By Paul Gotham
BETHLEHEM, PA – The Bucknell Bison travel three time zones to open the 2013-14 season. Dave Paulsen’s group start against the Pac-12’s Stanford Cardinal in Palo Alto, Cal., Friday night. The game will be Bucknell’s first of three in their first four against teams from power conferences with a tilt on Wednesday at Penn State (never mind the jet lag) and a date with St. John’s the following Tuesday. Shoe horn in the home opener with St. Francis, Pa. on Saturday the sixteenth, and the Bison will need new soles after this “feet to the fire” opening.
Facing challenge is nothing new and nothing to be ducked for the reigning Patriot League champions. They have reached the NCAA Tournament twice in the past three seasons. In between, they knocked off Arizona in the first round of 2012 NIT.
But this year’s challenge will have a different look. There is no hiding from the fact that graduation last year took with it 60 percent of Bucknell’s offensive output along with the core of players who led the Bison to those two Patriot League titles in three seasons.
Mike Muscala (18.7 ppg), Bryson Johnson (11.1) and Joe Willman (10.6) anchored a Bison club which finished 28-6 including 12 wins in the Patriot. Bucknell won seven straight and gained revenge on Lafayette with a 64-56 triumph in the league championship. A 68-56 loss to Butler in the second round of the East Regional ended a run which saw Bucknell finish with 78 wins and 25 losses over a three-year span and a mark of 45-6 in the Patriot League play.
Muscala went in the second round of the NBA draft. The Dallas Mavericks chose Bucknell’s all-time leading scorer (2,036 points) with the 44th pick in the draft and traded his rights to the Atlanta Hawks. Willman signed a professional contract with BK Nova Hut Ostrava in the Czech Republic.
All that success of the past three seasons now rests squarely on the shoulders of Cameron Ayers, Bucknell’s lone returner who averaged double-figures in the scoring column a year ago. A crafty guard with a deft inside-outside game, Ayers averaged 12.4 points per game a year ago. Leave him alone on the outside, and the senior co-captain can knock down a three hitting nearly 40 percent (53-134) last season. Play him too tight, and Ayers can go off the dribble and finish at the rim or hit a mid-range jumper.
“Those three just made it so much easier for me, personally and for our team,” Ayers said during the recent Patriot League media day at ArtQuest Center at SteelStacks. “People are just going to have to step up. We have a lot of experience back, just not playing experience.”
No other player scored more than three points per game, but Ryan Frazier (16), Ryan Hill (18.7) and Steve Kaspar (16) all logged double digit minutes. Those three along with Brian Fitzpatrick and Dom Hoffman will be expected to make significant contributions.
The opportunity is there for Ayers to step into the role as the team’s leader on offense and increase his scoring numbers. At the same time, the 6-5 senior shooting guard knows the responsibility he has to lead Bucknell to another league title.
“We have great chemistry off the court which I think will help us. Time will tell as we mature,” Ayers stated. “Teams are going to concentrate I guess more on me now obviously because I’m the returning leading scorer. That’s going to be different. I’m a team-first guy, so this is definitely going to be a big transition. It’s not going to be as easy as it was last year for me. It’s going to be challenging.”
Dave Paulsen knows Ayers needs to increase his offensive production, and the sixth-year head coach won’t shy away from challenging his team’s leader.
“He’s a terrific player. He’s worked really hard. He’s going to be one of the better players in the league,” Paulsen commented. “It’s a fine line. We need him to score a little bit more than he has. Having said that he’s not like a one-on-one clear out a side of the floor kind of player. He’s smart. He does a little bit of everything. He makes other guys better. We want to challenge him to stretch his wings a little bit without changing the core of how he plays.”
The increased offensive opportunities give Ayers the chance to develop his game. The son of current NBA assistant, Randy Ayers, discussed incorporating a Euro step into his repertoire and polishing his floater – aspects which will prepare him for a spot at the next level. And with Muscala being drafted along with Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum (Portland first round-10th overall), the possibilities are realistic for Ayers.
“It’s a tribute to what this league is like academically and athletically. We do concentrate on academics, but it doesn’t mean we can’t be successful athletically. Just to see those two guys get drafted was definitely remarkable especially one of them being my teammate who I was so close with the past three years.”
Before that can happen, Ayers will need to focus on Buckenll’s season at hand, and, as Paulsen points out, the most significant contribution Ayers can make will not show up in the box score.
“The biggest thing is he is going to have to really be vigilant about being a leader every single day, on the court, off the court, helping guys deal with adversity,” Paulsen explained. “We’re going to have some guys who are playing extended minutes who are either freshmen or sophomores or juniors who haven’ played that much. They’re going to hit some bumps in the road. He’s going to have to help them navigate that.”
Those “bumps in the road” may come very early for Bucknell. The Bison play just two games at Sojka Pavilion in November. After their sampling of power conferences, they will travel to Albany, N.Y. to play the Danes and Emittsburg, MD for a battle with Mount St. Mary’s. December includes road games at Kent State and Marist before opening Patriot League play in January.
“The lion share of the leadership is going to be on Cam,” Paulsen continued. “It’s subtle things. Sometimes, it’s patting guys on the back and saying you’re going to be okay. Sometimes, it’s saying coach is right. You got to step up and take care of the ball. When a player constructively confronts, as opposed to destructively that carries more weight than if a coach does it. It’s finding that balance. You can’t always be the good cop, but you can’t always be the bad cop. More kids are probably comfortable being the good cop than being the bad cop. It’s something you learn by doing.”
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