Bucknell Rebounds From Non-League Struggles

Bison Regroup to Start Patriot League Play Strong

by Phil Kasiecki

WORCESTER, Mass. – If you need further proof that non-conference results don’t mean much by themselves, look no further than this season’s Bucknell Bison.

After a 5-9 showing in non-conference play, finishing with four losses in the last five games, the Bison came into Patriot League play not looking like one of the favorites. They looked as vulnerable as any contender, especially since they also had to play a lot of young players.

But after Friday’s 73-65 win at Holy Cross, the Bison are 3-0 and look like the team to beat. Although the injury-riddled Crusaders gave them a game, the Bison looked like the clearly better team for most of the night. They look like a team that has regrouped and come to life in a big way.

“We put it behind us,” said junior guard Justin Castleberry, who led the Bison with 22 points against the Crusaders. “We know the league is 0-0. We were 2-0 coming into this game, and we couldn’t be happier to come up here and get a quality win.”

Part of the Bison’s struggles in non-conference can be attributed to their health, or lack thereof at the time. Until a week ago, they had difficulty practicing as they routinely had eight or nine players. The list of injuries goes on: senior big man Darren Mastropaolo missed the first two months after tearing his ACL in a pickup game in the summer; junior guard Jason Vegotsky, a key player Friday night, missed the first seven games of the season with a stress fracture in his foot; senior guard Rob Thomas missed 13 games with a left knee injury. Even now, it hasn’t stopped, as junior center Josh Linthicum is currently day-to-day with a knee injury.

In light of that, the Bison, who have eight freshmen and sophomores, had to rely much more on their underclassmen than they probably wanted to. Sophomore Patrick Behan started the first 11 games of the season after averaging just over eight minutes per game last season. Classmate Stephen Tyree, who played limited minutes last season except as a defensive specialist, has moved into the starting lineup and is one of the most improved players in the Patriot League. Freshman Todd O’Brien started two games and has averaged about 18 minutes per game, more than one might have figured well before the season. Talented classmate G.W. Boon has started three games and shown a little more of his potential than he might have otherwise.

The early experiences, while they included some struggles, right now look like the proverbial blessing in disguise from developing depth out of necessity. The Bison have a stable of guards that can contribute and look to be very deep up front with Mastropaolo back.

“I think that any time you’re thrown in the fire like that – we were playing three freshmen a lot of minutes – it gave them a chance to get experience and be in some different situations before the new year came in,” said assistant coach Nathan Davis. “Now we’re getting healthy, and hopefully we’ll pretty soon have all 14 guys in practice and we’ll be able to keep getting better as the year goes on.”

Mastropaolo’s return helps on a couple of fronts. He’s their most experienced post player, which is an obvious benefit. Having a player who has been through the wars helps immensely, especially on this team since the Bison are rather green on the front line. But he’s also a guy who has been a team player all along. Davis said he was as important as any player to their recent success, calling him “the glue” to those teams.

Another part of their struggles can be attributed to their non-league schedule, which featured eight games away from home and six at Sojka Pavilion. While it was not as daunting as those of recent seasons, the Bison had their fair share of challenges prior to Patriot League play. Their biggest margin of defeat was 14 points against Marist, so they were in every game they lost.

“I don’t think our guys ever lost confidence in themselves,” said Davis. “We knew we could be good, we knew that we were close to winning a lot of those games.”

The typical train of thought is that a challenging non-league schedule toughens a team up for their league play stretch. While that may be at work here, the biggest thing is to look beyond the wins and losses. The bottom line doesn’t show if a team grew along the way, and it seems that has been the case. Their 5-9 non-conference record is a thing of the past, as they are tied with Lafayette atop the Patriot League and look like they could be the team to beat once again.