Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Men's Basketball Award-Winners Announced
4/10/2006 8:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 10, 2006
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Emotional, heartfelt farewells from the Bucknell men's basketball senior class highlighted the annual Backcourt Club Awards Banquet, held on Sunday in the Terrace Room on campus. The sold-out event served as a poignant conclusion to what most observers feel was the finest season in Bison basketball annals.
Senior co-captains Kevin Bettencourt (Peabody, Mass./Peabody) and Charles Lee (Gaithersburg, Md./Quince Orchard) shared the team's MVP honor, the Benton A. Kribbs Award for Outstanding Contribution.
Lee was the 2006 Patriot League Player of the Year and a First Team All-Patriot League choice for the second year in a row. The first player in league history to win Patriot League Tournament MVP honors twice, Lee's 24-point game against Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament helped him finish as the team's scoring leader at 13.2 points per game. He also led the team in rebounding (6.0) and steals (70).
Lee this season became the 15th player in Bucknell history to record 1,000 points and 500 rebounds. On Bucknell's career lists, he will graduate ranked fifth in steals (167), 18th in rebounds (568) and 21st in scoring (1,147).
 Donald Brown and Chris McNaughton shared the Coaches' Award.  |
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Bettencourt, a Second Team All-Patriot League pick for the third straight year, enjoyed a terrific senior season, particularly down the stretch when he was deadly from long range. Bettencourt, who averaged 12.7 points per game this year and 12.8 over his career, went 18-for-33 (.545) from 3-point distance in the 2006 postseason. He canned four 3-pointers in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals against American, he hit six in the championship game win over Holy Cross, then he nailed five treys in an NCAA Tournament victory over Arkansas.
All told, Bettencourt finished with 294 career 3-pointers, a Bucknell record and the No. 2 total in PL history. Bettencourt made 79 3-pointers this season, a Bucknell record. He owns the top three single-season 3-point totals in Bucknell history (79 in 05-06, 78 in 04-05 and 72 in 03-04).
 Musser Award winners Darren Mastropaolo and Abe Badmus. |
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Bettencourt's 1,577 career points rank fourth on Bucknell's all-time list and 10th on the Patriot League all-time list. He ginished with 361 career free throws, fourth on the Bucknell career list. Bettencourt, who broke the Bucknell career games played record with 123 (he never missed a game in his career and started all but one), was a career 83.2% free-throw shooter, third-best in school history. Also he finished sixth on the Bucknell career chart in steals (157) and eighth in assists (296).
For the second straight year, Lee and Bettencourt also shared the Malcolm E. Musser Award for Leadership. Both were two-year co-captains and guided the Bison to a pair of Patriot League titles and two trips to the NCAA Round of 32.
 Ed and Barbara Bettencourt received the Backcourt Club Award. |
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Bettencourt and Lee, along with classmates Holland Mack (Paterson, N.J./Paramus Catholic) and Tarik Viaer-McClymont (Springfield Gardens, N.Y./Woodmere Academy) were all presented Senior Awards from head coach Pat Flannery, and each senior offered moving speeches reflecting on their time at Bucknell. This class won 78 games in four years, second-most in school history.
Two juniors who will be key leaders on next year's team were presented the Coaches' Award, which is the one award in the program not voted on by the players. The Coaches' Award was presented to forward Donald Brown (Central Islip, N.Y./St. Thomas More) and Chris McNaughton (Leutershausen, Germany/Dientzenhofer Gymnasium).
McNaughton was a First Team All-Patriot League pick for the second straight year. He averaged 12.8 points per game, second on the team and eighth in the Patriot League. He also led the league and ranked 24th nationally in field-goal percentage at .578. McNaughton scored his 1,000th point this season and had a number of outstanding performances in the post, most notably a career-high 29-point effort against No. 4 Villanova at Sojka Pavilion.
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Brown was arguably the Patriot League's top "Sixth Man" this season. He averaged 6.5 points and 4.7 rebounds, figures that swelled to 8.2 and 5.9 in Patriot League play. Brown shot 52.2 percent from the field this year and ranked third in the Patriot League in rebounding in conference games. Perhaps his best showing of the season came in the Patriot League championship game, when he scored 14 points in the victory over Holy Cross.
Junior point guard Abe Badmus (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame H.S. for Boys) and sophomore forward Darren Mastropaolo (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth) were the co-recipients of the Thomas A. Thompson Award for "spirit, intensity and outstanding defensive play." Badmus, a ball-hawking defender who ranked in the top four in the Patriot League in steals, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio, received the honor for the second straight year. The 2005 Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year, Badmus averaged 6.6 points per game and shot an even 50 percent from the floor. None of his 212 points this season were bigger than his two clinching free throws with seven seconds left in the 59-55 victory over Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament.
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Mastropaolo is the team's "intangibles" guy. While his 3.7 points per game and 3.6 rebounds per game averages were not gaudy, Mastropaolo seemed to make all the "hustle" plays. He led the team in drawn charges, he was the team's best screener and he was a terrific defender in the post.
Head coach Pat Flannery and his staff awarded the Backcourt Club Award, given each year to a friend of the Bison basketball program, to Ed and Barbara Bettencourt. The parents of Kevin Bettencourt, Ed and Barbara have seen more Bucknell games over the last four years than anyone but the players and staff. In fact, the Bettencourts missed only two of Kevin's games in his outstanding four-year career.
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Punctuated by the Arkansas win at the NCAA Tournament, the Bison finished with a best-ever 27-5 record in 2005-06. They became the first team in Patriot League history to go unbeaten (14-0) in league play, and they won their second consecutive Patriot League title.
