Saturday, February 27
Lewisburg, Pa.
2 p.m.
Bucknell University
vs
American
Photo by: Jon Lambert
Men's Basketball Returns to Action Saturday vs. American
2/26/2021 1:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- For the first time in four weeks, the Bucknell men's basketball team will be in action this weekend taking on American in a home-and-home series. The Eagles visit Sojka Pavilion on Saturday at 2 p.m., and then the Bison return the trip on Sunday for a 4 p.m. tip at Bender Arena. The Bucknell program has been on pause, first due to positive COVID-19 tests with in the team's Tier 1 group, and then due to campus-wide restrictions on group activities following a surge in cases. Four players remain out due to COVID-19 protocols, but the bulk of the squad was able to return to practice late this week in advance of the series with American.
The other development this week was the Patriot League's announcement that the postseason tournament is back to a full-field event. All 10 teams will now qualify for the tournament, with the 7-10 seeds playing first-round games on Wednesday, March 3. The first-place teams in each of the league's three divisions will still earn the top three tournament seeds, but seeds 4-10 now will be determined by overall Patriot League winning percentage. That means there are significant seeding implications all around the league this weekend. Bucknell can win the Central Division and nab the No. 3 seed if Lehigh sweeps two games from Lafayette this weekend, or the Bison could be seeded as low as eighth.
The pause came at a bad time for the Bison, who were playing their best basketball of the season. When we last saw the Bison in action, they were rolling to a 92-68 win over Lehigh for their fourth straight victory, the last three by double-digit margins. During the four-game winning streak, Bucknell has averaged 82.0 points per game while shooting 48.7 percent from the field and 39.8 percent from 3-point range.
• Complete Game Notes
• 2020-21 Media Guide
• Digital Game Program
SERIES GAME ONE
What: American (2-5, 2-5 PL South) at Bucknell (4-4, 4-2 PL Central)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Saturday, February 27, 2 p.m.
TV: WQMY-TV
Internet Stream (U.S.): ESPN+ | Internet Stream (International): SIDEARM Sports
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
SERIES GAME TWO
What: Bucknell at American
Where: Bender Arena, Washington, D.C.
When: Sunday, February 28, 4 p.m.
Internet Stream (U.S.): ESPN+ | Internet Stream (International): SIDEARM Sports
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: AUEagles.com
Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Xander Rice (9.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 3.9 apg)
G: Jordan Sechan (0.0 ppg, 0.0 rpg, 0.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (13.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.4 apg)
G: Walter Ellis (7.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.0 apg)
C: Paul Newman (4.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.0 bpg)
With a Win over American on Saturday, Bucknell Would ...
First 3 Games 63.0 0.87 36.6 26.9 15.7
Last 5 Games 80.8 1.10 49.1 37.5 11.6
Numbers worth Noting
1. CJ Walker, Ohio State .956
2. Ty Gadsden, UNCW .953
3. Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Cal State Fullerton .946
4. Jack Ferguson, Colgate .938
5. Jarod Lucas, Oregon State .918
6. Marreon Jackson, Toledo .918
7. Justin Jaworski, Lafayette .915
8. Andrew Funk, Bucknell .913
9. Antoine Davis, Detroit .911
10. E.J. Stephens, Lafayette .907
1. Darius Brown, CSUN 4.55
2. Devearl Ramset, UCSB 4.22
3. Jon Williams, Robert Morris 4.15
4. Mike DePersia, IUPUI 3.89
5. Terrell Brown Jr., Arizona 3.81
6. Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga 3.69
7. Connor McCaffrey, Iowa 3.65
8. Jordan Bohannon, Iowa 3.53
9. Jacob Gilyard, Richmond 3.52
10. Dwon Odom, Xavier 3.50
11. Xander Rice, Bucknell 3.44
The other development this week was the Patriot League's announcement that the postseason tournament is back to a full-field event. All 10 teams will now qualify for the tournament, with the 7-10 seeds playing first-round games on Wednesday, March 3. The first-place teams in each of the league's three divisions will still earn the top three tournament seeds, but seeds 4-10 now will be determined by overall Patriot League winning percentage. That means there are significant seeding implications all around the league this weekend. Bucknell can win the Central Division and nab the No. 3 seed if Lehigh sweeps two games from Lafayette this weekend, or the Bison could be seeded as low as eighth.
The pause came at a bad time for the Bison, who were playing their best basketball of the season. When we last saw the Bison in action, they were rolling to a 92-68 win over Lehigh for their fourth straight victory, the last three by double-digit margins. During the four-game winning streak, Bucknell has averaged 82.0 points per game while shooting 48.7 percent from the field and 39.8 percent from 3-point range.
• Complete Game Notes
• 2020-21 Media Guide
• Digital Game Program
SERIES GAME ONE
What: American (2-5, 2-5 PL South) at Bucknell (4-4, 4-2 PL Central)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Saturday, February 27, 2 p.m.
TV: WQMY-TV
Internet Stream (U.S.): ESPN+ | Internet Stream (International): SIDEARM Sports
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
SERIES GAME TWO
What: Bucknell at American
Where: Bender Arena, Washington, D.C.
When: Sunday, February 28, 4 p.m.
Internet Stream (U.S.): ESPN+ | Internet Stream (International): SIDEARM Sports
Local Radio: Eagle 107 (107.3 FM WEGH)
Listen Live: BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com
Live Stats: AUEagles.com
Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Xander Rice (9.9 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 3.9 apg)
G: Jordan Sechan (0.0 ppg, 0.0 rpg, 0.0 apg)
G: Andrew Funk (13.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.4 apg)
G: Walter Ellis (7.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.0 apg)
C: Paul Newman (4.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.0 bpg)
With a Win over American on Saturday, Bucknell Would ...
- ... win its fifth game in a row and improve to 5-4 on the season.
- ... record a five-game winning streak for the first time since the 2018-19 season, when it had two five-game streaks.
- ... be seeded no lower than fifth in the Patriot League Tournament.
- ... defeat the Eagles for the third straight time and improve to 45-24 all-time against them.
- ... defeat the Eagles at home for the seventh straight time and improve to 18-2 against AU at Sojka Pavilion.
- ... give head coach Nathan Davis his 108th victory as Bucknell's head coach and bring him within two of Malcolm Musser for fourth on the program's all-time wins list.
- For the first time since Jan. 31, Bucknell will take the court on Saturday when American comes to Sojka Pavilion to open a two-game, home-and-home series. The Bison and Eagles will also meet in D.C. on Sunday.
- Bucknell and American were originally scheduled to play on the weekend of Feb. 13-14, but those were two of six straight games taken off the Bison schedule due to COVID-19 issues within Bucknell's Tier 1 group. Series against Loyola and Lafayette were also canceled. American becomes just the fourth different opponent Bucknell has played this season.
- Not including teams that have opted out of the season, Bucknell (8) and American (7) enter this weekend having played the fewest games in Division I. The Eagles didn't get to play their first game until Jan. 16 and have had two pauses this season, although they have played three times in the last week.
- Bucknell will be without four players this weekend due to COVID-19 protocols: John Meeks, Malachi Rhodes, Andre Screen and Alex Timmerman.
- The Bison will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday. Meeks, Paul Newman, Jordan Sechan and manager Spencer Bahrenburg will all be recognized prior to the game, and their families will join via Zoom on the Sojka Pavilion video boards in order to take part.
- Prior to the pause in the season, Bucknell had won four straight games on the heels of an 0-4 start. All four victories came against Lehigh, the last three by an average margin of 18.0 points. Most recently, the Bison won 92-68 at Sojka Pavilion on Jan. 31.
- Meeks was one of the catalysts in that four-game winning streak, after missing the first four games due to injury, he returned to the lineup against Lehigh on Jan. 16. In the four games against the Mountain Hawks, Meeks piled up 98 points and 25 rebounds. He logged the first two 30-point games of his career and won a pair of Patriot League Player of the Week awards.
- American comes in with a 2-5 record and will be looking to shake a three-game losing streak. Last weekend the Eagles dropped a pair of home games to South Division leader Navy, and then on Wednesday they made up a game against Loyola and fell 60-49 at Reitz Arena. Both of American's wins came against Loyola on Jan. 23-24. The Eagles won 71-70 in D.C. and 81-79 in triple overtime in Baltimore, courtesy of a Jamir Harris 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
- Harris is the Patriot League's third-leading scorer at 20.6 points per game, and he has been one of the league's premier 3-point shooters. His 28 treys are third-most in the league, even though American has played the fewest games. He hit nine in that 3OT game at Loyola and averages 4.0 made threes per game. No one else in the league averages more than 2.6. Harris' .452 3-point percentage is fourth-best in the conference. Stacy Beckton Jr., who had a 30-point game in the season-opener at Navy, is the team's No. 2 scorer at 12.4 ppg, and frontcourt men Johnny O'Neil (11.2) and Josh Alexander (10.4) also average in double figures.
- The streaming of Patriot League games moved to the ESPN+ platform in 2020-21, and both of this weekend's Bucknell-American games will be available on the network. Joe Vasile handles the call of Saturday's game from Sojka Pavilion, and Dan Laing and longtime coach Jimmy Patsos will describe the action on Sunday from Bender Arena.
- In addition, Adam Marco and Bucknell Athletics Hall-of-Famer Pat Flannery will call the action on Saturday for WQMY-TV throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.
- Both games can be heard in the Susquehanna Valley on the radio on Eagle 107 (WEGH 107.3 FM), with Doug Birdsong now in his 21st season as play-by-play announcer. The pregame show begins 30 minutes before tip-off both days.
- The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com and Eagle107.com.
- Live statistics can be accessed via BucknellBison.com on Saturday and AUEagles.com on Sunday.
- Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.
- When the Patriot League announced a modified schedule for the 2020-21 season, plans were made for an eight-team PenFed Credit Union Patriot League Tournament, rather than the traditional 10-team, full-field event as in years past. On Thursday, the league announced that it would revert to the 10-team field due to a wide disparity in number of games played because of various COVID-related pauses.
- The men's tournament now begins with a pair of first-round games on Wednesday, March 3, featuring 7/10 and 8/9 matchups. The quarterfinal round remains on Saturday, March 6, followed by the semifinals on Wednesday, March 10 and the championship game on Sunday, March 14.
- The league also announced an adjustment in how the tournament will be seeded. As previously planned, the three divisional winners will be seeded 1-3 based on overall Patriot League winning percentage. The 4-10 seeds will now be placed based on their overall PL winning percentage. The prior seeding model granted the divisional runners-up the 4-6 spots.
- Based on the new methodology, Bucknell can be seeded as high as third or as low as eighth.
- The Bison can still win the Central Division if Lehigh wins both games against Lafayette this weekend. That would give Bucknell the No. 3 seed.
- At least one win against American would mean the Bison could finish no lower than fifth.
- During the weekend of Feb. 20-21, the Patriot League reaffirmed its commitment to anti-racism during all of its men's and women's basketball games. Student-athletes wore special shooting shirts adorned with a Black fist surrounded by 10 stars to represent each of the league's member institutions. The shirts feature the phrase "Pursuing Anti-Racism" on the front, and "Unity, Respect, Activism" on the back. Abby Kapp of the Bison women's basketball team was one of the original student-athlete collaborators on the design.
- Since Bucknell was unable to play last weekend, the Bison will be donning the shirts for Saturday's home game against American.
- Another initiative in which the Bison were unable to participate last weekend was the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) tribute to John Thompson. Coaches across the country wore commemorative towels over their shoulders during games to mirror the late Georgetown coach's signature sideline look.
- Bucknell head coach Nathan Davis was an avid Georgetown fan growing up in the D.C. suburbs, and he will be donning the towel on Saturday.
- After struggling at the offensive end in the first three games of the season, the Bison have made strides in the last five games. Here are some comparisons:
First 3 Games 63.0 0.87 36.6 26.9 15.7
Last 5 Games 80.8 1.10 49.1 37.5 11.6
Numbers worth Noting
- Andrew Funk is 21-for-23 (.913) from the foul line, third-best in the Patriot League and eighth-best in the nation.
1. CJ Walker, Ohio State .956
2. Ty Gadsden, UNCW .953
3. Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Cal State Fullerton .946
4. Jack Ferguson, Colgate .938
5. Jarod Lucas, Oregon State .918
6. Marreon Jackson, Toledo .918
7. Justin Jaworski, Lafayette .915
8. Andrew Funk, Bucknell .913
9. Antoine Davis, Detroit .911
10. E.J. Stephens, Lafayette .907
- Xander Rice has 20 assists and only four turnovers in his last five games, and he now leads the Patriot League and ranks 11th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.44).
1. Darius Brown, CSUN 4.55
2. Devearl Ramset, UCSB 4.22
3. Jon Williams, Robert Morris 4.15
4. Mike DePersia, IUPUI 3.89
5. Terrell Brown Jr., Arizona 3.81
6. Andrew Nembhard, Gonzaga 3.69
7. Connor McCaffrey, Iowa 3.65
8. Jordan Bohannon, Iowa 3.53
9. Jacob Gilyard, Richmond 3.52
10. Dwon Odom, Xavier 3.50
11. Xander Rice, Bucknell 3.44
- Bucknell's guards are 79-for-92 (.859) from the charity stripe.
- Freshman center Andre Screen has blocked at least one shot in all but one game this season.
- John Meeks is only the second Bison in team history to score 30+ points twice in a three-game span, joining Zach Thomas, who did it in 2018.
- Paul Newman shot 70.0% (7-10) from the field in the four games against Lehigh.
- Walter Ellis broke out of a 3-for-21 3-point shooting slump by hitting 8-12 in the last two games against Lehigh. Despite that cold spell, Ellis is still shooting 38.9% from the arc this season, ninth-best in the Patriot League.
- Bucknell is averaging 22.8 bench points per game.
- It's been nearly a month, but the last time the Bison walked off the floor on Jan. 31 they had finished off a second straight sweep of Lehigh.
- That most recent game was a 92-68 win at Sojka Pavilion. Bucknell shot 51.5% from the field and went 10-for-25 from the 3-point arc and 14-for-14 from the foul line. John Meeks was the player of the game, totaling a career-high 32 points on 11-for-16 shooting from the field and 9-for-9 from the foul line. Andrew Funk added 17 points, and Walter Ellis had 12, hitting all four of his 3-point attempts.
- A day earlier in Bethlehem, Bucknell won 84-70 behind 23 points from Meeks and a career-high 17 from freshman Deuce Turner. That game was tied at 43-43 at halftime, and then the Bison held the Mountain Hawks to 22.9% shooting (8-35) in the second half and outscored them 41-27 over the final 20 minutes.
- Bucknell has an overall 44-24 lead in an all-time series with American that includes some historic dates. The very first meeting on Jan. 14, 1939 also happened to be the first game ever played in Davis Gym (AU won 38-33). Coincidentally, American was also the opponent for the very last game ever played in Davis Gym on Jan. 11, 2003 (a 63-52 Bison win).
- As Patriot League rivals, Bucknell leads 29-12, including victories in the 2005 and 2006 PL Tournament semifinals.
- Bucknell has won 25 of 32 series meetings in Lewisburg, including 17 out of 19 at Sojka Pavilion, but the Bison are just 11-9 at Bender Arena since American joined the Patriot League in 2001-02.
- Bucknell and American played three times last season. They split two closely contested regular-season meetings, with the home teams winning each time. Then in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals, the seventh-seeded Bison upset the second-seeded Eagles 64-59 at Bender Arena.
- American's regular-season victory last year was a 61-60 verdict, courtesy of a Connor Nelson 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
- Bucknell and American have met four times in the postseason, with three coming as members of the Patriot League. Each of the first three postseason meetings came in the semifinal round. Bucknell went on to win Patriot League titles in 2005 and 2006, while American lost to La Salle 75-73 in the 1983 ECC title game.
- Bucknell is 306-136 (.692) all-time in Patriot League regular-season games, the best record of any league team. The Bison have finished at least .500 in PL play 25 times in 30 Patriot League seasons.
- Bucknell won three straight Patriot League regular-season titles from 2011-13, becoming the first team in league history to accomplish that feat. The Bison had won five in a row and eight of the previous nine before finishing T-6th last season.
- Bucknell has made nine Patriot League Tournament appearances as the No. 1 seed and seven as the No. 2 seed.
- Bucknell won Patriot League Tournament titles in 2005, 2006, 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2018. The Bison have made it to the semifinals 23 times and to the championship game 13 times in the league's first 30 years.
- The Bison are the only team to go unbeaten in league play in a season (14-0 in 2006).
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