The Bucknell Bison own one of the great upsets in NCAA tournament history. In 2005, the 14th-seeded Bison stunned third-seeded Kansas 64-63 — Chris McNaughton's hook shot with seconds left silencing the Jayhawks and announcing the Patriot League to America. It was the program's arrival on the national stage, and it still plays every March.
The Bison weren't done: the 2006 team went back to the tournament and upset Arkansas, making it back-to-back years with a first-round stunner. Pat Flannery's program had become the team nobody wanted to draw — disciplined, veteran, and utterly fearless.
Bucknell's Patriot League dominance stretched across eras: league titles, tournament championships, and a pipeline of all-conference stars who chose Lewisburg for the education and the winning. The Bison became the league's standard-bearer, the program everyone measured against.
Sojka Pavilion is one of the Patriot League's great venues: 4,000 seats packed tight in central Pennsylvania, where the student section's energy and the team's precision make it a brutal road trip. When Bucknell is good, Sojka is a fortress.
The heritage includes the 1987 and 1989 tournament teams and the long line of Bison who made the program a consistent March threat. Mike Muscala — the NBA veteran — is the program's most famous modern son, proof that Bucknell develops pros.
The Kansas upset remains the north star: the hook shot, the celebration, the moment a tiny Pennsylvania school humbled a blue blood. In Lewisburg, 2005 isn't just history — it's identity.
What defines Bucknell is the giant-killing: a Patriot League program that beat Kansas and Arkansas in back-to-back tournaments and never blinked. The Bison's story is proof that discipline beats talent when the moment is biggest. The program's academic prestige — one of the Patriot League's flagship schools — means the Bison win with true student-athletes, a point of pride in Lewisburg that makes the Kansas upset even sweeter.
The 2005 Kansas game's details are Bison scripture: McNaughton's hook over the Jayhawks' bigs, the final defensive stand, the court-storming delirium of a tiny Pennsylvania school toppling a blue blood. The 2006 Arkansas upset proved it was no fluke — Bucknell had become March's designated giant-killer, the team high seeds prayed to avoid. Sojka Pavilion's 'Sojka magic' carried the program through the Patriot League wars, and the Bison's pipeline of high-academic, high-character players kept the winning going long after Flannery's heroes graduated.
The 2025–26 season was a reset year — 10–23 overall, 6–12 in the Patriot League, out in the quarterfinals. It came on the heels of a 2024–25 campaign that won the Patriot League regular-season championship at 18–15 and 13–5, and the whiplash defined a roster in transition: for 2026–27, Bucknell returns just one starter and six letterwinners, with nine gone.
The future arrived early anyway. Freshman Amon Dörries broke Bucknell's single-season freshman scoring record — a mark set by Gerald Purnell in 1975 — averaging 16.1 points per game and earning Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors along the way. Pat Curtin joined him in double figures at 12.4. The Bison will be young, but they'll be young around a genuine building block.
John Griffin III, a 2008 Bucknell graduate and former Bison standout guard, is the program's 22nd head coach, hired in March 2023. Year four is the proving season: his first team went 14–19 and finished hot, his second won the league's regular-season crown, his third bottomed out. The Patriot League is wide open enough — American, Army, Colgate and Navy all trading punches — that a Dörries-led sophomore leap could change the math fast.
The pedigree is real. Bucknell has eight NCAA Tournament appearances, most recently in 2018, and two Round of 32 runs — the 2005 and 2006 teams that stunned No. 3 Kansas and No. 8 Arkansas in back-to-back Marches. CJ McCollum (the 2013 Patriot League Player of the Year and an NBA lottery pick), Mike Muscala and Charles Lee all wore the blue and orange. Fourteen Patriot League regular-season titles — most recently 2025 — are the program's true currency. Now in its 132nd season (all-time 1531–1357–1), Bucknell basketball is one of the oldest continuous programs in the country, and Sojka Pavilion's 4,000 seats still expect March to matter.
The modern golden age belongs to two coaches. Pat Flannery (1994–2008) built the teams that shocked Kansas and Arkansas in consecutive NCAAs and won three Patriot League tournaments; Dave Paulsen (2008–15) added two more league titles and NCAA trips in 2011 and 2013 behind McCollum and Muscala. Nathan Davis (2015–23) kept the machine humming with regular-season crowns and the 2017 and 2018 tournament titles — the 2018 team drew Michigan State in the first round and made the Spartans sweat. That continuity is the program's identity: Bucknell doesn't rebuild, it reloads — which is what makes the 2025–26 reset such unfamiliar territory.