jkrun80
Postdoc
Posts: 3305
Age: 65
Reg: 05-07-12
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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.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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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.
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MrPhillie
Postdoc
Posts: 2757
Loc: NE PA
Reg: 07-14-08
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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.
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Bison54
PhD Student
Posts: 1800
Reg: 11-18-09
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Re: Army Game
12-31-19 05:37 PM - Post#295695
In response to Bison137
Tommy Funk, brother of Andrew?
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jkrun80
Postdoc
Posts: 3305
Age: 65
Reg: 05-07-12
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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.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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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.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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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...
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Bison89
Professor
Posts: 5370
Loc: Philadelphia
Reg: 11-14-07
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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 . . . |
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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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.
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nh2032
Sophomore
Posts: 185
Reg: 02-28-06
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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.
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DoCtoR62
Masters Student
Posts: 463
Reg: 05-18-08
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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.
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Bison89
Professor
Posts: 5370
Loc: Philadelphia
Reg: 11-14-07
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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 . . . |
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bison63
Postdoc
Posts: 3857
Reg: 01-23-06
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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.
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NoMoney89
Freshman
Posts: 89
Age: 57
Reg: 01-17-18
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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...
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nh2032
Sophomore
Posts: 185
Reg: 02-28-06
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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.
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HuskyColonial
PhD Student
Posts: 1976
Age: 50
Reg: 02-17-12
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01-02-20 10:30 PM - Post#295816
In response to nh2032
It’s going to be a long season.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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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.
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Bison89
Professor
Posts: 5370
Loc: Philadelphia
Reg: 11-14-07
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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 . . . |
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Old Bison
Masters Student
Posts: 619
Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
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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
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bison63
Postdoc
Posts: 3857
Reg: 01-23-06
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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.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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01-03-20 12:45 PM - Post#295864
In response to bison63
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.
Probably not the game plan. But it must be noted that Army, even after those late misses, was WAY over their head from the FT line - their best performance of the year. They shot 12-16 from the line but still rank 350th in the nation, hitting an incredibly bad 57.5%. (Prior to the game, they were next-to-last in the nation, hitting 55.2%.) So even though the Bison were lucky Army missed a few at the end, they were very unlucky that Army had their best night of the year from the line.
Btw, I had a good view of the Sotos "foul" that sent Funk to the line for three, and it didn't look like a foul. After watching the replay this morning, it still doesn't look like a foul, so the misses may have been justice from the basketball gods . The call was made by a referee who is among the lowest ranked refs in America in Pomeroy's rankings. He is in his 9th year of officiating and still only gets a couple of D1 assignments a year.
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BreakinBison
Sophomore
Posts: 146
Reg: 01-23-06
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01-03-20 12:54 PM - Post#295865
In response to Bison137
Our season will come down to inside/post play.
If we have a stronger/consistent inside scoring presence (and we should in league play..no more layup misses) that will open things up ("inside/out")
If not, then we rely too much on jump shooting.
We all know how that goes.
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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01-03-20 01:27 PM - Post#295867
In response to BreakinBison
From Ken Pomeroy:
"The last 4 Bucknell-Army games have been won by Bucknell. First was in OT, then wins by 1, 1, and tonight, 2 points. Army has had leads of 19, 26, 14, and 9 in those games."
https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy/status/121 302068540...
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jkrun80
Postdoc
Posts: 3305
Age: 65
Reg: 05-07-12
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Army Game
01-03-20 01:37 PM - Post#295868
In response to Bison137
Btw, I had a good view of the Sotos "foul" that sent Funk to the line for three, and it didn't look like a foul. After watching the replay this morning, it still doesn't look like a foul, so the misses may have been justice from the basketball gods . The call was made by a referee who is among the lowest ranked refs in America in Pomeroy's rankings. He is in his 9th year of officiating and still only gets a couple of D1 assignments a year.
There were a number of questionable calls and no-calls involving Sotos and A. Funk that were obvious to me 15 rows from the floor. I'm surprised they didn't whistle Newman on that last block just to give Army one last chance.
Edited by jkrun80 on 01-03-20 01:38 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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MrPhillie
Postdoc
Posts: 2757
Loc: NE PA
Reg: 07-14-08
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Army Game
01-03-20 07:04 PM - Post#295905
In response to jkrun80
I am glad we won as opposed to the alternative. I still do not have tons of confidence or optimism from one game to the next. We will not routinely shoot near 50% from 3. Wilson scores six points and we shoot near 50% from 3 yet we win by two against a projected not one tier team...after turning the ball over and missing the front end of a potential game-clinching 1:1 in final seconds. Doesn’t seem to be a sustainable winning formula.
Oh, and why did it take Avi stopping play to ask referee to fix the game score early in the game after he hit a three? Shouldn’t one of the six coaches be on top of that? Or a ref?
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bisonmania
Masters Student
Posts: 920
Reg: 10-26-07
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Army Game
01-03-20 07:28 PM - Post#295906
In response to MrPhillie
Good question Philly. Avi has developed into a very good coach. I feel at times the best coach we have! He pays attention to details. Does anyone know if the team came into the green room after the game ? The last few home games they have not. . A pattern that fans do not like! Yet another part that John Griffin made sure it happened.!
Edited by bisonmania on 01-03-20 07:36 PM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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bisonmania
Masters Student
Posts: 920
Reg: 10-26-07
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01-03-20 07:30 PM - Post#295908
In response to bisonmania
Any updates on Bruce? I am pretty sure he has a concussion.
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MrPhillie
Postdoc
Posts: 2757
Loc: NE PA
Reg: 07-14-08
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01-03-20 07:51 PM - Post#295909
In response to bisonmania
Idk ‘mania, at times it seems like the staff is content to just let whatever happen happen. I am certainly not a qualified coach but as a fan, I sometimes question what is going on. Do players take the staff seriously? Still a lot of goofing around on the bench for a team that seems to have some issues...to me there. A difference between having fun at the right moments and casually not taking a game seriously. I watched Army some and I did not see much of that behavior. And so far the green room experience is lacking as far as a fan interaction standpoint.
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Old Bison
Masters Student
Posts: 619
Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
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01-04-20 10:18 AM - Post#295925
In response to MrPhillie
I’m assuming we’re the underdog tomorrow at Lafayette...I can only conjecture but not sure that would have been true at any time in the last decade. Guys need to play much better to come out with. W. Don’t know anything about LC but from their recent rosters they could actually be the first team we’ve faced this year where switching 1-5 may actually not be foolhardy. I suspect their scheme will emulate Princeton, HC under Carmody and American as well. Very different then we faced all year other than this years PU game at Sojka
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Old Bison
Masters Student
Posts: 619
Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
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01-04-20 10:27 AM - Post#295926
In response to Old Bison
Should have explained that I meant in terms of stopping penetration and finishing or penetration and dishing. Not sure how it will work in terms of guarding the perimeter. Guess my thinking was I’m more comfortable getting killed from three than in the paint. I don’t do any statistical analysis but I can’t imagine a “pts in the paint†comparison over the first 14 would be very appetizing. 137, it is raining out just about everywhere
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Bison137
Professor
Posts: 16147
Reg: 01-23-06
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01-04-20 12:53 PM - Post#295930
In response to Old Bison
Should have explained that I meant in terms of stopping penetration and finishing or penetration and dishing. Not sure how it will work in terms of guarding the perimeter. Guess my thinking was I’m more comfortable getting killed from three than in the paint. I don’t do any statistical analysis but I can’t imagine a “pts in the paint†comparison over the first 14 would be very appetizing. 137, it is raining out just about everywhere
You're almost correct about the last time that Lafayette was a favorite. There was actually one time - at Lafayette in early 2015 - when the Leopards actually were favored (Pomeroy). That was a year when the Bison had poor OOC results, turned it around in league play, but then had a DISASTROUS loss to LC in the PL semis at Sojka, a game that may have seen Paulsen's worst coaching job of his career at the defensive end.
LC this year is, as usual, a very good 3-point shooting team - 20th in the nation (38.2%). But this year they are also shooting very well on twos - 42nd in the nation (54.2%). That is different than past years. They are not a good defensive team, but not as horrendous as in most past years. Offense a bit different from that of the Princeton offense - tons of screens off-the-ball to create open threes, lots of ball movement, some drive and kick. Not a huge number of back door cuts.
LC uses three centers (at least): a 7-foot freshmen who is slow and has little offensive ability at the moment, a 6-10 soph with no offensive ability but who is a great shot-blocker, and a 6-8 Aussie, who is the best of the three by far but doesn't start.
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BisonRoadWarrior
Professor
Posts: 5203
Loc: Where the Bison Roam
Reg: 08-16-06
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01-04-20 01:28 PM - Post#295933
In response to bison63
Postgame press conference video:
https://youtu.be/QzMZs54hWGI
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BisonRoadWarrior
Professor
Posts: 5203
Loc: Where the Bison Roam
Reg: 08-16-06
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01-04-20 02:10 PM - Post#295937
In response to BisonRoadWarrior
Highlight reel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcx5Uyrefcs
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Old Bison
Masters Student
Posts: 619
Age: 65
Reg: 07-09-17
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01-04-20 08:26 PM - Post#295975
In response to BisonRoadWarrior
Tx 137
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