Bring on the Bison
Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/Sports/38458/
It’s getting repetitive, Dorothy.
Bucknell’s Bison have joined you proclaiming they aren’t in Kansas anymore.
Upsetting third-seeded Kansas as a 14 th-seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament likely assisted the Bison this year to stampede beyond Cinderella. Bucknell vaults to the first round game of no upset. No. 8 vs. No. 9. The Bison are the ninth seed vs. eighthseeded Arkansas in Friday’s 11:30 a.m. first round game of the NCAA Tournament at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
It’s not like these Bison live in or on the past. Bucknell is 26-4 after all, with a big win at Big East power Syracuse and road wins over other teams you know like St. Joseph’s and DePaul and losses to the likes of NCAA Regional top-seeds Duke and Villanova. They are an unblemished conference champion, 14-0 in Patriot League play plus a Patriot Conference Tournament championship, to boot.
So these Bison prefer discussing the present going into Friday’s game even if media still brings up Kansas past. Reliving Kansas like an old jock at a cocktail party still blathering about his bygone big game doesn’t suit them. "It’s something we are all proud," Charles Lee, Bucknell’s Patriot League Player of the Year, said Monday of conquering Kansas, "but it will be nice to worry about Arkansas. Kansas is a long, long time ago."
He got a second faster than you can say "ditto." "I agree," Bucknell guard Kevin Bettencourt said on Monday’s teleconference from the Bucknell campus in Lewisburg, Pa.
Pat Flannery, the Bucknell coach certainly doesn’t minimize the Kansas game’s impact but says for his program, going unbeaten in the Patriot League has an impact, too. "People make a big thing of Kansas," Flannery said, "and it was. It was historic. It was wonderful, but going up to Holy Cross, if you’ve ever been to Worcester [the Holy Cross campus in Worcester, Mass.], there aren’t a lot of people going in there to win ballgames."
Flannery figures Kansas coach Bill Self and the Jayhawks staff had full respect for the Bison before last year’s game but that the Jayhawk players likely had an awakening. "I guarantee you," Flannery said, "the [Kansas] coaches were prepared and knew everything about us. I think sometimes with kids, though, you go in and have a certain stigma. We’re the little academic school in Pennsylvania. You get into that game and you think you’re going to turn something on, but you realize, boy, these kids can run a little bit, they can shoot. they have good size and they’re tough kids."
Arkansas coach Stan Heath, who took underdog Kent State to the Elite Eight before coming to Arkansas, says "I’ve been in that shoe," Bucknell wears.
Bucknell will have Heath’s full respect and attention.
What about the Razorbacks themselves? It’s hard to envision a whole team that’s never been to the NCAA dissing a veteran team that has while beating Kansas.
Then again, Bucknell’s Kansas conquest maybe didn’t much impact a Razorback team too distressed over its fizzled end to last season for it to register back then. "I didn’t know they beat Kansas," Arkansas senior guard Jonathon Modica said Sunday when brackets were announced. "I didn’t even watch the tournament last year until the Final Four. But I’ve heard of the school. I watched them play on television once. I know they are a good team. I know we are not going to take them lightly just because our name seems to be a little bit bigger. We know they are going to come ready to play just like we are."
Well, not exactly. Because they don’t play alike.
Heath’s Hogs don’t play to the time-warp speed of former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson’s Razorbacks, but they play fast enough compared to Bucknell’s pace that Flannery said the Bison will do some 7 on 5 practicing to prepare for the pressure defense.
In contrast, the Bison slow things down with a matchup zone defense and a deliberate offense milking the shot -clock then springing a backdoor or open three. the Bison make 39 percent of their treys and are balanced with three 6-11 Chris McNaughton, Lee, 6-3, and Bettencourt, 6-2, averaging 12.9, 12.9 and 12.6 points.
Heath said the Hogs have to take care of the ball offensively and apply the pressure defensively to force turnovers when they can and otherwise be patient enough to make the Bison pay for overpatience.
Steven Hill, Arkansas’ 6-11 shot-blocking center, could be a key. "You get late in that clock," Heath said, "and try to go to the basket — we have a presence down there that’s going to change some things."