Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell's Muscala Named Patriot League Player of Year; Cohen, Paulsen Also Win Major Awards
2/28/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 28, 2011
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The 22-8 Bucknell men's basketball team reaped some of the benefits of a tremendous regular season, as the Bison were prominently recognized in the All-Patriot League voting, announced Monday by the league office. Headlining the list is sophomore center Mike Muscala (Roseville, Minn./Roseville), the 2011 Patriot League Player of the Year. Also claiming major awards were junior guard Bryan Cohen (Huntingdon Valley, Pa./Abington Friends), who became the first player to repeat as Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year, and head coach Dave Paulsen, who earned his first Patriot League Coach of the Year award.
Muscala and senior guard Darryl Shazier (Newport News, Va./Menchville) both earned First Team All-Patriot League honors, while sophomore guard Bryson Johnson (Pictou, Nova Scotia/St. David Catholic) garnered a second team citation. Rounding out the list of honorees is freshman guard Cameron Ayers (Blue Bell, Pa./Germantown Academy), who was named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team.
Muscala became the third sophomore in league history to win the Player of the Year award, joining Holy Cross' Tim Szatko in 2001 and Colgate's Adonal Foyle in 1996. He is Bucknell's fourth Player of the Year, following in the footsteps of Patrick King in 1992, Mike Bright in 1993 and Charles Lee in 2006.
A Second Team All-Patriot League selection as a freshman a year ago, Muscala leads the Bison in scoring (14.9), rebounding (7.4), blocked shots (1.9) and field-goal percentage (.517). He leads the Patriot League in blocked shots and ranks in the top 10 in numerous other categories. Muscala has had a number of big performances in recent weeks, setting career highs with 33 points against American, 17 rebounds against Navy and a school record-tying eight blocked shots against Lehigh. He has nine 20-point games and seven double-doubles, and in January he dropped in buzzer-beaters in wins over Richmond and Holy Cross. He later won the Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week Award.
Also a Capital One Academic All-District honoree, Muscala on Monday was also named to the inaugural Patriot League All-Academic Team. He earned a 3.75 grade-point average last semester while majoring in management.
Cohen becomes the first two-time Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year, and he is the fourth Bucknell player to win it in the seven-year history of the award. Abe Badmus won the inaugural award in 2005, and Stephen Tyree won it in 2008.
Regularly assigned to the opposition's top offensive player, Cohen has spearheaded a Bison defense that leads the Patriot League in field goal percentage defense (.399) and 3-point defense (.326) and ranks second in scoring defense (64.0). While keeping many of the league's stars in check defensively, Cohen has also produced 7.3 points per game and is shooting a career-best 46.2 percent from 3-point range.
Shazier, a senior point guard, earned his very first all-conference certificate with his first team selection. It was a well-deserved honor, as Shazier has quarterbacked a Bison offense that is averaging 70.6 points per game while leading the league in all of the shooting percentage categories as well as fewest turnovers per game (11.2).
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Shazier is on his way to a second career Patriot League assists title, averaging a career-best 5.6 per game. He has 169 assists, sixth most in a season at Bucknell, and only 43 turnovers all year. His 3.93 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks second in all of Division I basketball, trailing only Wisconsin guard Jordan Taylor. Shazier has had five or more assists 18 times this season, setting career highs with 10 assists against both Boston College and Colgate. He also had a career-high 28-point game against Navy, as well as a 10-rebound performance against Lafayette.
Shazier has played in all 122 games over the last four seasons, and his 482 career assists rank fourth in Bucknell history and sixth in Patriot League history.
Like Muscala, Johnson was a Patriot League All-Rookie selection last season, and now he moves up to Second Team All-Patriot League honors. Johnson is Bucknell's second-leading scorer at 11.5 points per game, and he is in the midst of a terrific long-range shooting season. He has obliterated the Bucknell single-season record for 3-pointers with 87, and his 47.0-percent shooting from the arc ranks first in the Patriot League and fifth nationally. He is already tied for seventh on Bucknell's career 3-point field goal list with 154.
Johnson went 7-for-12 from the arc and scored 25 points against Boston College, then he upped his career-high with a 30-point game in a win at Lafayette earlier this month. Johnson had a streak of 23 straight games with a trifecta this season, including back-to-back game-winners in key league wins over American and Holy Cross. He is averaging 12.6 points per game in league play, and he ranks ninth in the Patriot League in overall field-goal percentage (.468), despite the vast majority of his shot attempts coming from long distance.
Ayers has been a vital part of Bucknell's backcourt rotation in his debut season, and he gives Bucknell a Patriot League All-Rookie Team selection for the ninth time in the last 10 years. Ayers is averaging 7.1 points per game while shooting 43 percent from the field and 87 percent from the free-throw line. Already one of Bucknell's top defenders, he is second on the team with 26 steals. Ayers scored a season-high 17 points at Army, and he has scored in double figures eight times.
Paulsen has guided the Bison back to the top of the Patriot League standings in only his third season at Bucknell. Leading the team from seven wins to 14 and now to 22 and a regular-season championship, Paulsen gives the Bison five Patriot League Coach of the Year awards. Charlie Woollum earned the honor in 1993, and Pat Flannery won it in 1995, 1997 and 2006.
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Paulsen, who won a Division III national championship in 2002-03 as head coach at Williams, celebrated his 300th career win earlier this season, and this is his seventh 20-win season as a head coach. Paulsen's 2010-11 squad is the eighth in league history to win at least 13 conference games. After a 2-6 start, the Bison have gone 20-2, including a 13-1 Patriot League finish that will have them seeded No. 1 at the Patriot League Tournament.
The postseason gets underway on Wednesday, when Bucknell hosts Army in a quarterfinal matchup at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.
2010-11 Men's Basketball All-Patriot League and Major Awards
Player of the Year: Mike Muscala, Bucknell
Rookie of the Year: J.J. Avila, Navy
Defensive Player of the Year: Bryan Cohen, Bucknell
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Nathan Hedgecock, Army
Coach of the Year: Dave Paulsen, Bucknell
First-Team All-League
C.J. McCollum, Lehigh
Jared Mintz, Lafayette
Vlad Moldoveanu, American
Mike Muscala, Bucknell
Darryl Shazier, Bucknell
Second-Team All-League
Devin Brown, Holy Cross
Bryson Johnson, Bucknell
Andrew Keister, Holy Cross
Stephen Lumpkins, American
Jordan Sugars, Navy
All-Rookie Team*
J.J. Avila, Navy
Cameron Ayers, Bucknell
Dave Dudzinski, Holy Cross
Josh Herbeck, Army
Mackey McKnight, Lehigh
Pat Moore, Colgate
Isaiah Roberts, Navy
* - Seven players due to a tie in the voting
Academic All-Patriot League Team*
Nathan Hedgecock, Army
Nick Hendra, American
Andrew Keister, Holy Cross
Gabe Knutson, Lehigh
Mike Muscala, Bucknell
Ryan Willen, Lafayette
* - Six players due to tie in the voting
