Bucknell Men's Basketball Summer Alumni News

Aug. 4, 2010

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- While the current Bison men's basketball players continue their offseason workouts or wrap up their summer leagues in preparation for a return to campus in a few weeks, there has been plenty of recent news among the Bucknell alumni.

Patrick Behan '10 has signed a contract with the Gotha Rockets in the German Pro B division, and he leaves for Germany on Wednesday to join his new team. Gotha is moving up a division after a 19-7 season in the Regionalliga Southeast last year, and the team has a new coach in Russian Alexander Kharchenkov. Behan was a four-year contributor for the Bison and was a Second Team All-Patriot League selection in 2008-09. Behan joins a long list of recent Bucknell graduates to play professional basketball in Germany, including John Griffin '08, Chris McNaughton '07, Abe Badmus '07, Charles Lee '06, Chris Rodgers and Bryan Bailey '02.

McNaughton will be switching clubs next season, having signed with EWE Baskets Oldenburg, the defending regular-season champions in the Bundesliga, which is the top level of German basketball. Last year McNaughton played in Goettingen in the Bundesliga, and he helped the team win the Eurochallenge tournament. McNaughton had 22 points and five rebounds in 15 minutes of action in the championship game, an 83-75 win over Russian club Krasnye Krylia. McNaughton is spending the summer with the German National Team, which recently competed at the Leiden Nations Cup in The Netherlands.

Lee played last season with the Artland Dragons in the Bundesliga, and while he will be with a new team next season, Bailey will join the Dragons in 2010-11.

Griffin had a terrific rookie season with Crailsheim the Pro A league in 2008-09 but suffered a torn ACL late in that campaign. The knee injury kept him out for almost all of last season, although he did finish up with a few games in Slovakia. Now, Griffin moves on to a different phase of his career working in the video department with the NBA's Indiana Pacers. A Philadelphia native, Griffin was a First Team All-Patriot League pick as a senior, and he was a 1,000-point scorer during his career at Bucknell. Now he joins a Pacers organization that is coached by another Philadelphian in Jim O'Brien. Griffin's father, John Griffin Sr., was formerly the head coach at Saint Joseph's, which is O'Brien's alma mater.

Former Bison hoopster Matt Quinn '04 has been named head basketball coach at the Winchendon School in Massachusetts. A basketball powerhouse, Winchendon went 401-131 over the previous 14 years under coach Mike Byrnes, producing numerous Division I players along the way. Quinn had been the associate head coach at his alma mater, St. Thomas More, under his father Jere Quinn.

In June, former Bison hoops standout J.R. Holden '98 helped lead his CSKA Moscow team to yet another Russian Superleague championship. CSKA Moscow swept all three playoff series, including a whitewash of Khimki in the championship series. Of note, the finals featured a pair of players from the 2005 Kansas team that Bucknell defeated in the NCAA Tournament. Center Sasha Kaun is a teammate of Holden's with CSKA Moscow, while guard Keith Langford is one of Khimki's top players. Last season Holden averaged 10.8 points per game and led CSKA in minutes played, and at season's end he was named to the Euroleague All-Decade Team.

Also in June, Bill Courtney '92 was named head coach at Cornell, which is coming off a run to the Sweet Sixteen. Courtney, a Bucknell Athletics Hall of Famer and No. 8 scorer in program history, begins his first head coaching job after a long career as an assistant coach at American, Bowling Green, George Mason, Virginia and Virginia Tech.

While not a Bucknell graduate, many Bison fans will remember former assistant coach Bryan Goodman, who was on the bench for Bucknell's Patriot League championships and NCAA Tournament wins in 2005 and 2006. Goodman this summer was promoted to assistant coach at the University of Oklahoma, where he had been the Sooners' director of basketball operations since 2006-07.

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