Apr 17, 2013
This (ginger) beard is on fireeeeee!
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This (ginger) beard is on fireeeeee!
POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Mike Muscala and Joe Willman on the Bison's loss to Lehigh
POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Joe Willman and Cameron Ayers on the Bison's 54-50 win over Morehead State
Super glue guy Joe Willman holds Bucknell together
By Chris A. Courogen HOOP TIME Editor
They don't get named All-American. They don't even get named all-league.
Yet every great team has at least one of them, and without them, great teams would be little more than mediocre groups of stars.
In the movie biz, they recognize the importance of the unsung heroes whose name comes down the list when they roll credits. They call them supporting actors and even have a special Oscar for actors who excel in such roles.
In basketball, they are the guys the average fan seldom talks about. They are also the guys coaches love to talk about.
They used to call them “lunch pail guys,” a reference to the blue collar workers who made our nation great back when we still manufactured stuff here.
Nowadays they use a different term: “glue guy.”
It's a pretty fitting name. The glue guy is the one who does all the little things that hold a team together and make it possible for the stars to shine.
Most of what they do is the stuff that doesn't show up in the box score – setting picks, playing tough defense, taking charges, diving on the floor for loose balls.
For Bucknell, that guy is 6-7 junior forward Joe Willman, who might just be the best four-man in the league.
Take a look back at all the preseason accolades showered on the defending league champions. Almost every article included a phrase along there lines: The Bison return four starters, including 2010 Patriot League Player or the Year Mike Muscala, all-league guard Bryson Johnson, one of the top three-point shooters in the nation and Bryan Cohen, the two-time Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year.
Only in stories that really went in depth did you see Willman's name even mentioned. Even then, they usually saved any mention of Willman for after a discussion of who would replace Darryl Shazier at the point.
When you look back at Willman's sophomore season, it almost comes as a surprise to realize his 12 double figures scoring games were the third-most on the team. Everybody was too busy marveling at Johnson's long-range bombs and Muscala's deft post moves to notice.
Only Muscala grabbed more rebounds among the Bison last season. Muscala was also the only Bison to shoot with greater accuracy than Willman, who knocked down 47.4 percent of his shots. He had as many assists as Johnson and Cameron Ayers, both guards, both of whom played more minutes than Willman. Ayers even spent much of that time at the point.
Folks are starting to notice the big redhead a little more this season, especially after he followed a team-high 17-points performance at Vanderbilt with an impressive 13-point first half Saturday night against St. Francis (Pa.).
Willman scored 12 of the Bison's first 16 points , jump-starting Bucknell's 73-42 romp. One of the two buckets he did not score in that stretch came after he dished to Ayers. Willman finished the night 6 for 9 from the field. Through three games, he is shooting 66.7 percent from the field.
For those who think Willman had an easy go of it because St. Francis was focused on stopping Muscala and Johnson, here's a little inside info: During the Red Flash's pregame film session Saturday afternoon at their hotel outside of Lewisburg, the SFU coaching staff made sure their team was aware of Willman.
As they went through their scouting report on Bucknell's personnel, they showed a Willman highlight film. The clips were a compilation of plays where Willman knocked down the mid-range jumpers he is becoming known for. They even re-winded a few times to make certain they were aware of Willman's preference for two particular spots on the floor – 12-feet out on the baseline in what is known as the “gray area” and just inside the paint near the elbow at the top of the key.
Suffice to say St. Francis coach Don Friday made certain his team was aware of Willman and the threat he posed. It didn't matter. Those two spots were still where Willman did his damage from.
After the loss, Friday repeated his praise of Willman to the media assembled for the postgame presser.
“We knew coming in that Muscala and Johnson are two guys that are bookends,” Friday said. “But I tried to remind our assistants, as you are watching film, that Willman's a pretty darn good player. . . . Obviously, right off the bat, he came to play tonight.”
It wasn't so much the way Willman knocked down those same jumpers against Vanderbilt that impressed Friday on film. It was all the other stuff, the glue guy stuff. The sweet mid-range jumper is just icing on the cake.
What impressed Friday most about Willman, though, was the toughness factor he adds to a Bucknell lineup that is heavy on finesse and skills.
“If I am trick or treating and I'm a 13-year-old kid and some punks come and take my candy, Willman is gonna find them. And I'll tell you what, they will never take anything again,” Friday said. “I'd take Willman with me into a foxhole, because I guarantee you, until the last bullet was left, I'd be protected.”
Later, when Willman was told what Friday had said, a big grin spread across his face. It was obvious Friday had just paid him what Willman considered a very high compliment.
“That is just kind of how I have always played the game. I have always approached it to go after it,” Willman said. “You have got to hit the other guy first. You can't let anyone dictate the way you are going to play. You can't let them push you around. It's kind of second nature now.”
It's the kind of thing Friday hopes will rub off on his team when it looks at film of Saturday's debacle, a game in which they were outrebounded by a 45-23 margin. In the first half, when the outcome was decided, Bucknell actually had rebounded more of its own missed shots (10 offensive rebounds) than St. Francis (8 defensive boards). Ten of Bucknell's 37 first-half points came on second chances.
Friday said it was obvious his team needs to spend more time in the weight room. While they lift, Friday and his staff will try to figure out who can emerge as a Willman type guy on their young squad.
“I can be a fan of that the rest of the year, but you're not a fan when he is putting it on you. He is a good player. He is a heckuva player,” Friday said.
“They need a big bucket, they need a big rebound, they need a big stop, they run back to their big brother – and he is pretty good.”
AUDIO:
St. Francis coach Don Friday talks about Willman and his team's loss to Bucknell
Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Bryan Cohen and Joe Willman (postgame St. Francis with lots on Willman)
Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Joe Willman and Bryan Cohen talk about the Bison's win over St. Francis (Pa.) in general and Willman's big performance in the game
St. Francis (Pa.) coach Don Friday on Bucknell's Joe Willman and his team's loss to the Bison
POSTGAME AUDIO: Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, players Bryan Cohen, Mike Muscala and Joe Willman on the Bison's win over Navy
Bucknell starts fast, finishes strong in blowout win over Colgate
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN Hoop Time Editor
It might have been interesting to get Emmett Davis' take on things after his his team became the latest Patriot League side to get trampled by the stampeding Bison of Bucknell.
There were all sorts of questions we'd have liked to ask the Colgate coach in the aftermath of the 76-49 shellacking that ended the Raiders' modest two-game win streak and left them tied with Navy in the Patriot League cellar.
Had Bucknell sports information director brought Davis into the media room for the postgame press conference, we could have gotten his take on the smothering defense the Bison's Bryan Cohen played on Colgate's leading scorer, Yaw Gyawu, who managed just two field goals all night, both in the second half well after the outcome had been decided.
Davis might have had some interesting insight on Bucknell sophomore center Mike Muscala's 17-point performance, a showing that was all the more impressive when you consider he only played 21 minutes in the rout (which was enough playing time to get both Colgate starting center Nick Pascale and backup John Brandenburg in foul trouble).
How do you try to take away Muscala, a 59-percent shooter since league play began, who is equally adept stepping out for the jumper and posting up on the blocks, especially when double-teaming him leaves guys open like Bison four-man Joe Willman, who came in shooting 58-percent from the field in conference games and upped that with a 4-for-4, 10-point night.
Do you send one of your guards to double down on Muscala and let Bryson Johnson, the league's top three-point shooter kill you from the arc? And when Johnson is stroking it like he was Saturday night in Sojka Pavilion (4-for-6 on 3s for 12 points in 21 minutes of action), what is plan C?
Davis has been around the league for a while now – he is in his 12th season as Colgate's head coach and spent the first 8 seasons of the league's existence as an assistant at Navy. So it would have been interesting to get his take on how this Bucknell team (14-7 overall, 5-0 Patriot League), which has now won seven in a row and 11 of its last 12, stacks up against some of the great teams in the league's past.
No doubt fans would also be interested in his thoughts on Bison point guard Darryl Shazier, who came into the game leading the nation in assists to turnovers ratio and did nothing to diminish that standing by dishing off 5 assists while turning it over but once.
What impact did the crowd of 3,827, the most in Dave Paulsen's three seasons as head coach, have on his team, which is used to playing in front of less than 500 people back home in Hamilton? How much tougher are the Bison now that the bandwagon jumpers are returning to Sojka Pavilion?
Yeah, there were lots of questions we could have asked Davis had he been made available, but since nobody actually covers Colgate – the Raiders (3-16, 1-4) don't even have a radio station that carries their games – Bison SID Jon Terry didn't realize anybody would want to talk to him after the game.
By the time Terry was informed there were some questions we wanted to ask Davis, it was too late.The Raiders were already on the way heading back to Hamilton.
And who could blame Davis for making a hasty exit. It's a long ride even in the most favorable conditions, and on a night when the temperatures outside were in the teens and your team's shooting was almost as cold, a toasty bus, which had been warming up since early in the first half, probably was a comforting refuge.
For all intents and purposes, this one was over when Bucknell answered Colgate's early 4-2 lead with a 14-0 run to take a double-digits lead less than 5 minutes into the game. The Raiders cut the lead to 8 on back-to-back buckets by Brandon James, the only Colgate player to make more than 2 baskets all night (4-7, 11 points off the bench).
A little later Mike Venezia connected on a three that cut the Bison advantage to 9 for all of 15 second before G.W. Boon answered with a three at the other end that put the Bucknell lead back to 11 with 9:36 left in the first half.
Colgate never got closer. It was a 47-26 game at the half after Shazier dashed the length of the court and dished to Muscala, who slammed home a dunk over 6-11 Brandenburg, then rubbed his nose in it by draining the and-one for a three-point play.
And just in case anybody was thinking back to that 2008 game in Sojka where Bucknell opened the game with a 23-0 run, then barely held off a second-half rally for a four-point win, the Bison scored the first 7 points of the second half and never looked back.
Colgate shot 12 for 48 from the field (25 percent). They made just 5 buckets on 26 shots (19.2 percent) after the intermission, even though Bucknell's starters were resting comfortably on the bench most of the second half.
“I thought we played very well on defense,” said Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, stating the obvious.
The offense wasn't too shabby either. The Bison hit half the shots they took in the first half, including 6 of 12 from the arc. The final box score shows they shot just 40.9 percent after the intermission, but that is one of the most misleading stats you will ever encounter.
Bucknell actually picked up that pace in the second half, knocking down 6 of the 8 shots they took in the first 10 minutes after the break before Paulsen called off the dogs when the lead reached 31-points and used the rest of the game to get little used guys like freshmen Ben Brackney and Ryan Hill some extended run.
The win put a successful cap on the Bison's three-game homestand and keeps them a game ahead of second-place American heading into a two-game road trip to Lehigh and Army this week. Bucknell's 5-0 start in Patriot League play is its best since the 2005-2006 season, when the Bison swept the league slate and went on to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
BOX SCORE | Postgame Audio: BUCKNELL