Bucknell Bison
From Hoopedia
Bucknell University is a private university located along the Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 60 miles (97 km) north of Harrisburg. Set on a beautiful campus, it has a reputation for its rigorous academic programs (especially strong in engineering and the life sciences). Student athletes compete in 27 NCAA sports.
Bucknell University is a member of the Patriot League for Division I sports, Division I-AA in football. It ranks among the top universities for NCAA Division I in athletic graduation rates (No. 1 three times in the last 10 years).
Men's Basketball
In 2005, Bucknell went to the NCAA men's basketball tournament and became the first Patriot League team to win an NCAA tournament game, in a surprising and intense upset of Kansas (64-63). The victory followed a highly successful year that included wins over #9 Pittsburgh and Saint Joseph's. They lost to Wisconsin in the following round. In 2006, the Bison continued their success with high-profile victories at Syracuse, then ranked 19th, DePaul, and Saint Joseph's, a sequence that saw the Bison nearly enter the Associated Press's top-25 rankings. However, those wins were followed by high-profile losses against Villanova, then ranked fourth in the nation, and at Duke, then ranked first. Patriot League play began after the Duke loss, and the Bison did not lose a league game in 2006. The team was ranked 24th in the nation in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today college basketball polls for the week of February 13. This was the Bucknell program's first national ranking, and the first time since the league's creation in 1990 that any Patriot League men's basketball team has been ranked. The team was seeded ninth in the Oakland bracket for the 2006 NCAA tournament, and defeated the Arkansas Razorbacks in the first round (59-55). The Bison were defeated by Memphis in the second round, losing by a score of 72-56. They finished the regular season ranked 25th in the ESPN poll. Entering the 2006-2007 season, the Bison had scheduled a number of high-profile games, including a season opener against Wake Forest. The schedule also included a match up against George Mason, a team that had made the 2006 Final Four. In a tight game, the Bison were defeated by Wake Forest 86-83 in overtime. They did, however, go on to defeat George Mason. Bucknell made it to the 2007 Patriot League Championship Game where they faced Holy Cross. The Bison lost by a score of 66-74.
