Bucknell Men's Basketball: A Year to Remember - BUCKNELL OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE

E-mail

Pat Flannery, here answering questions at an NCAA Tournament news conference, won his 250th career game this season.

Bucknell Men's Basketball: A Year to Remember

Bison Win Patriot League Title, Advance to Second Round of NCAAs

April 4, 2005

2004-05 Bucknell Men's Basketball: A Year to Remember

2004-05 Game Recaps & Boxscores
Links to Newspaper Articles
Bucknell vs. Kansas Photo Gallery
Postseason Celebration Photo Gallery

December 4, 2004, New Haven, Conn.: Bucknell trails Yale 57-51 with 50 seconds to play before a sparse crowd at John J. Lee Amphitheater. The Bison, who were coming off a 13-point loss at Penn in their previous outing, were in serious danger of falling to 3-5 on the season. Suddenly, John Clark drained a long three from the top of the key to make it 57-54, Yale missed two free throws and Charles Lee tied it with another clutch three from the corner with 15 seconds left in regulation. Kevin Bettencourt opened the overtime session with a third-straight bomb, and Bucknell went on to snatch a 73-65 victory from the brink of defeat.

Little did anyone in the jubilant Bison locker room know at the time, but the waning moments of that game at Yale can now be classified as the fulcrum that swiveled the 2004-05 season into perhaps the greatest in the 110-year history of Bucknell Basketball.

The comeback in New Haven marked the start of an 11-game winning streak, which matched Bucknell's longest since 1919. Fifteen-point victories over Robert Morris and Cornell followed the Yale win, then the Bison embarked on perhaps its greatest three-game stretch in school history, at least for another two months anyway.

On Dec. 22, Niagara, the nation's highest-scoring team at the time, came to Sojka Pavilion. The Purple Eagles had posted 90 points against Bucknell the previous season, an almost unheard-of total against a Pat Flannery team, and they were averaging right at 90 points per game again coming to Lewisburg. In a classic back-and-forth affair, Bucknell's defense held tight down the stretch and Lee canned a tie-breaking jumper with 0.9 seconds left and the Bison prevailed 76-74.

Six days later, Bucknell visited famed Hawk Hill to take on a St. Joseph's team that captured the nation's attention by posting an undefeated regular season in 2003-04. The Bison were hardly flustered by the rabid sellout crowd, however. They made 10 of 15 3-point attempts and defeated St. Joe's 69-62. The Hawks went 21-7 the rest of the way and advanced to the championship game of the NIT before losing on a buzzer-beater to South Carolina.

The crowning moment of the winning streak came on Jan. 2, when looked then-seventh-ranked Pittsburgh square in the eye and handed the Panthers only their second defeat ever at Petersen Events Center. The 69-66 win, made possible by four huge free throws by Bettencourt and Lee in the closing seconds, came against a Pitt team that had been 10-0 on the season and had won 48 straight non-conference home games.

The winning streak continued into Patriot League play, when Bucknell opened with a convincing 59-43 win over Holy Cross at Sojka Pavilion. That would be the Crusaders' last loss of the regular season. Colgate, Army, Lafayette and Lehigh would succumb to the Bison before the run finally ended at American on Jan. 28.

Bucknell finished the regular season at 10-4 in league play, good enough for the No. 2 seed at the Patriot League Tournament. Under a new format introduced in 2005 that awarded hosting rights to the top two finishers, that meant that Bucknell would get to play at home for the first two rounds of the tourney. With terrific crowds cramming Sojka Pavilion for both sessions, the Bison took the term "stingy defense" to a completely new level.

In the quarterfinals Bucknell routed seventh-seeded Lafayette 70-34, breaking tournament records for fewest points and field goals (11) allowed. Then in the semis, the Bison defense befuddled American in a 53-35 victory.

That sent the Orange & Blue to the Patriot League Championship Game for the fifth time, and this year's edition traveled to Worcester, Mass., determined to break through in the title game for the first time. With three busloads of orange-clad Bison supporters making the Hart Center seem a little less unfriendly, Bucknell sprinted to a 20-point lead and hung on for a 61-57 victory, sending the Bison to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1989, when they won the East Coast Conference title.

A large crowd gathered at The Forum in the Elaine Langone Center on campus the following Sunday to await word on Bucknell's NCAA Tournament destination. The answer came in the form of daunting news. Bucknell would be seeded 14th ... and have to face Kansas, the preseason No. 1 team in the nation, in the first round at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.

Even before arriving in the Midwest Bucknell made national headlines when the University of Central Florida released a study announcing that Bucknell, along with Utah State, had the highest graduation rate in the tournament field at a perfect 100 percent.

The Bison quickly became media darlings in Oklahoma City, thanks to a well-versed and upbeat attitude. Everyone loves the underdog, right?

Well imagine the attention they received when they pulled off the upset of the year in college basketball, and what some pundits called one of the biggest NCAA Tournament upsets of all time. That's right, Bucknell shocked Kansas 64-63 as Chris McNaughton dropped in a hook shot with 10.5 seconds left then survived All-American Wayne Simien's missed turnaround jumper at the final buzzer.

The victory was the first in the NCAA Tournament for Bucknell, or for any team from the Patriot League for that matter. It was only the 14th time in tournament history that the No. 14 seed upset the No. 3 in the first round.

Two days later, the Bison had upset on their minds again as they rallied from an early 13-point deficit to take the lead on Wisconsin with nine minutes to play. But the Badgers, a power in the Big Ten who came within one win of reaching the Final Four, prevailed 71-62 despite another head-turning performance from McNaughton, who scored a career-high 23 points.

Despite the disappointing loss, Bucknell finished a magical season with a 23-10 record, coming within one victory of the school single-season record. Thousands greeted the Cinderella Bison upon their return home to Lewisburg. There was a fire-truck parade through Market Street downtown, followed by a rally in Sojka Pavilion, in which Mayor Judy Wagner declared Tuesday, March 22 "Bucknell Men's Basketball Day" in Lewisburg.

In May the Bucknell team will tour Ireland and England and play a handful of exhibition games there, then the Bison will prepare to defend their championship in 2005-06 with 12 of their 13 players expected to return (only Chris Niesz graduates). But while the future seems incredibly bright, the Bison and their fans would like to remember this magical season just a little bit longer.

Below are a few additional tidbits on the 2004-05 campaign.
-- Bucknell finished the season at 23-10, falling one victory shy of the school record, set in 1983-84 (23-5).
-- Bucknell captured its first Patriot League title with a 61-57 victory at Holy Cross in the championship game. The Bison own more regular-season PL victories (128) than any other team, but they had been 0-4 in championship games before defeating the Crusaders at the Hart Center this season.
-- The Bison then stunned the nation with a 64-63 victory over third-seeded Kansas -- the preseason No. 1 team in the nation -- in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was Bucknell's first NCAA win in three trips, and it was the first-ever tourney win for any team from the Patriot League. The sensational postseason run ended with a hard-fought 71-62 loss to sixth-seeded Wisconsin in the second round. The Bison led that game as late as the nine-minute mark of the second half before the Elite-Eight bound Badgers pulled away.
-- Bucknell posted a 10-4 Patriot League record and finished second in the regular-season standings. Under a new PL Tournament format, that earned the Bison home games for the first two rounds and they responded with record-setting defensive performances at packed Sojka Pavilion. Bucknell trounced Lafayette 70-34 in the opening round, then stymied American 53-35 in the semis, breaking tourney records for fewest points allowed in a game and tournament.
-- Bucknell's historic victory over Kansas was foreshadowed by a run of terrific victories that encompassed an 11-game winning streak in December and January. Embedded in that streak were consecutive wins over Niagara (76-74), St. Joseph's (69-62) and then-seventh-ranked and unbeaten Pittsburgh (69-66). The Panthers had been 10-0 on the season and 43-1 all-time in Petersen Events Center. It was the highest-ranked opponent the Bison had ever beaten.
-- The 11-game winning streak matched the team's longest since 1919. It was tied for the sixth-longest streak in program history.
-- Bucknell defeated a 20-win team five times this season and finished 2-2 against Top-25 teams. As of March 28, Bucknell's RPI was 39.
-- The Bison allowed only 59.0 points per game this season, the team's fourth-best mark since 1947. Bucknell ranked 10th nationally in scoring defense in 2004-05.
-- Bucknell won four games this season in which the winning points were scored in the final 10 seconds -- Charles Lee hit a jumper with 0.9 seconds left for a 76-74 win over Niagara; Abe Badmus hit a 3-pointer with 0:06 left in a 65-63 win over Lehigh; Chris Niesz, the team's lone senior, canned a trey at the buzzer to cap a 60-59 Senior Night win over Colgate; and Chris McNaughton banked in a jump hook over All-American Wayne Simien with 0:10 left in the NCAA Tourament win over Kansas.
-- Five Bison earned Patriot League postseason honors: Charles Lee and Chris McNaughton were First-Team All-Patriot League picks; Kevin Bettencourt was a Second-Team All-Patriot League selection; Abe Badmus was the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year; and John Griffin made the Patriot League All-Rookie Team. In addition, Lee was the Patriot League Tournament MVP and McNaughton was an all-tournament choice.
-- Kevin Bettencourt, only a junior, shattered the Bucknell season and career 3-point records in 2004-05. Bettencourt made 78 threes this season, breaking his own school mark also previously shared by J.R. Holden. Bettencourt also upped his career total to 216, which surpassed Mike Bright's former record total of 206, set between 1989-93. -- Kevin Bettencourt also became the 30th member of Bucknell's 1,000-point club. With 1,170 points, he now ranks 17th on Bucknell's all-time scoring list.
-- Kevin Bettencourt (417), Chris McNaughton (415) and Charles Lee (412) all averaged better than 12.5 ppg and finished the season within five points of each other. The trio accounted for 59.3% of the team's scoring. It was the first time since 1991-92 that the Bison had three players average more than 12 ppg.
-- Abe Badmus finished the season with a team-high 58 steals, which eighth on Bucknell's single-season list. Badmus also finished with 107 assists and only 63 turnovers, including a remarkable 11-assist, no-turnover performance in the NCAA win over Kansas.
-- Bucknell broke the school record with 218 3-point field goals this season. The previous mark was 190, set in 1996-97.
-- The Bison finished 12-1 at home this season and now has a 16-game home winning streak against Patriot League foes. The Bison are now 25-6 in Sojka Pavilion since debuting in the facility on Jan. 15, 2003.
-- The Bison also finished 8-7 on the road, well ahead of the their 2-11 road showing in 2003-04. Their five-game road winning streak in December-January was the team's longest since 1974-75, when Jim Valvano led his squad to eight straight road wins.
-- The Bison were 19-1 this season when leading at the half.