Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2017
- Class:
- 2006
Kevin Bettencourt '06 was a two-year captain on some of Bucknell's best-ever men's basketball teams. A deadly outside shooter and terrific team leader, Bettencourt helped lead the Bison to Patriot League championships and NCAA Tournament first-round victories in 2005 and 2006. The 2005 team upset Kansas, marking the first NCAA Tournament win in school and Patriot League history. A year later, the Bison won a school-record 27 games, the last of which was an NCAA win over Arkansas, and earned a national top-25 ranking for the first time in school history.
After earning Patriot League Rookie of the Year honors in 2003, Bettencourt was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection in each of his next three seasons. He earned the team's Benton A. Kribbs Award as Team MVP in 2004 and 2006 and the Malcolm Musser Award for Leadership in 2005 and 2006.
Bettencourt started all 123 games in his four-year career and scored 1,577 career points, which ranked fourth in team history at the time of his graduation. He broke school records for made 3-pointers in a season and career -- he bettered the career mark during his junior season --Â and his .832 free-throw percentage was third-best all-time. His 42-point game at Saint Francis early in the 2003-04 season was the second-highest single-game performance of the modern era and highest ever in a road game.
Bettencourt was known as a big-game player. He hit five 3-pointers in each of Bucknell's two NCAA Tournament wins over Kansas and Arkansas. As a junior, he hit the go-ahead free throws with 23 seconds left in an upset of 7th-ranked Pittsburgh, and a year later he scored 20 points in a road win over nationally ranked Syracuse and had 23 in the Patriot League championship game against Holy Cross at Sojka Pavilion.Â
A native of Peabody, Mass., Bettencourt launched a successful coaching career in his home state after graduating from Bucknell, making a number of Division III NCAA appearances as head coach at Endicott College.Â
(Hall of Fame Class of 2017)
