Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell's Dan Blankenship Repeats As Patriot League Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete
4/10/2003 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 10, 2003
LEWISBURG, Pa. - For the second year in a row, Bucknell's Dan Blankenship (Moundsville, W.Va./Wheeling Park) has been named the Patriot League Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the league office announced on Thurdsay.
Blankenship is the fifth Bucknell cager in the last seven years to win the honor, and he joins former Bison Valter Karavanic as the league's only repeat winners in the sport of men's basketball.
One Patriot League student-athlete from each sport is selected as its Scholar-Athlete, with each of the winners becoming eligible for Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors later this spring. Candidates must have a minimum 3.20 grade-point average and be a starter or key reserve.
Blankenship, who in February was named to the Verizon Academic All-District Team, is a senior accounting major with a 3.33 cumulative GPA. One of Bucknell's top all-time "iron men," Blankenship never missed a varsity game in four years and finished his career ranked fourth on Bucknell's all-time games played list with 115. He became only the seventh Bison to top the 300-assist plateau and finished 6th on the school's all-time list with 311 career helpers.
Blankenship served his second stint as team co-captain in 2002-03 and helped lead Bucknell to the Patriot League Tournament semifinals for the second straight year, scoring a season-high 15 points in the Bison's opening-round win over Lehigh. He averaged 7.9 points and 3.6 assists per game and ranked sixth in the PL in assists, 10th in FT% (70.3) and fourth in assist-turnover ratio.
Equally as impressive are Blankenship's off-court credentials. He was recently featured along with 13 of his investment management classmates on CNBC's "Power Lunch" program. Blankenship spoke on the air in great detail about the investment prospects of Raytheon, a defense and aerospace supplier.
Blankenship has assisted a professor in a teaching clinic for fifth and sixth graders, and as a team captain he has helped organize many community service events, including a Halloween trip to a children's hospital and serving Thanksgiving meals at the Heiter Community Center in Lewisburg.
Blankenship's selection brings to a league-high 90 the number of Bucknell Patriot League Scholar-Athletes since the league's inception in 1990-91. Paul Olkowski (1993), Tom Welch (1997) and Valter Karavanic (1999, 2000) are Bucknell's other men's basketball Scholar-Athletes.
