≈

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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?

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

# posted by Hoop Time : 5:25 PM  

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

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."

# posted by Hoop Time : 9:48 AM  

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