jkrun80
Postdoc
Posts: 3305
Age: 65
Reg: 05-07-12
|
12-31-19 12:48 PM - Post#295673
Game preview: https://bucknellbison.com/news/2019/12/30/mens- bas...
Back home to kick off the PL season. Army is not a strong team, but as the article notes we struggled to beat them last year. This team can't afford to get behind by double digits. It's interesting that Meeks is scheduled to start again.
|
Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
|
Re: Army Game 12-31-19 01:21 PM - Post#295675
In response to jkrun80
Game preview: https://bucknellbison.com/news/2019/12/30/mens- bas...
Back home to kick off the PL season. Army is not a strong team, but as the article notes we struggled to beat them last year. This team can't afford to get behind by double digits. It's interesting that Meeks is scheduled to start again.
Not sure I would read anything into Meeks being listed as a starter. Most of the time, they simply list the starting lineup from the previous game. For the most recent example, Paul Newman was listed as the starter versus La Salle. But instead, Meeks started in his place.
Army definitely does not have a deep team, but they do have two good players: Tommy Frank and Center Matt Wilson. Whoever the starting center is, Newman or Moore, it is likely that player will get in foul trouble trying to keep Wilson from backing into the lane. Wilson is 6-9 and strong, and has a nice little jump hook if a second defender doesn’t help on him as he gets into the center of the lane. Army has some bad losses to be sure, but they did beat a good Buffalo team on the road a couple of weeks ago.
|
MrPhillie
Postdoc
Posts: 2757
Loc: NE PA
Reg: 07-14-08
|
12-31-19 05:13 PM - Post#295693
In response to Bison137
Every game will be a battle for this Bucknell team, from top to bottom of the league. More than other Bison teams of the recent past, I think our success will be more directly related to how we are shooting. I don’t see us being a strong defensive team or a team that will consistently get foul shot opportunities.
|
Bison54
PhD Student
Posts: 1800
Reg: 11-18-09
|
Re: Army Game 12-31-19 05:37 PM - Post#295695
In response to Bison137
Tommy Funk, brother of Andrew?
|
jkrun80
Postdoc
Posts: 3305
Age: 65
Reg: 05-07-12
|
Re: Army Game 12-31-19 07:58 PM - Post#295699
In response to Bison54
Tommy Funk, brother of Andrew?
Yes, Tommy is a senior. Always an interesting match up.
|
Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
|
Re: Army Game 12-31-19 08:25 PM - Post#295701
In response to Bison54
Tommy Funk, brother of Andrew?
Yes, I hate spell check. Creates far more errors for me than it corrects.
|
Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
|
Army Game 01-02-20 11:44 AM - Post#295747
In response to Bison137
The Bison had a pretty fair night exactly 15 years ago today.
https://twitter.com/Bucknell_MBB/status/1 212750173...
Article: https://twitter.com/PGH_Sports_Date/statu s/1212705...
|
Bison89
Professor
Posts: 5370
Loc: Philadelphia
Reg: 11-14-07
|
Re: Army Game 01-02-20 01:13 PM - Post#295749
In response to Bison137
IMO, the best Bucknell team EVER! For those who doubt me, here is their schedule:
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/buckn...
New season, new team, new dream . . . |
|
Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
|
01-02-20 01:44 PM - Post#295751
In response to Bison89
I'd go along with second best team ever - but it's hard to put that team ahead of the 2005-06 team that beat Syracuse in the Carrier Dome, beat DePaul on the road, beat St. Joes by double digits, and beat Arkansas in the NCAA. That team went 26-4 in the regular season, undefeated in the PL, and had the toughest schedule in Bison history as well - playing Villanova, Duke, Syracuse (who won the Big East), Arkansas, Memphis, DePaul, and a very good Northern Iowa team. Amazingly they played three of the four teams that ended up with 1 seeds for the NCAA tournament.
|
nh2032
Sophomore
Posts: 185
Reg: 02-28-06
|
01-02-20 03:17 PM - Post#295762
In response to Bison137
Agree with all those points but the Syracuse part needs an asterisk. Yes Cuse won the Big East tournament after winning 4 in 4 days on super narrow margins, but finished 9th in the BE regular season and lost in the first round of the NCAA's. Overall were fairly disappointing for Gerry Mac's senior year.
Still being in the Dome for our victory there is a personal highlight partly based on my then girlfriend, now wife, wearing a homemade shirt that said "2005 NCAA Tournament Victories: Bucknell 1, Syracuse 0". Got a number of interesting looks and a few comments on that so made it extra sweet we backed it up.
|
DoCtoR62
Masters Student
Posts: 463
Reg: 05-18-08
|
01-02-20 04:27 PM - Post#295767
In response to nh2032
The 2004-05 season was a magical run that will likely not be duplicated. Caught many, even the most ardent supporters, by surprise. I attended the Niagara game right before Christmas, and I don't think there were 1,000 people in Sojka. The wins over St. Joe's and Pitt followed over the next two weeks and the rest, as they say, is history.
That said, the 05-06 season has to go down as the best ever. 14-0 through the Patriot League is a remarkable feat in any year. One home loss to Villanova, and road losses to Duke, Santa Clara and nationally-ranked Northern Iowa. Pretty remarkable regular season, capped off by a 9-seed in the NCAA tournament. (FWIW: Alabama, NC State, Seton Hall and Northern Iowa were the 10 seeds). Will likely be a long time before another Patriot League team produces such an accomplished season.
|
Bison89
Professor
Posts: 5370
Loc: Philadelphia
Reg: 11-14-07
|
01-02-20 05:31 PM - Post#295771
In response to DoCtoR62
OK, can we agree that 2004-0005 & 2005-2006 was the best 2 year run in PL history?
I still have my Hoop Time 14-0 SWEEP shirt!
New season, new team, new dream . . . |
|
bison63
Postdoc
Posts: 3857
Reg: 01-23-06
|
01-02-20 09:50 PM - Post#295801
In response to Bison89
A win is a win, but could just as easily been a loss.
|
NoMoney89
Freshman
Posts: 89
Age: 56
Reg: 01-17-18
|
01-02-20 09:58 PM - Post#295807
In response to bison63
A win is a win, but could just as easily been a loss.
B63, I suspect we will be saying that a lot this season...
|
nh2032
Sophomore
Posts: 185
Reg: 02-28-06
|
01-02-20 09:58 PM - Post#295808
In response to bison63
Made it way harder than it had to be. Just hard to feel comfortable when Avi has the ball at the end of games at this point. I do really like the set where Funk brings it up freeing up Jimmy to get open off ball. Ran it at the end of the half at LaSalle to no success, but worked better here.
Meeks should eat up the PL competition similar to tonight.
I've been fairly optimistic overall, but if Bruce is going to be out for any length of time that's big trouble. Hasn't been mentioned much, but Robertson could be really missed in PL play especially if other injuries pile up - any report on what his injury actually is?
Big test Sunday to see if Lafayette is for real or not especially after they lost at Boston tonight.
|
HuskyColonial
PhD Student
Posts: 1976
Age: 50
Reg: 02-17-12
|
01-02-20 10:30 PM - Post#295816
In response to nh2032
It’s going to be a long season.
|
Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
|
01-03-20 03:01 AM - Post#295835
In response to HuskyColonial
By the way, the ref (Juwaan Williams) who was responsible for several really bad calls in favor of Army is ranked right near the bottom of Pomeroy's ref rankings. In three years, he has drawn all of six D1 assignments - all PL or Ivy. Every one before tonight was on a busy Saturday when refs were in short supply.
Tonight's game, btw, was the first time he was assigned a D1 game this year. Hopefully it will be the last. Not only a weak ref but also a bad attitude.
|
Bison89
Professor
Posts: 5370
Loc: Philadelphia
Reg: 11-14-07
|
01-03-20 10:52 AM - Post#295849
In response to HuskyColonial
It’s going to be a long season.
Husky, after watching the "highlights", I will reserve judgement for a few more games.
BTW, statistically speaking, the Bison shot well, especially from behind the arch. Too many TO's and not rebounding well enough.
New season, new team, new dream . . . |
|
Old Bison
Masters Student
Posts: 619
Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
|
01-03-20 11:02 AM - Post#295851
In response to Bison89
In a bizarre way, the fact that we shot 47.6% from 3 (20 pts better than Army) could be interpreted negatively (I.e., we still only win by 2 at home against potentially the 9th ranked team in the PL. I’m with the “win is a win†camp. Two miracles plays and two long 3’s from Meeks save us from toast...don’t like that in terms of sustainability. Are we gonna switch 1-5 when Burns is the 1? I better have other plans that night
|
bison63
Postdoc
Posts: 3857
Reg: 01-23-06
|
01-03-20 12:10 PM - Post#295861
In response to Old Bison
Listened to the postgame show last night. Basically, the two players (Avi and Meeks) and Coach Meehan gave it the old “we did what we needed to do†treatment, and we “had each other’s back, etc, etc.
Not sure whether Tommy Funk missing 3 free throws in crunch time, in a game his team lost by two, was part of doing what we had to do. Maybe that was the game plan.
|