|
Bucknell Men's Basketball Team Awards Announced
April 30, 2009
 LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell men's basketball coach Dave Paulsen announced the winners of the 2008-09 team awards on Sunday afternoon at the program's annual banquet, held in Larison Hall on campus. Junior Patrick Behan (Leesburg, Va./Notre Dame Academy) took home the Benton A. Kribbs Award as the team's most valuable player, while four other Bison also garnered honors. Sophomore point guard Darryl Shazier (Newport News, Va./Menchville) earned the Malcolm Musser Award for Leadership. Freshman guard Bryan Cohen (Huntington Valley, Pa./Abington Friends) was given the Thomas A. Thompson Award for spirit, intensity and outstanding defensive play. And seniors Justin Castleberry (Upper Marlboro, Md./Archbishop Spalding) and Jason Vegotsky were picked for the Coaches' Award, presented in recognition of "contributions and loyalty to the Bucknell basketball family." Behan earned All-Patriot League honors for the first time after enjoying his best collegiate season in 2008-09. He ranked sixth in the Patriot League in scoring at 13.8 points per game, second in rebounding at 6.8 per game and ninth in field goal accuracy at 45.0 percent. In Patriot League games, he averaged 15.2 points per game to rank fifth in the league and 7.6 rebounds to rank third. Behan recorded eight 20-point games this season, the most by a Bucknell player since Kevin Bettencourt had eight in 2003-04. Behan finished the regular season with five straight 20-point games, which was the longest such streak in the Patriot League all season, and the longest by a Bison player since Bryan Bailey finished the 2001-02 regular season with five 20-point games in a row. Early in the season Behan recorded a career-high 27 points against Wagner, and he logged his first career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds at Richmond. He had 15 points and 12 rebounds against Holy Cross in the Patriot League Tournament. Normally a "4" man, Behan was asked to play quite a bit at the center position in the second half of the season, and his final 11 games of the year were terrific. During that span he topped the 20-point plateau six times and had 18 or more points eight times. He averaged 18.9 points and 9.0 rebounds while shooting 53.5 percent from the field and 76.9 percent from the free-throw line during that stretch. Shazier handled the point guard duties effectively for the Bison in 2008-09, and he became the first Bucknell player to win a Patriot League assists title. Shazier led the league in both assists (4.60 per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.06) this season. He also averaged 7.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting 37.0 percent from the 3-point arc, and his 36.1 minutes per game ranked second in the league. Shazier scored a career-high 21 points in a game against Army and had 17 in a big road win over Holy Cross. He also hit a game-winning 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds remaining in a 64-62 home victory over Colgate. Cohen was a welcome addition to the Bison this season, ranking among the team and Patriot League leaders in most statistical categories. He averaged 11.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists while starting all 30 games. His scoring total ranked second on the team, second among Patriot League freshmen, and 11th among all league players. His 353 points were fourth-most in Bucknell history for a freshman, trailing only Gerald Purnell (467 in 1974-75), Bob Barry (441 in 1976-77) and Al Leslie (367 in 1977-78). He scored in double figures 22 times and had a pair of 20-point games. A member of the Patriot League All-Rookie Team, Cohen made 51 3-pointers in 156 attempts (.327). He was also the team's defensive stopper and was routinely asked to guard the opposition's best offensive player. Throughout the course of the season he marked everyone from point guards to power forwards, and he was a strong candidate for the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year Award even as a rookie. Like Behan and Cohen, Castleberry started all 30 games this season. He was the team's No. 3 scorer at 11.5 points per game, a new career high. He was one of three players on the team to connect on 50 3-pointers, and his 131 career treys rank seventh on Bucknell's career list. Castleberry had 18 double-figure scoring games this season, including a career-high 31 in a double-overtime win over Old Dominion. Castleberry, who also earned the Coaches' Award two seasons ago, was a key reserve as a sophomore in 2006-07, averaging 5.3 ppg, and he earned a starting role in the Bison backcourt over the last two seasons. He averaged 10.9 ppg as a junior and had three 20-point games. Vegotsky gutted out a number of injuries that limited his minutes this season, but he still managed to play in 23 games off the bench. He canned 13 3-pointers, including three in four attempts in a late-season win over Lehigh. That gave him 120 career trifectas, ninth-most in program history. Vegotsky was a key reserve on Bucknell's 2006 Patriot League championship team, and he earned a spot on the PL All-Rookie Team that year. He made a 3-pointer in the team's win over Arkansas in the 2006 NCAA Tournament and helped propel that squad to a school-record 27 wins and a top-25 national ranking. Vegotsky started 24 games as a sophomore in 2006-07 and averaged a career-high 7.4 ppg, before injuries slowed his production the last two seasons. At the annual Backcourt Club Awards Banquet, the Bison program also awards the Backcourt Club Award for "contribution and loyalty to the program." This year's recipient was Doug Allen, a professor of management at Bucknell who also serves as the team's academic advisor. Allen is a 1988 Bucknell graduate and was a four-year member of the Bison men's basketball team.
|
 MULTIMEDIA 
Photo Galleries 
Facilities Gallery 
Video Player 
Media Guide HistoryOffseason HappeningsProspective Student-AthletesFacilities |
