Men's Basketball Opens 2022-23 Season Monday Night at Home against Lebanon Valley

Monday, November 7

Lewisburg, Pa.

7 p.m.

Bucknell University

Lebanon Valley

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Photo by: Lianne Garrahan

Men's Basketball Opens 2022-23 Season Monday Night at Home against Lebanon Valley

11/6/2022 9:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- Bucknell opens its 128th season of men's basketball on Monday night when Lebanon Valley comes to Sojka Pavilion. Head coach Nathan Davis's squad returns four starters and several other key contributors while welcoming five newcomers into the mix this season.

There are several promotional events happening on Monday, most notably a 50% off discount using the promo code WELCOMEBACK at the Campus Box Office. In addition to the special discount on tickets, fans attending the game will receive a "White Out" t-shirt, presented by Weis Markets, and a team magnet schedule, courtesy of W&L, while supplies last.

2022-23 Bucknell Men's Basketball Season Preview

GAME DIGEST
What: Lebanon Valley (0-0) at Bucknell (0-0)
Where: Sojka Pavilion, Lewisburg, Pa.
When: Monday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m.
Streaming: ESPN+
Local Radio: The Valley WVLY 100.9 FM
Internet Audio: BucknellBison.com
Live Stats: BucknellBison.com
COMPLETE GAME NOTES
DIGITAL GAME PROGRAM

Bucknell Tentative Starters
G: Elvin Edmonds IV (5.9 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.3 apg)
G: Xander Rice (13.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 3.9 apg)
F: Ian Motta (2.5 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 0.4 apg)
F: Alex Timmerman (7.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 0.7 apg)
C: Andre Screen (11.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.0 bpg)

With a Win over Lebanon Valley, Bucknell Would ...

... improve to 82-46 all-time in season openers.
... improve to 24-9 all-time against the Flying Dutchmen.
... win its third straight home game dating back to last season and improve to 201-70 all-time in Sojka Pavilion.

Headlines

Bucknell tips off its 128th season of men's basketball on Monday night against Lebanon Valley. This is the first time the Bison have played their season-opener at home since 2016-17, when they defeated Manhattan 76-64.
This is Bucknell's first game against a non-Division I opponent since opening the 2015-16 season with a 107-61 win over Shenandoah. That was Nathan Davis's first game as Bucknell's head coach.
The Bison were picked eighth in the Patriot League preseason coaches' poll, ahead of Holy Cross and Lafayette. Defending-champion Colgate was the preseason No. 1 pick.
Bucknell is looking to bounce back from a 9-23 season a year ago. The Bison were playing well at the end of the season, however, with an overtime win at Lafayette in the Patriot League Tournament first round capping a 3-1 stretch. Bucknell was eliminated by Colgate in the quarterfinal round.
Bucknell won eight Patriot League regular-season titles in a nine-year span from 2011-19, and the Bison went to the NCAA Tournament in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2018 during that stretch. Now Bucknell is trying to rebound from a rare run of three straight sub-.500 seasons, something that has not happened since 2007-08 to 2009-10, although the Bison did win conference tournament games in each of the last three years.
This year's squad is led by a trio of senior co-captains in Xander Rice, Alex Timmerman, and Jake van der Heijden. Rice is in his second season as a captain.
Bucknell steadily improved offensively last season and ended up second in the league in scoring at 71.2 points per game while ranking in the top three in all of the shooting percentage statistics. The Bison struggled on defense, however, giving up an average of 79.4 points per game while allowing opponents to shoot 46.6% from the field and 37.3% from the 3-point arc.
Bucknell and Lebanon Valley have some basketball connections. Hall-of-Fame coach Pat Flannery '80, who famously led the Bison to league titles and NCAA Tournament wins over Kansas (2005) and Arkansas (2006), was the head coach at Lebanon Valley for five seasons before returning to his alma mater in 1994. Flannery guided the Flying Dutchmen to the Division 3 national championship in 1993-94. Former Bison assistant coach Joe Meehan was a three-year captain at LVC, where he scored more than 1,600 career points.
Edwin "Hook" Mylin was Lebanon Valley's football and basketball coach from 1923-34. He left Annville to become the head football coach at Bucknell, succeeding Lebanon Valley graduate Carl Snavely, and in his very first season, Mylin's Bucknell team compiled a 6-2-2 regular-season record and then defeated Miami 26-0 in the inaugural Orange Bowl on Jan. 1, 1935. Mylin was elected to the Helms Football Hall of Fame in 1960, the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1965, the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 1974, and the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame in 1981.
Brad McAlester succeeded Flannery at Lebanon Valley in 1994-95 and has been there ever since. He topped the 400-win mark last season and is the program's all-time winningest head coach.
McAlester's squad finished 7-18 overall and 3-13 in the MAC Commonwealth conference last season. Senior forward Collin Jones, a Lock Haven native, was a First Team All-MACC selection in each of the last two seasons. He averaged better than 20 points and eight rebounds per game in both campaigns and has already topped the 1,000-point mark in just 59 career games. No. 2 scorer Evin Timochenko (12.7 ppg) is also back.
As this game falls before the official NCAA start date for Division 3 teams, Lebanon Valley will be considering the game an exhibition, while it is an official contest for Bucknell.

How to Get the Game

Monday's game will stream live on ESPN+, with Doug Birdsong back for his 23rd season as Bucknell's play-by-play announcer. He will be joined for select games by former Bison assistant coach Joe Meehan.
Kevin Foedinger will have the radio call on WVLY 100.9 FM in the Susquehanna Valley.
The audio feed is also available online free of charge via BucknellBison.com.
Live statistics can be accessed via BucknellBison.com.
Follow @Bucknell_MBB for in-game updates on Twitter.

Bucknell vs. Lebanon Valley Series Notes

Bucknell holds a 23-9 lead in a series that dates back to 1905. Thirty of the 32 meetings came between 1905-1943.
The most recent meetings came in Davis Gym in back-to-back seasons in 1985-86 and 1986-87. Bucknell won the latter 105-62, as Mike Joseph led five Bison in double figures with 14 points off the bench. Bucknell shot 53.2% from the field while holding the Flying Dutchmen to 28.2%.
Lebanon Valley's last win over Bucknell was a 44-43 verdict in Davis Gym on Feb. 10, 1943. That would be the last meeting for 41 years.

The 2022-23 Bison

Bucknell lost three players from last year's squad, including leading scorer and Second Team All-Patriot League selection Andrew Funk. After posting 17.6 ppg and graduating 21st on Bucknell's all-time scoring list with 1,230 career points, Funk is now a co-captain at Penn State, where he is using his fifth year of eligibility as a graduate student. Also departing were Malachi Rhodes (3.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg), who is now at McNeese State, and Brock Newton (0.5 ppg, 0.5 rpg), who is now playing at the University of Ottawa in his native Canada.
The Bison have nine players back from 2021-22 along with five newcomers. Xander Rice (13.1 ppg, 3.9 apg), Andre Screen (11.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg), Jake van der Heijden (6.5 ppg), and Elvin Edmonds IV (5.9 ppg) are all returning starters.
New to the squad are junior Jack Forrest, a Saint Joseph's transfer, and freshmen Ruot Bijiek, Josh Fulton, Brady Muller, and Noah Williamson.

Bucknell's Returning Production in 2022-23
Points   69.6%
Rebounds 75.5%
Assists 75.2%
Blocks   80.0%
Steals   77.1%
3FG 63.3%

Notable Numbers

Even though four starters are returning, Bucknell's shot distribution will look different this season. The graduated Andrew Funk accounted for 27.5% of the team's field-goal attempts and 24.8% of the team's points a year ago.
Bucknell struggled defensively last season, and a big reason was an inability to create turnovers. Opponents committed only 9.6 miscues per game in 2021-22. That coupled with some rebounding troubles meant that opponents attempted 248 more field goals and 107 more 3-pointers.
Bucknell was excellent at the free-throw line last season, hitting at a 76.5% clip. That was the best mark in the Patriot League and 23rd-best in all of Division I basketball.

Team FT%, Bucknell History
   Year      FT%
1.  2010-11   .7883
2.  1988-89   .7877
3.  1990-91   .774
4.  1987-88   .773
5.  2021-22   .765

uXander Rice led the free-throw parade, hitting 88.4% (122-138) to rank first in the Patriot League and 20th in the nation. That was also the third-best mark in team history. Josh Adoh (20-22) and Elvin Edmonds IV (36-40) both hit the 90% mark at the stripe but did not have enough attempts to qualify for the league leaders.

Individual FT%, Bucknell History
   Player      Year    FT%
1.  Mike Joseph 1989-90   .929
2.  Kevin Bettencourt 2004-05   .888
3.  Xander Rice 2021-22   .884
4.  Mike Joseph 1987-88   .868
5.  Mike Joseph 1988-89   .861

Rice also shot 42.4% from the 3-point arc to rank fifth in the Patriot League.
Alex Timmerman ranked second in the league in field-goal percentage at 59.9%, which was the eighth-best figure in team history.

Who's Got Next?

Bucknell will play at home again on Saturday against Niagara at 4 p.m., the first meeting between the two teams since 2013.
Saturday will be Alumni Day at Sojka Pavilion, and the men's basketball program will be honoring Patrick Behan '10. Behan is battling ALS, and Bucknell will be raising funds and awareness through his "Behan Strong" foundation.