be available, or for how many minutes, is a challenge Willard and his staff are hoping they can overcome.

“I don’t know Kevin’s status or how much he will be able to play and, obviously, I don’t know how much Keith is going to be able to play. When you have your two best offensive weapons thrown into question, we have to do some preparation for this game, no question,” Willard said.

Thank heavens the league’s current tournament schedule has a day off on Saturday before Sunday’s semifinals.

“ The fact that you have a day off in between (quarterfinals and semifinals) is certainly a big plus. It is good for preparation, but more importantly, in our situation, with Keith’s cramping situation and the fact Torey and Kevin have had to play 40 minutes just about every game for the last two months, the day off is certainly going to be very helpful to this team. In years past it probably wouldn’t have made that much of a difference because we were much deeper,” Willard said.

Navy coach Billy Lange said he expects Hamilton to play in the tournament opener, and to play well.

“They have a certain sense of toughness there in that Holy Cross basketball program. He will be ready to play,” Lange said.

“That kid (Hamilton) is a warrior. To me he has been injured all year, with his turf toe and he was sick at the beginning of the year. That kid, to me, is one of the best players, in terms of overall basketball players, that I have seen. He could play on any team in any league and have any different role and be effective. We’re going to anticipate he is going to play because he is a senior and has been a great player for Ralph for four years.”

SCOUTING NAVY -- Here is Willard’s take on the Midshipmen:

“(Navy) plays very hard. They really get after you. They play a lot of people, which concerns me since we can get worn down, especially in our situation right now. When Navy shoots the ball well, they are a good basketball team. That has been an issue with them all year. When they shoot the ball well, they can beat anybody.

“I don’t want to tell you what they will have to do to beat us. Billy knows that already, I don’t want to give him any other ideas. But I know what we have to do, we have to guard them. We have to guard them and take away their three-point shooting, Sprink, and the lefty kid that plays the four spot for them (Adam Teague), and Kina and Johnson, but we’re going to have to guard those people on the perimeter. And we are going to have to do a good job on Fannin, who is a warrior. When they shoot the ball well they are a good basketball team.”

SCOUTING HOLY CROSS -- Lange’s view of Holy Cross:

“I tell my staff this about Holy Cross all the time: you don’t beat them doing one thing well. You don’t say you are going to out-execute them and outsmart them. You are not going to do that because they do that at a very high level. You’re not going to out-tough them because they are a very physical team and play very hard. You’ve got to play a very, very good basketball game and hope you can contain their ability to score in spurts.

“They have a time in the game in every game where they really try to impose their will on you and you have to fight them. That is what you have to do. It might be the difference between us trailing by six and not letting their will get them up by 17 and maybe they just get up by eight. Or maybe we can keep it to a six or four point game and have a chance. But there is not just one thing. They are incredibly balanced, incredibly smart, incredibly well coached. You have to play a very, very good game to beat Holy Cross, especially on their home floor in a tournament setting.

“That is the problem when you play a team like Holy Cross. They’re balanced. Their identity is they are a basketball team. We have to play better on both ends. I want our kids to be confident. I want us to think that we can defend them, but we’re going to have to play hard and have the ability to make some shots at some key points and not let the game get away from us.”

INSTANT REMATCHES -- In an interesting scheduling quirk, both first round games at the Bucknell pod will feature teams that played each other in the final game of the regular season.

In the first game, No. 5 Lafayette faces No. 4 American, which won the right to wear home whites for this game by virtue of a 77-67 win over the Leopards Saturday. The nightcap features regular season champ Bucknell and cellar dweller Army. Bucknell posted a 70-47 win over the Black Knights in that regular season finale.

After losing twice to Bucknell, Army coach Jim Crews knows he needs to look for another formula. At the same time, though, he is hesitant to make many changes at this late date in the season.

“We’ve evaluated what we need to do ourselves, and our scouting reports to see what we can do to make adjustments. You can’t make a whole lot of difference,” Crews said. “You can work on things. Sometimes human nature says hey, let’s change this, change this and change that and you can tweak this and change that. But you can’t make wholesale changes at this time. It is not fair to your kids.”

Lafayette lost twice to American in the regular season. But Leopards coach Fran O’Hanlon, like Crews, is not planning any wholesale changes.

“I know it is going to sound pretty simple, but we need to shoot better. We played much better this time around than we did the first time. They clearly outplayed us and we were never in the game. This time we were in the game. We did not shoot the ball as well as we can shoot it,” O’Hanlon said.

“For us, two things that have plagued us this year have been rebounding and taking care of the basketball. I am not sure whether we are going to do a great job rebounding because of our size. But we really need to take care of the basketball and when we get open shots, hopefully we knock them down. I know that is a simplistic look at the game, but it is really a realistic look.”

American coach Jeff Jones agrees shooting the ball will be a key.

“We know that we’ve got our hands full. Anyone that saw our game against Lafayette the other day knows how hard-fought that game was and how fortunate we were to win. We shot the ball extremely well. Had we not shot well, it could have been a different outcome for sure,” Jones said.

Flannery is not certain that beating Army twice gives his Bison a big advantage in the postseason.

“Having just played (Army), and Lafayette and American are going through the same thing, it is the kind of thing were the bumps and bruises from each other are very fresh. I am sure Army will come in here with a lot of confidence. They have chased our guys around and our guys have chased them around,” Flannery said.

SCOUTING BUCKNELL -- Here is Crews’ take on the Bison:

”You play guys twice. You play them once, and then you try to make some changes and adjustments and work on some things that hurt you the first time. The thing that makes Bucknell well is that when you make those adjustments, and take away one or two areas that you do better in, then something else opens up. That is where they are strong. They are strong inside and outside. They are strong defensively and they are strong on the bench. That is why they had their season.

“They have always been well set-up. They have always played hard. They are well organized. They have a system and they believe in the system. They have so many weapons individually and collectively. As you do better in certain areas, all of a sudden something else pops up.That is what makes a good team. Their kids have done a great job of growing over the years.

“Lee is a kid, if I remember right, he has just developed so much as a player over the four years. He knows he has put the work in, the same with Bettencourt. Bettencourt came in kind of on fire in this league. Here’s a kid that is part of something that is bigger than him, and he has accepted that, where maybe it was a little bit more about him four years ago.

“That’s certainly what it is all about. They get it. They understand it. They get it.”

SCOUTING ARMY --Flannery on the Black Knights:

”Coach Crews is tremendous getting them ready and the stuff that they do, and as a person as well. Army is the kind of team, they post hard, they shoot the ball, they play to the wall hard. That is what we are getting ready for. We are going to have to match that and make sure that we are ready to go after these couple days we have been off.

”Seeing Army, and seeing how they have played at times, with games all during the course of the year, you see them during the season and on tape and they can score with people in the league and defend people in the league. We know they are very capable.

”Jarell (Brown), up at Army, really got off on us and scored very well. Down here at our place the last time, we did a little better job on him, whether it was us defending or his shooting. He really got our respect when we came in here. Their other kids, like Bell and Bates and these guys, are capable scorers if you spend too much time. They are hard to guard in spots and it starts with him because he stretches the floor so well.

”Each game is in itself a game. Without going into coaching talk, we went up to Army, they came here and now this is the third one, that will be a playoff atmosphere. That is something you can't simulate regardless how many times you play somebody. Familiarity in the league alone creates a lot of real good matchups and a lot of competition. Now you go to a third time and you know each other even better. You will see many teams that their first and second teams get into practice and they really compete. Many times in the league, no matter who is playing who, you get to know each other and you get to know where kids are going, what you are trying to take away. Also the coaches have been banging it into you. That's what I said about having a week to get ready. It will be a real good matchup.”

MORE THAN YOU CAN CHEW -- In his own words, Jeff Jones’ assessment of American’s season:

“It has been a challenging one, in that things did not come as quickly or as easily as maybe sometimes in the past with more veteran or experienced players. The biggest thing for me has been trying to be patient. Not patient in the sense that it is going to take them a while to get it. What I have seen, and at times has been a little bit hard for me to understand, is that I will see us as a team, or some individuals, do some things extremely well, whether it be in practice or in game situations, and then all of a sudden, the next day, or the next half sometimes, just not perform up to those standards.

“Quite honestly, I think I had to reassess my own expectations for the team after the tough early start that we had. There is no question that I did a poor job of scheduling. What we did, with essentially our first seven games, not just being on the road, but being on the road against really strong competition, that would not necessarily have been a very good schedule for a veteran team. We lost some confidence during that time. We came out of it a little bit shell-shocked and our development was not what we would have liked.

“I remember mentioning to one of our assistant coaches sometime at the end of January that we were finally making some progress, but we were probably a full month behind of where we initially thought, or hoped, we would be.

“Give the kids credit. After that tough start, we certainly were all disappointed, but they hung in there. There haven’t been very many days that the guys showed up and weren’t ready to practice. There has been a lot of good spirit on the team. I think that is indicative of the leadership that Andre Ingram and Craig Weinstein, and some of the other upperclassmen exhibited to make sure we didn’t get down. Maybe our record wasn’t what we had been hoping for coming into the season, but we still had a chance to turn things around, get them headed in the right direction, and be playing much better at the tail end of the season.”

ROLL OUT THE CLICHES -- “This is an exciting time of the year to be in the postseason tournament. All of us at American are very excited and looking forward to Friday.” – Jeff Jones

“This is a great time of the year. Our team is really excited about the prospects of the Patriot League Tournament.” – Billy Taylor

“We’re obviously very excited about this tournament. The Patriot League Tournament is a thing that we all point to as coaches and players.” – Emmett Davis

“We’re very excited about the Patriot League Tournament. We realize we have an incredible opponent in front of us in Holy Cross, a program we have great respect for. We admire their toughness and the way they play together.” – Billy Lange

“We are looking forward to our game on Friday. We really respect our opponent, Navy, and how hard they play.” – Ralph Willard

Yes Ralph, but are you excited?

COACHES ON PLAYERS -- “Both (Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt) are kind of interesting guys. I have been around here for a while now and you see sometimes seniors, as you go into the tournament, and I know I have talked to other coaches in the league, they are on the job market and they have things going on. Everybody is so interview conscious at schools like our's, and the rest of the Patriot League. These two guys, Kevin and Charles, have been basketball kids. They are kids who have done the work academically-- they are both over 3.0, one is on the Dean's, the other is close-- so they have done their work their. But they have done it in the basketball arena, too. I don't mean just performing game night. They have put a lot of time into it. They have invested a lot of energy and a lot of work, whether it is the weight room, offseaon, whatever. Their fire is burning bright. That is nice to have. You know whatever happens on the floor, it is not going to happen because you have regrets that you haven't worked hard and haven't done the things. You are going to do it because you put in the time. That is a great attitude and a great compliment to these two guys.” – Pat Flannery

“(Keith Simmons) leads the league in field goal percentage. When I look at stats, I look at league stats, because that is what we are comparing, apples to apples and oranges to oranges, and in the league, he is the leading field goal percentage guy in the league as a guard. That’s incredible. He has done a great job of improving his defense. He does a lot of things that don’t even show up in the box score and obviously he is one of the top scorers in the conference. He has just made a great progression from year to year. I have not had a player that has worked any harder than Keith Simmons in all my years of coaching. He stays up all summer and works on the weights and conditioning and things.” – Ralph Willard

“We told (Derrick Mercer) in the recruiting process that if he were to come here that would be the role he would playing. It wasn’t something he was unaware of or was afraid of. That was the kind of situation he was looking for. He has handled it very well. He has learned a lot. You can see him gradually maturing, gaining confidence, and being willing to step up. There were times early in the season that I really had to encourage him that, yes, you are a freshman and you can defer to the upper classmen off the court. But on the court we really wanted him to step up and run the team. He is a very soft-spoken kid. Early on, maybe he was a little hesitant to do that, not wanting to overstep his bounds, so to speak. Certainly down the stretch he turned it up. We have seen him gain quite a bit of confidence.” – Jeff Jones

“We have two players who are capable of having the kind of impact Austen Rowland had for us. Jose Olivero now is a junior and Joe Knight is a senior. Certainly we know Joe Knight is very explosive and can go for as big number on any given night. When he is really focused the right way, and playing with a high level of energy, he is a very dangerous player with his scoring and his ability to create for others. Jose Olivero has been tremendous for us this year. His game has continued to improve and develop. He has got the best still ahead of him. I know he is really looking to step his game up at this point in the season. He is going to look to try to make amends for those last two losses we suffered.” – Billy Taylor

“Matt Bell has struggled. But he played pretty well last weekend and he has practiced a little bit better. Matt has really struggled. He has had foot problems all year and has been limited also. One thing that has hurt Matt is that Matt is such a self-made kid. He gets in the gym; he is the ultimate gym rat. When he gets in the gym, he really has purpose, he really goes at it hard and he is trying to get something done. That is really how he really stays sharp. He knows that he needs that. Unfortunately, he has not been able to do that because of his health. It has hurt him physically and it has almost hurt him mentally because Matt knows he needs that because of who he is. He is not the strongest, or the quickest guy, or the biggest guy. He needs to put that in and when he doesn’t put that in, it kind of gets to him. But he is coming around.” – Jim Crews

“Rob (Thomas) is a kid who is pretty athletic. He has come in and given us some good time. He has been able to match up with certain people defensively and that is what we have been looking for him to do, to play some things defensively. He has given us a spark off the bench. We have used him and he has played well for us, really the second half of the league season.” – Pat Flannery

“Andrei (Capusan) has done a great job for us. This is his first year, and actually he didn’t start all the games this year. But he was clearly one of our better players the whole year. He has developed so much over the course of his four years here at Lafayette. He brings a lot of athleticism. He has been a good leader for us this season. Obviously we would not have had any success without Andre in there.” – Fran O’Hanlon

“(Jarell Brown) is very important. Jarell has had a good year and a bad year. He has stepped up and he has had some really outstanding games. He is our leading scorer. That has been great. Unfortunately, his development has not been to the full strength because of his injury earlier in the year and really, lack of practice time ever since then, because of that injury. He is on the right path, but we’d like to be going down the road a little bit faster with Jarell. That’s not his fault, or anyone’s fault. That is life. Jarell has a pretty good scoring mentality. He can get off shots fairly well and he can make difficult shots at times. So we give him a lot of freedom in terms of movement around our offense. We allow him to move and come off a lot of different things and he has taken advantage of that.” – Jim Crews

“We knew going into this year we would have to have some of our younger guys step up. It has been an up and down process, mainly because of injuries. Right now, Colin Cunningham is playing well. Tim Clifford has progressed and is doing a good job for us in the low post area. Alex Vander Baan has been steady throughout the whole course of the year. Having to play starter’s minutes as a freshman is difficult at this level, especially in our league because most of the freshmen aren’t ready to do that. So I think we have made good progress.” – Ralph Willard
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Has any team ever had more injury problems in a single season than Holy Cross?

Maybe, but none we know of. If Holy Cross gets banged up any more, it might have to switch to wheelchair basketball.

The latest of the Crusaders' lengthy list health problems is also the latest on Kevin Hamilton's personal list of ailments. Hamilton has played through hip, back and toe problems, with a bout with the flu tossed in for good measure. Now he is battling to find a way to play through a jaw injury first reported here yesterday.

But in today's Worcester Telegram-Gazette (subscription needed), Hamilton tells Jennifer Toland:

"I'll be fine," he said. "I'll have to get used to it." . . .

"It's more annoying than anything," Hamilton said. "You don't realize how much you open your mouth playing basketball. But I'd rather it be my jaw than my leg or ankle or something that would hamper my athletic ability."

Meanwhile, Hamilton's teammate and fellow first team all-league pick Keith Simmons tells the Times Herald-Record's Ken McMillan:

"I will do whatever my team needs me to do," Simmons said. "If Kevin can't go then I definitely have to be one of the players to pick up the slack. I accept that and will be ready to be more aggressive and be more of a leader this weekend."

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Very few players in Patriot League history have accomplished what Bucknell's Kevin Bettencourt has. His freshman season, Bettencourt was an all-rookie pick, also earning the named Rookie of the Year award. The 6-2 guard from Peabody, Mass. went on to earn all-league players as a sophomore, junior and, announced yesterday, as a senior. A quick glance at the league record books shows Holy Cross' Rob Feaster and Colgate's Pat Campolieta also were Rookie of the Year and three-time all-league selections. Lafayette's Brian Ehlers was not Rookie of the Year, but he was on the All-Rookie team his fresshman season and all-leage the next three.

Wednesday night, Bettencourt sat down at his computer and answered questions from a chat room full of Patriot League basketball fans in the first-ever Hoop Time chat. For those who were busy watching Law and Order: Campus Security Detail or CSI Peoria, here is what Bettencourt had to say:

Hoop Time: For Bucknell fans, that handle KB12 is not too anonymous

Hoop Time: We are joined by Bucknell senior guard Kevin Bettencourt, who this morning was named to the All-Patriot League team for the third time in his career. His freshman season Kevin was the league’s Rookie of the Year.

Hoop Time: Kevin, welcome and thanks for being our guest in the first-ever Hoop Time chat.

KB12: Thanks for having me here

Hoop Time: Your team went through the Patriot League part of your schedule unbeaten, how special was it to become the first team in league history to do that?

KB12: It was definitely something special to our team but not something that we ever really focused on. I have personally been following the Patriot League since I was younger but I do not think many of the guys even realized that we were the first team to ever accomplish this. It is something we are very proud of though.

Hoop Time: For a team with a lot of accomplishments, where does that one rank?

KB12: Well when we entered this season we had three goals: the first was to win 20 games the second was to win the Regular Season title and the third was to win the conference tournament.Going undefeated was just an added bonus to our second goal and it will rank pretty high on our list of accomplishments in my mind but I feel if we do not achieve the third goal then it will diminish the undefeated season.

Hoop Time: Describe how it felt to play the games that you did in the Hart Center, your brother's school, with the crowd getting on you a bit.

KB12: I enjoy when the crowd gets on me a little bit. It adds to the atmosphere and I look at it as a sign of respect and not just for me but for our team as a whole. Personally, the Hart Center is really special for me because I developed my love for basketball by watching my brother play in that very gym. I have very vivid memories of games there and I cannot help but think of those things when I enter there.

Hoop Time:Your thoughts on making the 2nd team All Patriot League team for the third time and also your thoughts on Abe Badmus not making it.

KB12: I was really surprised Abe did not make it. He definitely deserved to be honored for the way he played this year and he is definitely what makes our team go. I was honored to make the All Patriot League team again and it something I appreciate. I was probably more excited to see Charles get player of the year though because he has really been play great lately and been our main man.

Hoop Time:Describe what it was like playing in Sojka this year, especially the Villanova game. When you came as a freshman, did you ever think you'd see crowds like that?

KB12: I can still remember games in Davis that maybe had 200 people there and more than half being family members. I remember walking into Sojka with my parents for the first time and turning to them saying there was no way we could fill this place but it has happened and become very special. The Villanova game was amazing and I think it gave the students a chance to see how much fun they can have at our games and the crowd has continued to show up throughout the year giving us an edge.

Hoop Time: Have you looked at the whole all-league list, and if so, is there anybody you were surprised to see not on it besides Abe?

KB12: I looked at it very quickly but can not remember everybody that was on it and that was not but I'm sure there are a few people that deserve to be recognized that were not but that is the nature of these types of rewards. There simply is not enough room for everybody, which is unfortunate.

Hoop Time: Compare Duke and Villanova. Who would be the favorite on a neutral court? And on the same line, what do you think about FSU just upsetting Duke?

KB12: I honestly think Villanova would beat Duke simply because I think what Duke does it take people out of their offense with their defensive pressure. With the guards Villanova has and the way they handle the ball I do not think Duke could do that to them. It would definitely be a fun game to watch knowing we played both teams. For the FSU/Duke game, it just seems like it has been a crazy year in terms of upsets and nothing really surprises me anymore.

Hoop Time: The Patriot League's companion league, the Ivy League, has had a number of teams go 14-0. Why do you think it took so long for the first Patriot team to do so?

KB12: That is a good question but it always seems like the Patriot League is much more balanced than the Ivy. As far as I know and my knowledge is limited it seems like Penn or Princeton always win the Ivy League which makes ya wonder whether or not they are recruiting at a different level than the rest of that league. I think the Patriot League is on a much more level playing field.

Hoop Time: How is playing for Coach Flannery? He seems like he doesn't sit still the entire game and is very emotional. You are the opposite of that. Just comment on this a little

KB12: I love playing for Coach Flannery. He is difficult to play for at times because he is so intense but we all understand that he wants to win and is always striving for us to be the best we can be. In terms of us being very different in regards to emotion, I think I am very emotional but just do it more privately maybe.

Hoop Time: Do you prefer to play man-to-man or the match-up zone? How long did it take you and the other veterans to know exactly what to do in the match-up?

KB12: I like when we are mixing up our man and match-up but neither are easier to play because you are always very accountable. It definitely took a while for our team to develop our match-up and I think our experience has definitely made that defense one of our bread and butters because we are so comfortable with one another out there.

Hoop Time: Two of the three freshmen this year have seen limited minutes. Is this a function of them still learning the defenses? How do you see them doing next year?

KB12: I think it is a function of them still learning and coming into a program that had an established rotation. I think both Justin and Josh will be an asset to the program because they do very well at practices and I would hope they would perform similarly in game situations.

Hoop Time: What have you heard about next year's 3 recruits - Zach Evans, Stephen Tyree, and Patrick Behan?

KB12: I have not heard much other than them being really excited about this class. I've met all three of them and they seem like really good guys. Tyree has arms down to his knees so I'm sure Coach Flan is excited about the type of defense he can play and Behan is a big guy who has guard skills from what I hear. I have not seen them play though unfortunately but I hear good things.

Hoop Time:During recruiting, are you asked to speak to potential recruits, what are there concerns?

KB12: I usually try and reach out to recruits because I know how hard the recruiting process can be so I like to make the recruits feel as comfortable as possible. Recruits usually ask what type of school it is? How hard are the academics? How are the girls? How Coach Flan is? Those type of questions and I usually help them out.

Hoop Time: Why did you choose to attend BU, and what other schools were you looking at?

KB12: I chose BU very early because it is the type of school that I always envisioned me being at. It gave me the opportunity to play Division 1 athletics and get a great education at the same time. I was looking at other Patriot League and Ivy League schools but BU was the only play I ever seriously considered.

Hoop Time: Looking ahead to Post Graduation What are your plans and aspirations?

KB12: I do not know exactly when it will happen but I plan on moving back home to Peabody getting involved in teaching. I would also like to coach at the high school level at some point. I plan on getting my masters in education and then continuing on from there.

Hoop Time: Were you nervous going into the Kansas game last year? What was the team's mentality going into that game?

KB12: I was extremely nervous but I think we took the approach that if we go out and give it our best shot then we have nothing to lose. Obviously, not many people gave us a realistic chance but in watching film we believed we could play with them and then once the game started we knew we could beat them. The team did truly believe we could win and we had a player's only talk before the game and left with the mentality that we can not be happy just being there, let's make our presence felt.

Hoop Time: What passed through your mind as Wayne Simien's shot was in the air in the Kansas game last March? What are your most vivid memories about the last part of that game?

KB12: Some things passed through my mind that I probably should just keep to myself but those memories really are just a big blur right now. I watched the tape and watched us all running around but I do not think any of us really knew what we were doing. It seemed like Donald was the only one that was composed at that time. It really was a great moment for us though.

Hoop Time: How do you as an individual and then as a a team get "up" for playing Army again?

KB12: Well I think me as an individual and us as a team take the same approach. We are excited about playing Army or any team because that is our next game and it is a chance to put on the uniform and play which always beats practice. Also, it is the first step in completing our third goal so we will be ready and I am sure Army will go out and play hard because they always do.

Hoop Time: What have you heard from students about how the tickets were distributed for the Patriot League Tournament?

KB12: Students have been complaining because I guess it was very difficult to get tickets for the tourney. I know I had to get a ticket for my girlfriend and they were sold out so I had to go through a student that I heard bought like thirty tickets or so. I guess they didn’t put a limit on how many an individual could buy so that caused some problems. I find it pretty cool that our ticket is such a tough thing to get so I usually get a kick out of the long lines at the box office so far in advance

Hoop Time: Kevin has to get back to the books, but before he goes, one last question, or actually, a combination of two that were asked:

Hoop Time: Before we post that thanks again for joining us in the first ever Hoop Time chat

Hoop Time: Pro athletes say they never read the press... But what about you guys? Do you guys read these message boards or other PL related web sites and/or blogs?

KB12: We do not read the message board or the blogs because we realize a lot of that stuff may not be the most flattering but I always read the newspapers and I usually visit HoopTime because it is a better source for following Patriot League Basketball than the Patriot League website but I do not think many of our players get involved in those things. If we ever do its usually on accident and it gives us a laugh.

Hoop Time: thanks for the plug!

Hoop Time: Again, a special thanks to Kevin for taking time out of his schedule at an obviously busy time

Hoop Time: Good luck to you and the Bison Friday night and in the postseason

KB12: Anytime I really appreciate you having me.

KB12: Thank you. Go Bison!
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We will have a complete wrap of the coaches pre-tournament conference call later, but wanted to post a bulletin on Holy Cross standout Kevin Hamilton.

HC coach Ralph Willard said Hamilton suffered a sprained capsule in his jaw during the win Sunday over Lehigh and is questionable for the tournament opener against Navy.

Willard said Hamilton was injured when he took a blow to the jaw and reinjured it in practice yesterday. Hamilton has not been able to eat solid foods since Sunday.

According to Willard, the team's medical staff is hoping to fit Hamilton with some sort of protective mask that would enable him to play Friday.

"I don't know how effective he will be even if he is able to play," said Willard.
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Player of the Year: Charles Lee, Bucknell

Defensive Player of the Year: Kevin Hamilton, Holy Cross

Rookie of the Year: Derrick Mercer, American

Coach of the Year: Pat Flannery, Bucknell

All Patriot-League (First Team):
Charles Lee, Bucknell
Chris McNaughton, Bucknell
Keith Simmons, Holy Cross
Kevin Hamilton, Holy Cross
Jose Olivero, Lehigh

All Patriot-League (Second Team):
Kevin Bettencourt, Bucknell
Torey Thomas, Holy Cross
Andrei Capusan, Lafayette
Joe Knight, Lehigh
Andre Ingram, American

All Rookie Team:
Kaleo Kina, Navy
Alex Vander Baan, Holy Cross
Jason Vegotsky, Bucknell
Derrick Mercer, American
Andrew Brown, Lafayette
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The Patriot League will announce its all-league team, and hand out individual honors, during a conference call this morning at 11. We will update immediately after the announcement.

Then tonight at 9:15, one of the players expected to garner honors during the conference call, Bucknell senior guard Kevin Bettencourt, will join us for a chat in the Basketball U. chat room.

In the meantime, here's a few stories to fix your hoops jones:

Buddy story -- For those who have not heard it before, Lenn Robbins of The New York Post retells the tale of the friendship between Bucknell coach Pat Flannery and his old college teammate, Villanova coach Jay Wright. You will need to log in to read the Post online. Feel free to use the combination of hoop_time@hotmail.com and the password: hooptime. Or register yourself; it is free.

Newfound fans -- The Bucknell bandwagon continues to pick up new Bison rooters as the regular season champions roll into the league tournament. The latest trend, fans of bubble teams like California and Kentucky are now rooting for the Bison to win the league tournament. It's not that those folks have something against Holy Cross or Lehigh. They just worry that the Bison could grab one of the precious at-large bids if somebody else wins the Patriot League's automatic bid.

Buried treasures -- In the weekly Onions column at College Hoops Net, you'll find praise for Bucknell's defense, concerns about its offense, and analysis or how scholarships have elevated the Patriot League. It is a long column and you will need to scroll a little to get to the Patriot League mentions, but the stuff before it is worth the read.

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