Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Faces Texas Tech Saturday on ESPN2
12/23/2006 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 23, 2006
WHAT: Bucknell (5-5) vs. Texas Tech (9-3)
WHERE: United Spirit Arena, Lubbock, Texas
WHEN: Saturday, December 23, 2006, 4:30 p.m. (EST)
TV: ESPN2
RADIO: Eagle 107 and SportsJuice.com
COMPLETE PRESS NOTES
about the game
With good reason, all eyes will be on legendary Texas Tech coach Bobby Knight on Saturday evening, as he attempts to equal Dean Smith's all-time record for coaching wins (879). Knight's Red Raiders come in with a 9-3 record following an impressive 71-56 road win over Arkansas in their most recent outing last Saturday. They have won 5 of 7, and their only three losses this season are to quality teams in Marquette, Air Force and Stanford. Bucknell comes in just as hot, winning 5 of 6, including an impressive 68-67 decision at Xavier on Wednesday. Facing a very difficult schedule comprised almost exclusively of road games, the Bison are back to .500 at 5-5 on the season after a frustrating 0-4 start.
with a victory over texas tech, bucknell would ...
-- ... give head coach Pat Flannery his 301st career victory.
-- ... deny Red Raiders coach Bobby Knight his all-time record-tying 879th career victory.
-- ... win for the sixth time in seven games and improve to 6-5, which would be the first time over .500 this season.
-- ... take a 1-0 series lead.
-- ... win its second straight game against the Big 12 (last was Kansas in the 2005 NCAA Tournament).
Pat Flannery reaches a milestone of his own
A major coaching milestone will be the storyline on Saturday, but Bison head coach Pat Flannery reached one of his own on Wednesday when he earned victory No. 300 at Xavier. Flannery won 95 games at Lebanon Valley from 1989-94, and he has captured 205 more wins since returning to his alma mater prior to the 1994-95 season. His 200th Bucknell victory came against Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament last March. Flannery became the 51st active coach to reach 300 wins.
bucknell vs. bobby knight
Bucknell has matched up against a Bobby Knight-coached team just once previously, 41 seasons ago. In Knight's very first season as a head coach, his Army squad routed the Bison 84-38 at West Point on Feb. 2, 1966. That was win No. 13 of 878.
bucknell in the lone star state
Bucknell has played five previous games in the state of Texas and is 1-4 in those games. The one victory came just last March and was certainly a memorable one -- the Bison toppled Arkansas 59-55 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Dallas.
Date Opponent Result 3/17/89 vs. Syracuse (NCAA @ Dallas) L, 104-81 1/6/90 at SMU L, 88-80 11/28/93 at Texas A&M L, 74-69 3/17/06 vs. Arkansas (NCAA @ Dallas) W, 59-55 3/19/06 vs. Memphis (NCAA @ Dallas) L, 72-56
welcome home
Bucknell has two players who hail from the state of Texas. Junior Rob Thomas was raised in Houston before his family moved to New Jersey, where he attended Mendham High School. Freshman Stephen Tyree is from The Woodlands and graduated last spring from Strake Jesuit High School.
last time out
Pat Flannery's 300th victory was a thriller, as Bucknell held off a late Xavier rally and topped the Musketeers 68-67 (see p. 29 for complete recap and boxscore). The hot-shooting Bison surged to an early 11-point lead and never trailed until Xavier went ahead with 2:28 left in the game. John Griffin hit a big game-tying 3-pointer with 1:47 left, and down two points, Jason Vegotsky hit the go-ahead trey with 1:26 to play.
inside the xavier boxscore
-- Bucknell hit a season-high 11 3-pointers in 21 attempts (.524) against a Xavier team that was holding foes to 27.8% long-range shooting coming in.
-- John Griffin tied his career high with four 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 16 points. Donald Brown (12) and Chris McNaughton (11) also hit double figures, while Jason Castleberry scored nine points of 3 of 4 accuracy from the arc.
-- Perhaps Bucknell's most impressive statistic was its season-high 21 assists on 25 made field goals. Brown dished a career-high six assists, while Griffin and Abe Badmus had five each.
-- Xavier had a +6.0 rebound margin coming in, but the Bison outrebounded them 27-23.
-- The Musketeers had been 82-14 overall and 44-4 against non-conference opponents at the Cintas Center. Bucknell's win snapped Xavier's 17-game non-league home winning streak that dated back more than two years.
-- It was the first meeting between Bucknell and Xavier.
-- It was the third straight year Bucknell defeated a team from the Atlantic 10.
vegotsky tough in the clutch
Sophomore Jason Vegotsky is making a name for himself as a clutch shooter with the game on the line. He has hit what would become game-winning 3-pointers in each of Bucknell's last two games. Most recently, Bucknell trailed Xavier 67-65 until Vegotsky hit a three from the left corner with 1:26 left. The Bison came up with two defensive stops and the shot held up as the winner. Last Saturday at Cornell, Vegotsky hit a trey from the identical spot in the left corner with 46 seconds left, snapping a 66-all tie in a game the Bison would win 70-66. On Nov. 29, his 3-pointer from, where else but the left corner, with 1:25 left was a key shot in Bucknell's come-from-behind win at Saint Francis (Pa.). what can brown do for you?
Senior co-captain Donald Brown is enjoying one of the best stretches of his career. In the last six games he is 31-for-44 (.705) from the field and is averaging 12.7 ppg. The Bison are 5-1 over that span. Brown leads the team in scoring (10.1), rebounding (6.2) and field-goal percentage (.606).
brown earns patriot league honor
For the first time in his career, Donald Brown earned Patriot League Player of the Week honors on Monday. In Bucknell's lone game last week, Brown scored 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting in a come-from-behind win over Cornell. He hit the tying bucket with just over a minute to play, then sealed the 70-66 win with a free throw in the last 10 seconds.
castleberry a spark off bench
Sophomore guard Justin Castleberry had not seen much significant playing time prior to the fifth game of the season at Yale, but as coach Pat Flannery continued to take a look at different player combinations, Castleberry got his first extended look and certainly made the most of it. In 18 minutes on the floor, he made his first career 3-pointer, went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and scored a career-high 11 points. He matched that total against Cornell last Saturday, then hit three big 3-pointers in Wednesday's win at Xavier. Coming into the Yale contest, Castleberry had six career points and had never played more than six minutes in any game. He is averaging 16.0 minutes per game since the Yale game and appears to have secured a permanent spot in the guard rotation.
thomas comes up big in clutch
Junior Rob Thomas, like Justin Castleberry, had not played much prior to this season, but Thomas has given the team a big energy boost, particularly in the second halves of games. Of his 37 points this season, 24 have come in the second half, when he has made 11 of 16 (.688) from the field and 4 of 6 (.667) from 3-point range. For the season, Thomas is shooting 51.7% from the field and 50.0% from 3-point range.
making amends
Early in the season Bucknell lost two games in which it had double-digit leads, first on opening night at Albany and then at home against Wake Forest. The Bison atoned for those two lost chances by overcoming big deficits against Saint Francis (Pa.) and Cornell. On Nov. 29, the Bison trailed the Red Flash by 15 in the first half, by 10 at halftime and by eight with 2:55 left. At Cornell last Saturday, Bucknell trailed by 17 in the first half, by 13 at halftime and by eight with 4:45 left.
scoring balance
Bucknell does not have any of the Patriot League's top 10 scorers, but the Bison have gotten good scoring balance in the early going. The team has seven players averaging at least 5.0 points per game, and nine different players have scored 10 points in a game at least once. Donald Brown (10.1 ppg) took over the team scoring lead after his 16-point performance against George Mason, and he became the sixth different player to lead the team in scoring this year.
milestone watch
-- Chris McNaughton how has 1,251 points, which ranks 12th on Bucknell's career list. He is now 76 points behind J.R. Holden (1,327) for 11th.
-- Abe Badmus now ranks second on Bucknell's career steals list (184). He is 102 thefts shy of the school record set by Mike Bright (286) from 1989-93. Against Yale Badmus recorded his 300th career assist. His total of 317 helpers now ranks sixth in school history, 15 shy of fifth-place Russell Peyton.
-- Donald Brown scored his 600th career point against Xavier.
-- In a three-game span earlier this season, McNaughton played in his 100th career game at Saint Francis, Brown played in his 100th game against Northern Iowa and Badmus hit the century mark against George Mason.
-- John Griffin has 97 career 3-pointers and is close to becoming the 12th player in school history with 100 career treys.
patriot league all-access coming in january
The eight Patriot League institutions and College Sports Television Online will air more than 100 men's and women's basketball games live on the Internet as part of the new Patriot League All-Access package beginning in January 2007. Nearly every intraleague contest, including Bucknell's men's and women's games, will be available through video streaming on www.PatriotLeague.com or www.BucknellBison.com. The Patriot League All-Access package is available for $6.95 per month. The monthly fee allows a subscriber to watch any Patriot League basketball games that are part of the package. The first games will be streamed on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2007. Bucknell's men's and women's teams take on Navy in a doubleheader at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. that day.
who's got next?
After Saturday's game the Bison players and staff will fly to their various hometowns for a few days off for the holidays. The team will rendezvous in Lewisburg on Dec. 26 to begin preparations for the Pepsi Marist Classic in Poughkeepsee, N.Y., on Dec. 29 and 30. Bucknell will face Central Arkansas in the tournament opener, then either host Marist or Northern Illinois in the championship/consolation round. The Bison won this tournament in 1999.
