Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Paired With Towson in O'Reilly's ESPNU BracketBusters
1/30/2007 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2007
LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Bucknell men's basketball team will take on former conference rival Towson in a non-televised game as part of the O'Reilly's ESPNU BracketBusters event, it was announced Tuesday. The contest will be played Saturday, Feb. 17 at Sojka Pavilion at 2 p.m.
From 1982-83 until 1989-90, Bucknell and Towson were rivals in the now-defunct East Coast Conference. Twenty years ago this March, the two teams met in the ECC Championship game at the Towson Center, with the Bison prevailing 86-74 to secure the first NCAA Tournament bid in school history.
The two teams have not met on the hardwood since the 1991-92 campaign, and Bucknell holds a 15-8 series lead.
Currently a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, the Tigers are 11-11 (5-6 CAA) after Monday's 69-60 victory at James Madison. Towson features a standout guard in Gary Neal, who just became only the third player in NCAA history to score 1,000 points at two different schools. Neal, who spent two years at La Salle before transferring to Towson, averages 25.7 points per game, fourth-best in the nation. The Tigers are coached by Pat Kennedy, who had head coaching stints at Iona, Florida State, DePaul and Montana before arriving at Towson in 2004-05.
Bucknell and Towson have played just one common opponent thus far, George Mason. While the Bison defeated the Patriots 60-57 at the BB&T Classic on Dec. 3, the Tigers fell at home to GMU 73-44 on Jan. 11.
This is the second year in a row Bucknell has been involved in the BracketBusters event. Last season, the Bison dropped a heartbreaking double-overtime decision at Northern Iowa in a game televised on ESPN2. UNI was picked to play in one of this season's 14 televised BracketBusters games, which were announced on Monday night.
As part of the BracketBusters arrangement, Bucknell will play a non-conference game at Towson in 2007-08.
Along with the announcement of the 2 p.m. start time for the Bucknell-Towson contest, two other Bison sporting events scheduled for that day will have their start times slightly adjusted. The women's basketball game between Bucknell and Colgate will move to 5 p.m., while the men's lacrosse game between Bucknell and St. John's will now begin at 11 a.m. at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
The Bison men's basketball squad carries a four-game winning streak into Tuesday's night's Patriot League affair at Colgate. The Bison are 12-8 overall, 6-1 in the Patriot League, and in second place in the league standings.
