Bucknell University Athletics
Cameron Ayers Named to Preseason All-Patriot League Team
10/24/2013 11:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – For the second year in a row, Bucknell senior Cameron Ayers (Blue Bell, Pa./Germantown Academy) has been named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Men's Basketball Team, it was announced Thursday at the annual Media Day event at the Arts Quest Center at SteelStacks. The Patriot League also released its preseason poll of head coaches and sports information directors, and the Bison were picked fourth, behind Boston University, Lafayette and Army.
A 6'5” guard, Ayers was a Patriot League All-Rookie Team selection in 2011, a Second Team All-Patriot League pick in 2012 and a First Team All-Patriot League honoree last season. He enters his senior campaign with 1,065 career points, which ranks 31st on Bucknell's career list.
Ayers will be a team co-captain in 2013-14 along with junior guard Steven Kaspar. Ayers has played in all 103 games over the last three seasons – helping Bucknell to Patriot League regular-season titles all three years and PL Tournament titles in 2011 and 2013 – and he has started all 69 contests over the last two seasons. In 2012-13 he scored in double-figures for the second year in a row, averaging a career-high 12.4 points per game while shooting a career-best 46.7 percent from the field.
Last season Ayers ranked 12th in the Patriot League in scoring and 10th in field-goal percentage, and he committed only 33 turnovers in 34 games while averaging nearly 32 minutes per contest.
Ayers was named to the All-Tournament Team during Bucknell's title run last spring, with his 19-point outing against Army in the semifinals one of the tournament's most notable performances. He led the Bison with 18 points in a season-opening road win at Purdue, and he scored in double figures 23 times in 34 games.
Ayers, who is also a member of the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll and the Bucknell Bison Leadership Academy, was one of five student-athletes named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team. Boston University guard D.J. Irving was tabbed by the league's head coaches as Preseason Player of the Year. Ayers and Irving were joined on the team by Lehigh guard Mackey McKnight, Holy Cross center Dave Dudzinski and Loyola guard Dylon Cormier.
Boston University garnered the maximum 18 first-place votes and 162 points in the preseason poll. Lafayette collected the two remaining first-place nods (coaches and SIDs were not permitted to vote for their own team) and 130 points. Army was the No. 3 pick with 115 points, just two ahead of Bucknell with 113 points.
Loyola (109), Lehigh (93), Holy Cross (70), Colgate (49), American (36) and Navy (23) rounded out the poll.
Bucknell finished 28-6 last season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in program history, where they garnered a No. 11 seed and played Butler at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. Following the NCAA loss to Butler, the Bison graduated the winningest senior class in program history, including all-time scoring leader and two-time Patriot League Player of the Year Mike Muscala. Bryson Johnson and Joe Willman, also all-conference performers and 1,000-point scorers, graduated as well, meaning Bucknell will have at least three new starters when it opens the 2013-14 season at Stanford on Nov. 8.
