Mar 18, 2011
POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Mike Muscala and Darryl Shazier on the Bison's NCAA Tournament loss to UConn
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POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Mike Muscala and Darryl Shazier on the Bison's NCAA Tournament loss to UConn
Can Bucknell do it again? Maybe. Here is how
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN Hoop Time Editor
Is there an echo in here?
Sure has seemed like it the past few days.
Everywhere we go, everybody we meet, soon as they find out we cover Bucknell and the Patriot League, the questions pops.
Can they do it again?
It's a fair question, though not necessarily fair to the current Bison, who must be getting tired of trotting out that now well-worn “create our own legacy” line.
Bison center Mike Muscala explained the situation pretty well yesterday, when he was asked, for what probably was the umpteenth time, about comparisons between this year's team and the 2005 squad that put Bucknell on the basketball map by knocking off Kansas.
That was a long time ago. Back when they still called the first round of the tournament the first round. Guys like Muscala, Bryson Johnson and Joe Willman, the three sophomores in coach Dave Paulsen's starting five, were freshmen in high school then.
Paulsen was coaching Division 3 ball at Williams.
Superfrosh Cameron Ayers was still in middle school.
“This is a different team in terms of personnel, it's a different scenario,” Muscala explained.
Muscala said he understands why he keeps getting the question. It's “the same seed and the same program.”
Except he is only half right on that. The seeding is the same, but this is a very different program. The only thing this team really has in common with the Bison who made Patriot League history with first round wins in 2005 and 2006 is the name on the front of the orange jerseys they will wear tonight.
Everything else is different, top to bottom.
The head coach is different. All the assistants are different. As close as there is to any on-court connection is Stephen Tyree, Bucknell's fifth-year senior, who played with some of the guys from those two teams back when he was a freshman.
About the only other real link is the fact that almost every current member of the Bucknell team will tell you that win over Kansas helped open the door during the recruiting process.
Otherwise, though, these guys are right. They have to create their own legacy, because the current program really can't lay claim to that old legacy.
Okay, fine. But can they win? Can this team beat UConn?
The obvious answer is: yes, it can.
But theoretically, even a 16-seed can win in the tournament.
The real questions is, will they beat UConn? Or perhaps, what do they have to do to beat UConn?
We aren't quite ready to predict that upset. Still a little like the Missouri fans who are here in D.C. to support their Tigers in the other West Region game on tap today at the Verizon Center.
We still need to be shown.
It was easier to believe in that 2005 Bucknell team. Remember that team entered the tournament having beaten then No. 7 Pitt on the Panthers own floor earlier that season.
This team does not yet have that sort of signature, state-your-claim win.
The win at Richmond, which many point to as a turning point in the Bison's season, was huge. It certainly validated this team's credentials at a significantly higher level than before that win.
But if you want to make analogies to that 2005 team, it was a lot like that year's win at St. Joseph's. This team is still waiting to take a really big scalp.
If you are going to make comparisons between the two teams, at some point you need to note the core of that 2005 team was juniors. The current Bison are built, in a lot of ways, around guys who are sophomores. So this year's team is ahead of the curve in some ways.
Still, the questions persists. Can they win today and what do they have to do to make it happen.
We'll break it down to five keys:
DEFENSE: This Bucknell team has been very good at the defensive end. They led the Patriot League in every major defensive category and rank No. 14 in the nation in field goal percentage defense.
Yet a certain nagging doubt persists among the old-timers in Lewisburg about the ability of Dave Paulsen's fairly straight man-to-man defense to contain opponents with better athletes at every position across the board.
Pat Flannery's not-so-secret key was a matchup zone that was different from what other teams were used to seeing. The matchup was tough for opponents to crack. And that puzzle was made even tougher by Flannery's patient, patterned offensive style.
The Bison would make thoroughbreds play defense for 30 seconds at one end, then frustrate them at the other with the matchup. Flannery knew thoroughbreds really want to do what they are born to do. They want to run. By controlling the pace and tempo, and slowing the racehorses to a mere trot, it evened things out.
And by making it a thinking game instead of a running game, Flannery could take advantage of something Bucknell teams (and all Patriot League teams) have lots of – smarts.
That is not to say that Paulsen's defense doesn't also rely on being smart. Or that he can't coach defense.
Paulsen got that knock when he arrived at Bucknell, in part because the first thing you'd find if you Googled his name were mentions of the motion offense videos he had made.
For some reason, nobody mentioned that his 2003 Williams team was in the top 5 in the nation in field goal percentage defense.
One of the keys to this year's defensive success has been the way Paulsen has managed to constantly tweak his scheme, knowing when to play off perimeter folks to help clog the lane, when pressure on the wings was the better option.
Having Bryan Cohen, the two-time Patriot League defensive player of the year, certainly helped. Cohen is 6-5 and extremely versatile. He is big enough to guard guys like Vlad Moldoveanu on the blocks and quick enough to keep up with C.J. McCollum as he weaves through a maze of screens.
The question this evening will be: can Cohen keep up with, and slow down UConn's consensus all-American Kemba Walker, who averages 23.5 points per game.
Cohen has guarded some good players this season, but none as good as Walker, who has been held in below 14 points just once all season. That came in early February, an 8-point showing in a loss to Syracuse, which many say illustrates the struggles UConn has had against zone defenses.
Huskies defenders will point to Big East Tournament wins over the same Syracuse team, and a very good Louisville side that also plays a lot of zone, to argue that weakness against zones is in the past.
Doesn't much matter either way here, though. Bucknell has not played zone all season and Paulsen has made it clear he doesn't plan to start now.
More than one expert, including a few other coaches in off the record conversations, have suggested Paulsen might pull a zone surprise out of his hat tonight.
Don't bet on it.
Playing zone at this level is not like the zone defense you play in noontime games at the Y, or played back in the day in high school. Those kinds of stationary defenses get shredded by three-point shooters. An effective zone has to incorporate a lot of man principles, keeping pressure on the ball and on shooters.
That takes a lot of practice, a lot of work learning how to rotate, who to pick up.
So we take Paulsen at his word when he says Bucknell will play straight man “and pray a lot.”
Which brings us back to the Cohen-Walker matchup.
It would seem Paulsen has little choice but to sell out and give Cohen that assignment. But that means 6-1 Johnson and 6-0 senior point guard will have to spend the evening guarding UConn's collection of 6-5, 6-7 wings.
That could create a lot of mismatches for the Huskies to exploit.
Paulsen can mitigate some of that with 6-5 freshman Cameron Ayers off the bench.
But if Ayers is on the floor, you are either giving up Johnson's three-point shooting (he is ranked 7th in the nation in 3-point FG percentage at 45.1 percent), or Shazier's ballhandling (2nd in the nation in assists to turnover ratio) at the point.
Not saying they can't get the job done against UConn defensively. Just saying there are lots of questions that need to be answered tonight on that end of the floor.
SHOOT THE ROCK: This Bucknell team can shoot the ball. No doubt about it.
As a team they shot 45-percent from the field this season and they shoot 40-percent from three-point range.
That second stat could be key. The three-ball has become the great equalizer in college basketball.
Johnson gets the most attention, which is only fair since he set a school record with his 96 treys this season, many of which seemed to come from neighboring zip codes.
Five other Bison are legitimate three-point threats, though, including Muscala, who has only shot 10 of them, but made 4 and has been known in practice to challenge Johnson in shooting drills.
Shazier, who hit 35.6 percent from the arc, is a little streaky, but when he is on from out there, his danger quotient is multiplied.
Cohen's defensive reputation overshadows the fact that he made 43.9 percent of the 57 threes he took this season.
Off the bench, Ayers and senior G.W. Boon are both threats from out there.
If Bucknell can drop enough bombs, the upset is a real possibility.
One caveat though: UConn has only allowed five opponents to hit 10 or more treys all season. And the Huskies are 4-1 in those games.
FOULS: It goes without saying the Bison cannot afford to get in foul trouble if they expect tp pull off this upset. Especially Muscala and Shazier, two guys for whom they have no spare part.
Muscala is a game changer at both ends of the floor. With him in the game, UConn has to respect Bucknell inside, which helps to get those three-point snipers some open looks.
On the defensive end, Muscala's long 6-11 frame allows him to block a lot of shots and to alter a lot more. With him back there, Cohen can try to pressure Walker a little more, knowing if he gets beat, Muscala is waiting to help.
None of Bucknell's other big men come close to having Muscala's impact at either end.
Shazier is also irreplaceable. No knock on Ayers or freshman Ryan Hill, the two guys that have spelled Shazier when Paulsen gives him a break. But they are freshmen, Shazier is a seasoned four-year starter.
Anybody who saw what happened when Shazier went to the bench in Bucknell's three Patriot League games saw the difference.
As soon as Shazier left the floor, opposing coaches would amp the pressure, often going full court on defense. On many of those occasions, when Shazier sat down, Bucknell's offense became stagnant.
They simply cannot afford that against a team like UConn, which loves to pressure opponents anyhow.
It's hard to imagine Bucknell pulling off the upset if either of those two first-team all-league guys are forced to sit for long stretches.
ENOCH ANDOH: The 6-8 junior escaped Paulsen's doghouse late this season, his hard work in practice having moved him ahead of sophomore Colin Klebon on the depth chart.
Andoh is more of an old-fashioned, stationary, back to the basket low post kind of guy, and has the size and strength to hold up against UConn's Alex Oriakhi (6-9, 240) and Charles Okwandu (7-0, 255).
His minutes have been limited, but Andoh has shown some flashes of brilliance, especially on offense, where he has some strong post moves and finishes pretty well.
If Andoh can give Paulsen 8 to 10 minutes off the bench, it would go a long way towards keeping Muscala out of foul trouble and also keeping Muscala from getting worn down from the physical pounding he is certain to take from UConn's bigs.
Another possibility to consider: If Andoh could give Paulsen significant solid minutes, it might allow Paulsen to use the 6-4 Boon on the wing a little, which would help alleviate some of UConn's tremendous size advantage there.
THE CROWD: This could be the X factor if the Bison are able to stay close.
Bucknell always draws well in the Northern Virginia, D.C., Maryland area. The school has a huge alumni base in the region.
The school's allotment of tickets was snapped up in less than an hour, but there were plenty of tickets available on ticket master, and on re-seller sites like Stub Hub, for Bison fans to find them.
Odds are there will be a lot of orange in the crowd. And if the game is close at the end, history shows fans from other schools tend to jump on the underdog's bandwagon.
UConn fans have made the argument on message boards that Pitt and Cincinnati fans will get behind their fellow Big East team. But Pitt plays in the afternoon, so a lot of their faithful will likely be on I-70 by the time the Bucknell-UConn game tips.
And does anybody really think Cincinnati, or Missouri, fans there for the nightcap would rather play UConn on Saturday?
If Bucknell keeps it close, the crowd might give the Bison some extra energy down the stretch, which could be huge, since keeping up with the deep, talented Huskies will take a toll on the legs.
BOTTIOM LINE: Bucknell has shown it can hang with power conference schools, at least for around three-quarters of a game.
They stayed with Villanova for much of the game, had Marquette on the ropes two days later, and took Boston College to the wire.
All three of those games were on the road. This will be on a neutral floor.
That will help, but still the recurring theme was the same as it often is when mid-majors go up against power conference schools – late in the game the big guys wore them down.
We'll find out tonight if Bucknell can overcome that.
And with UConn still recovering from having played (and won) five games in five days to take the Big East crown, there certainly is the possibility the Huskies could be the ones worn down at the end if Bucknell keeps it close.
A win tonight would be just as big an upset as that 2005 win over Kansas.
Maybe even bigger since it would further validate Paulsen's program as heirs to Bucknell's hoops tradition.
Can it happen? Who knows. That is why they play the games.
But stranger, or at least as strange, things have happened.
Don't believe it? Ask a Kansas fan.
AUDIO: Bucknell players Darryl Shazier and Mike Muscala on pre-NCAA Tournament media conference call from Monday, March 14
POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell players G.W. Boon, Stephen Tyree, Darryl Shazier, Mike Muscala and Bryan Cohen, along with coach Dave Paulsen on the Bison's Patriot League championship win over Lafayette
Bucknell has all the answers in PL title win over Lafayette
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN Hoop Time Editor
Both teams had a defensive game plan.
Both did a great job of executing that game plan.
But one did a better job of finding an alternative way to put points on the board, and that team – the Bison of Bucknell -- was rewarded with the 2011 Patriot League Championship.
The low post taken away by the strong physical play of Lafayette's Jared Mintz, Bucknell's Mike Muscala stepped away and knocked down jump shots.
The three-point bombs Bryson Johnson loves to launch defused by Lafayette's perimeter pressure, Johnson put the ball on the floor, got it to the rack and got to the foul line.
Floor general Darryl Shazier slowed by foul trouble, his backup, freshman Cameron Ayers stepped up to fill the void.
The result – 18 points from Muscala, who went 7 of 9 from the floor, 15 from Johnson, who was just 2 of 8 from the arc but 7 of 8 at the stripe, and 12 points from Ayers, most coming when the Bison needed them most.
Oh yeah, the result that really mattered – a 72-57 Bucknell win that sends the Bison (25-8) back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since those three were in middle school.
“They have a lot of pieces,” said Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon, after his Leopards (13-19) lost in the league final for the second year in a row.
A lot of folks will tell you they didn't belong there either year. Those folks don't know O'Hanlon, who could coach chicken you-know-what to be filet mignon.
The Leopards, picked by some folks to win the league this season, struggled most of the year, going 4-10 in non-conference Division 1 play, before stumbling through a 6-8 conference season.
It was not really as bad as it looked, though. A lot of the early struggles were the result of a combination of injuries and an inexperienced point guard who was struggling to get his sea legs.
Six of those league losses were by 5 points or less, including an overtime loss at home against Bucknell, which went 13-1 in league play to earn the top seed and the right to stay home throughout the tournament.
The last three losses were by a total of 9 points, the last two decided by a single possession. Come tournament time the 'Pards reversed that trend, winning a pair of close games on the road to earn a third date with Bucknell.
But Cindarella's slipper hit a brick wall around the midway point of the second half Friday night.
Up until then, Lafayette was doing what it needed to do. They never led, and the game was never tied after Bucknell broke 0-0 with Bryan Cohen's and-one three-point play 13 seconds after the opening tip.
But Lafayette didn't let Bucknell get out of its sight, even when the Bison opened a 10-point lead with 3:37 to go in the first half.
The Leopards rallied to get it to 39-34 at the half, and did the same thing early in the second half after Bucknell opened with an 8-2 run to push the margin back to double digits.
With Shazier sitting down after picking up his third personal less than 5 minutes into the second half, Lafayette held Bucknell without a point for over 5 minutes and without a field goal for even longer. In the process, the 'Pards closed the gap to 5 again on Tony Johnson's layup with 13:40 to play.
At that point, it seemed like Bucknell was wearing shrinking turtlenecks. With Shazier on the bench they looked out of sync, and even when he returned to the floor, their struggles continued on the offensive end.
On defense, though, the Bison never wavered.
“We were struggling with foul trouble,” said Paulsen, whose team, at the time, had Shazier-- the league's top point guard – and Cohen – its best defender, each with three personals, a situation that got tougher when Cohen picked up his fourth foul with almost 12 minutes still to play.
So Paulsen went back to one of his basic mantras.
“We wanted to get three consecutive stops,” Paulsen said.
His team got four in a row, the bonus coming when Lafayette got three good looks on that fourth possession and still could not get the ball in the hole.
Just that quick, the tide had reached its high point and began to recede.
First Muscala finished off a nifty feed from G.W. Boon, ending the long offensive skid. Then, after Muscala made 1 of 2 at the line to put the lead back to 8 at 50-42, Ayers put together a one-man 7-2 run that he capped with a three-pointer that put the Bucknell lead back in double figures at 57-46.
There was still 8:31 left, but that three was a dagger. The Leopards never again were within single digits. In fact, the way they played defense, after Ayers' trey, they pretty much had all the points they would need.
Yeah, Lafayette's Ryan Willen hit a meaningless three at the buzzer to give the Leopards 57 points, so if you want to get technical, Joe Willman's free throw with 7:18 left was the game-winner. Either way, you sensed it was over after the Bison weathered the 'Pards second half run.
“It was a 5-point game with 8-to-10 minutes to go still. We just needed to make another run,” said Mintz, who finished with 16 to lead Lafayette, half of them from the foul line.
The key for Bucknell, as it has been throughout the past three and a half months, was defense.
When Lafayette made its second half run, it was really more of a walk. Out of the Leopards 8 points in the 8-3 spurt that got them within 5, 6 came on free throws. In fact, that was where Lafayette scored 17 of its 57 points. And had they shot better there – they went 17 for 30 including a number of key missed front ends in one and one situation – this might have been closer.
But it still would not have been enough to overcome the Leopards' 34.6 percent (18 for 52) shooting from the field. Lafayette came in averaging nearly 8 three-pointers per game, but against Bucknell's defense, which led the league in every team defensive category, they made only 4 of 18 from the arc.
It was just the fourth time all season Lafayette made fewer than five threes.
That was part of Bucknell's game plan.
“We knew they were a dangerous team, especially when they get going hitting threes,” said Bison senior G.W. Boon, who had 8 points and 5 rebounds in his final game in Sojka.
“We thought we had to really pressure the ball and not let guys like (Jim) Mower make a three,” said Paulsen. “We really tried to emphasize making guys pull upo and shoot tough twos. For the most part we did.”
Mower, who hit the game-winning three in Lafayette double-overtime semifinals win over second seeded American, was 0 for 3 from the arc in the final. It was his first game (against a Division 1 opponent) without a trey since he went 0 for 2 from the arc five months ago in the season opener at Wagner.
That in a nutshell, was the difference. When Bucknell executed its plan to stop Lafayette's three-pointers, the Leopards were left to either get the ball to Mintz on the block – easier said than done against Bucknell's defense – or find someone else to score the basketball.
Unable to find a way, or a person, to do just that, the Leopards head into their offseason while Bucknell heads to the Big Dance.
NOTES: Muscala earned tournament MVP honors to go with his regular season player of the year accolades . . . Bryson Johnson and Ayers joined him on the all-tournament team . . . also named to the all-tournament team were Mintz, Lehigh's C.J. McCollum and American's Vlad Moldoveanu . . . Bucknell's bench outscored its Lafayette counterparts 23-8 . . . not necessarily coincidentally, as Paulsen pointed out, Bucknell won by the same margin . . . the Bison went 10-0 at home against league opponents this season, 14-1 overall . . . This will be the fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament in Bucknell school history . . . Bucknell's Sojka win streak is now at 13 . . .the Bison are now 3-1 against Lafayette in PL tournament play, 1-1 in finals . . . this is the second time in school history Bucknell has won 25 games in a season , , , This was the 21st time in 21 seasons the top seed has advanced to the PL final and the 16th time it has won it all . . . the number one seed has now won the league title five straight seasons . . . Lafayette was the first team seeded lower than third to make the league finals . . . Top seeds are now 51-5 all time in the tournament . . . this is the third time Bucknell was the top seed in the PL tournament . . . Bison are 8-1 as number one seed.
BOX SCORE | Gameblog w/pre-game chat (archive) | POSTGAME AUDIO: Lafayette -- Bucknell players -- Paulsen | AP Photo gallery | Bucknell photo gallery | Lafayette official coverage (w/photo galleries) | Bucknell official coverage
POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Bryan Cohen, Darryl Shazier and Mike Muscala on the Bison's semifinal win over Lehigh
POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Bryan Cohen and Darryl Shazier on the Bison's win over Lehigh
POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Darryl Shazier, Enoch Andoh and Bryson Johnson on the Bison's win at Lafayette