NCAA Tournament March Madness

#303 Bucknell

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Bucknell’s body of work shows flashes but not enough heft; the Bison have solid wins at Mount St. Mary’s and Rider and a nice home victory over Delaware that prove they can close out games away from home, yet those wins come against limited opponents and do little to erase the damage from blowout defeats at Pittsburgh and St. John’s and ugly road losses at Akron, plus home setbacks to Hofstra and Cornell and tight neutral-site losses to Bowling Green and Buffalo. The pattern that matters to a selection panel is clear: the good results are legitimate but light on quality while the bad losses are signature negatives that stick on a résumé. The neutral meeting with Iowa is a standout chance to add a marquee win, and the Patriot League slate — particularly the road trip to Colgate and the opportunity to string together wins against conference rivals — gives Bucknell a definable path to improve its case. Until those opportunities are realized, the combination of modest high-end wins and damaging defeats explains why the team’s standing remains precarious.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Delaware268W78-70
11/7@Mt St Mary's302W73-62
11/11@Princeton271L73-63
11/14Hofstra109L83-77
11/17@Pittsburgh118L84-50
11/20@St John's16L97-49
11/24(N)Bowling Green114L71-66
11/26(N)Buffalo204L73-71
11/30Cornell169L101-72
12/3@Akron65L97-77
12/6UMBC287L73-66
12/9@Rider350W51-38
12/20(N)Iowa202%
12/31@Holy Cross29436%
1/3Lehigh30561%
1/7@Navy20121%
1/10Loyola MD33871%
1/14Lafayette32567%
1/17@Colgate16616%
1/21Army33671%
1/24@Loyola MD33850%
1/26@Lafayette32545%
1/31Boston Univ29860%
2/4@American Univ23126%
2/7Colgate16634%
2/9Navy20141%
2/14@Boston Univ29837%
2/18American Univ23146%
2/22Holy Cross29458%
2/25@Army33650%
2/28@Lehigh30539%