Bison Start Four-Game, Three-City Road Trip Saturday at Butler

11/17/2016 10:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: TBD

What: Bucknell (2-1) at Butler (2-0) as part of Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational
Where: Hinkle Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, Ind.
When: Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, 1 p.m.
TV: Fox Sports Network (Station Clearances)
Webcast: FoxSportsGo.com
Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 WEGH FM)
Internet Radio: BucknellBison.com
Live Statistics: ButlerSports.com
• COMPLETE GAME NOTES

Bucknell Probable Starters
G: Stephen Brown (6.3 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 5.0 apg)
G: Kimbal Mackenzie (7.3 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 1.7 apg)
G: Nate Jones (6.7 ppg, 0.7 rpg, 2.3 apg)
F: Zach Thomas (20.0 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 4.7 apg)
C: Nana Foulland (13.7 ppg, 8.0 rpg)

With a Win over Butler, Bucknell Would ...
• ... improve to 3-1 on the season and 1-1 on the road.
• ... win a game in the state of Indiana for the first time.
• ... defeat a Big East team (in the conference at the time of the game) for the first time since Dec. 3, 2005 (at DePaul 57-52).

Headlines
• Bucknell takes a 2-1 record out on a four-game, three-city road trip, with all of the games part of the Continental Tire Las Vegas Invitational. After playing at Butler on Saturday, the Bison will bus to Nashville for a Monday night affair with Vanderbilt. Then it's off to Las Vegas for games on Thanksgiving Day (Norfolk State) and Black Friday (Northern Colorado or Sacred Heart) at the Orleans Arena.
• Bucknell made it a 2-0 start at home in 2016-17 with a 75-62 victory over Robert Morris on Wednesday at Sojka Pavilion.
• Junior forward Zach Thomas had one of the best games of his career against Manhattan ... and then he surpassed it with an even better performance against Robert Morris just five days later. In the Manhattan game, Thomas scored 25 points on 7-12 shooting from the floor and 10-14 from the free-throw line, and he also added eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals. Against Robert Morris, he nearly recorded the first triple-double in program history with 19 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Sandwiched in between was a team-high 16-point effort at Wake Forest, and Thomas comes into the Butler game with a 20.0 ppg scoring average. Thomas is the first Bucknell player to record 60 points in the first three games of the season since Chris Simpson netted 62 to open the 1993-94 season.
• The Bison were picked to finish third (behind Lehigh and Boston University) in the Patriot League in a preseason poll of the league's head coaches and sports information directors. Junior center Nana Foulland was named to the Preseason All-Patriot League Team. After two modest performances to start the season, Foulland broke out against Robert Morris on Wednesday with a career-high 23 points along with 10 rebounds, five blocked shots and three steals.
• A year ago, the Bison captured the outright Patriot League regular-season title for the fifth time in the last six years before being upset by Holy Cross in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals.
• Bucknell must replace three starters and four lettermen from last year's squad, including leading scorer and First Team All-Patriot League selection Chris Hass (17.2 ppg), who is now playing professionally in Germany. Also graduated are starting off-guard Ryan Frazier (8.2 ppg), who was a member of the Patriot League All-Defensive Team; starting power forward Dom Hoffman (6.2 ppg), and reserve forward Matt Banas (1.1 ppg).
• The two returning starters are the team's two junior co-captains: Foulland and point guard Stephen Brown. Foulland was a Second Team All-Patriot League pick a year ago after posting 11.8 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Brown was a Third Team All-PL selection, recording 9.2 points and 5.3 assists per game.
• A pair of sophomores have joined the starting lineup. Shooting guard Kimbal Mackenzie made his first career start against Manhattan after an outstanding preseason, and he had a 15-point game against Wake Forest. Mackenzie played in every game off the bench at the “1” and “2” spots last season. Wing Nate Jones made just his second career start in the season-opener. He replaced an injured Hass for one game last year at Boston University.
• Butler is coming off a thrilling 70-68 home victory over Northwestern on Wednesday. Freshman Kamar Baldwin hit a game-winning jumper with 0.4 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs the win and a 2-0 start. Kelan Martin, who was one of 20 players named to the watch list for the 2017 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award, had 22 in the win and is averaging 21.5 through two games. The Bulldogs were picked sixth in the Big East preseason poll, and they are currently receiving votes in both national polls.
• Bucknell has no Indiana natives on the active roster, although assistant coach John Griffin spent the 2010-11 season in Indianapolis working as a video coordinator with the Pacers.

How to Get the Game
• The Bucknell-Butler game will be televised regionally through the Fox Sports Network. A list of regional FSN affiliates carrying the game can be found at BucknellBison.com. In addition, the game will be streamed on FoxSportsGo.com. Jeff Levering and Jordan Cornette have the call.
• The game can be heard in the Susquehanna Valley on the radio on Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WQKX), with Doug Birdsong calling the action. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off.
• The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
• Live stats can be found at ButlerSports.com.
• Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Bucknell vs. Butler Series Notes
• This will be the second all-time meeting between the Bison and Bulldogs, and far less is riding on the outcome this time.
• The only other meeting came in the Round of 64 at the 2013 NCAA Tournament at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. Butler advanced with a 68-56 victory. Bucknell flipped an 11-point defict into a six-point lead with a 19-2 run in the second half, but the Bulldogs immediately shot back with an 8-0 run and pulled away down the stretch. The late Andrew Smith had 14 points and 16 rebounds in that game, and he held Bison star center Mike Muscala to nine points and 10 rebounds.

Bucknell vs. The Big East
• Bucknell is 13-35 (.271) all-time against the teams that currently comprise the Big East. The Bison are 0-1 against Butler, 1-0 against DePaul, 2-9 against Georgetown, 0-1 against Marquette, 0-1 against Providence, 0-2 against St. John's, 0-5 against Seton Hall, 9-16 against Villanova and 1-0 against Xavier.
• Bucknell's last victory against any team from that group is a 68-67 win at Xavier on Dec. 20, 2006, but the Musketeers were a member of the Atlantic 10 at the time.
• Bucknell's last win over a team that was actively in the Big East at the time of the game was 57-52 verdict at DePaul on Dec. 3, 2005. The Bison had just knocked off another Big East squad in Syracuse two weeks earlier, and they beat another former Big East power in Pittsburgh the year before that.

Last Time Out
• Nana Foulland and Zach Thomas both recorded double-doubles to lead a dominant performance for the Bucknell frontcourt, and the Bison led wire-to-wire in a 75-62 victory over Robert Morris on Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion.
• Thomas continued his torrid start to the season, just missing the first triple-double in team history with 19 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Foulland was just as effective, logging a career-high 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting along with 10 rebounds, five blocked shots and three steals. Even reserve center Nate Sestina got in on the act, hitting all five of his attempts for 10 points in just seven minutes of action. Bucknell finished with a 48-28 edge in points in the paint, and it parlayed 11 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points.
• For the second straight home game, the Bison were stout defensively. They limited the Colonials to 42.1% shooting and forced 19 turnovers, leading to a 28-10 advantage in points off turnovers.
• The defense and low-post supremacy offset a 4-for-22 shooting night from 3-point distance. The Bison shot 45.9% overall.

Numbers Worth Noting
• Through three games, Bucknell's frontcourt (“4” and “5” positions) are shooting 57.4% from the field, while the guards are shooting 33.7%. The Bison have struggled from long distance in the early going, hitting on 30.8% of their 3-point tries.
• Nate Sestina has been remarkably efficient coming off the bench for the Bison. He has 32 points in 34 minutes this season and has reached double-figure points in all three games despite not playing more than 15 minutes in any contest yet. Sestina, who is back in the rotation after missing almost all of his rookie campaign with a shoulder injury, had 10 points on 5-for-5 shooting in only seven minutes against Robert Morris on Wednesday. Pro-rated to 40 minutes, Sestina is averaging 37.6 points and 14.1 rebounds per game.
• Bucknell opponents have 39 assists and 52 turnovers thus far. The Bison are averaging 9.0 steals per game.
• From the Department of Conflicting Statistics: the Bison have outscored opponents by an average of 40-28 in the paint this season, but they have been outrebounded by an average of 40-32 through the first three games.
• Bucknell's starting five of Stephen Brown, Kimbal Mackenzie, Nate Jones, Zach Thomas and Nana Foulland have played 42 total minutes together thus far with a +8 scoring margin.

Who's Got Next?
• Bucknell continues its road trip on Monday night at Vanderbilt at 9 p.m. (Eastern). The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
• The Commodores are 1-1 entering a Friday home game with Norfolk State. They opened with a 95-71 loss to Marquette in the Veterans Classic at the U.S. Naval Academy, then they bounced back with an 80-66 win over crosstown rival Belmont.