Bucknell University Athletics
Challenging 2004-05 Men's Basketball Schedule Finalized
9/6/2004 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sept. 6, 2004
LEWISBURG, Pa. - At least nine games against teams coming off 20-win seasons, and three potential games against 2004 "Sweet Sixteen" participants make up the 2004-05 Bucknell men's basketball schedule, which could prove to be one of the toughest in the 110-year history of the Bison program.
The Bison are coming off a promising finish to the 2003-04 season in which they went 9-5 in Patriot League play and reached the semifinals of the conference tournament with a starting lineup featuring two sophomores and three freshmen. All five starters return to face a daunting schedule this winter.
Bucknell opens the season on Nov. 11-12 at the Carrier Dome, with Syracuse serving as one of four first-round hosts of the Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament. In the opening round the Bison will face Princeton, the defending Ivy League champions which finished 20-8 a year ago. The host Orange, who reached the NCAA final 16 last year after claiming the national title in 2003, and Northern Colorado will meet in the other first-round game. The team that wins twice in Syracuse will advance to the tournament semifinals at New York's Madison Square Garden the following week.
Bucknell's home opener is scheduled for Nov. 19 against Rider at 7 p.m., and three days later Saint Francis (Pa.) visits Sojka Pavilion for a 7 p.m. start. Those teams are projected to challenge for league titles in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and the Northeast Conference, respectively.
Thanksgiving weekend takes the Bison to Ames, Iowa, for the American Family Insurance Cyclone Challenge Nov. 26-27. Bucknell will face host Iowa State in the opening round, and either Northern Colorado or Stephen F. Austin in the second. The Cyclones finished 20-13 last season, including a run to the NIT semifinals, while Stephen F. Austin was 21-9 last season, losing to Texas-San Antonio 74-70 in the Southland Conference championship game.
Three of Bucknell's first four games in the month of December are on the road against Ivy League contenders. On Dec. 1 the Bison visit the historic Palestra to take on Penn, and on Dec. 4, Bucknell will play at Yale for the first time since 1988. After a home date with Robert Morris on Dec. 7 and a break for final exams, the Bison travel to Cornell on Dec. 18. Niagara, a 22-game winner and an NIT invitee a year ago, comes to Sojka Pavilion on Dec. 22.
Bucknell closes out the 2004 calendar year with another trip to Philadelphia for a matchup with college basketball's storybook team from a season ago. On Dec. 28, the Bison visit a St. Joseph's squad that finished the regular season undefeated, went 30-2 overall and advanced to the NCAA Tournament's "Elite Eight."
The competition does not get any easier once the calendar flips to 2005, with a trip to Pittsburgh's new Petersen Events Center on tap for Jan. 2. Yet another "Sweet Sixteen" team, the Panthers were 31-5 in 2003-04.
While the Patriot League slate begins on Jan. 8 with a home contest against Holy Cross, Bucknell will play another Big East foe in a third trip to the Philadelphia area on Feb. 15. Villanova, coached by 1983 Bucknell graduate Jay Wright, will host the Bison this season, then the Wildcats will make a return trip to Sojka Pavilion in 2005-06.
All told, Bucknell's non-conference foes combined for a 269-157 (.631) record last season.
Patriot League basketball fans will notice two significant scheduling changes this season, one during the season and one postseason. First, the league has gone away from men's and women's doubleheaders, splitting the sites so when, for example, Bucknell's men are facing Lehigh at home, the Bison women will be at Lehigh.
Also, under a new on-campus Patriot League Tournament format beginning in 2005, the top two seeds will host four-team "mini-tournaments" on their home floors, with the winners advancing to the championship game, again at the site of the higher seed.
The opening rounds of Patriot League men's tourney is slated for March 4-5, with the championship game returning to ESPN on Friday, March 11 at 4:30 p.m.
Bucknell will also have one preseason exhibition game, that coming on Nov. 6 against Indiana (Pa.) at 7 p.m.
