On the phone Thursday night is the basketball coach at Bucknell, an hour after his Bison had clipped Loyola Maryland, 76-72, in overtime in their Patriot League quarterfinal. That broke an NCAA record, but first, why is John Griffin III flat on his back on a couch?
“You wouldn’t believe what I’m doing right now,” he begins.
OK, what?
“I have, like, a virus. I’m getting H2O into my veins. I have a little IV action postgame, so I’m going to be laying down here for a minute.”
Seems the rigors of the night had taken a lot from him. Actually, the coach needing a postgame IV is the perfect symbol for the Bucknell season. And here’s why . . .
As mentioned, the Bison went overtime to beat Loyola Thursday night.
The same as they did to beat Southern Indiana, 75-69, early in the season.
And Richmond, 80-76.
And Lafayette, 65-62.
Then again, Thursday night might have had an unhappy ending. Bucknell could have lost to Loyola in overtime.
Just as the Bison did to Mount St. Mary’s, 93-89.
And Radford, 74-70.
And Lehigh, 66-64.
And Boston University, 85-82.
And Army, 116-110.
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Lost count? No wonder. That’s nine overtime games out of 32 – better than one of every four – and actually Richmond, Mount St. Mary’s and Army each went two overtimes. Twelve extra periods in all, meaning the average length of a Bison game this season has really been 41.9 minutes. NCAA record book, meet Bucknell. No Division I team had ever played nine overtime games in a season before. Six had played eight, Texas the last in 2018.
The Bison have gone 4-5 in OT as part of a current 18-14 rollercoaster ride of a year and No. 1 seed spot in the Patriot League semis. Bucknell started the season 4-10, but is 14-4 since. Started 4-4 in Patriot play, then won nine of the next 10.
Nine overtime games, and all the rest. If you were the coach, wouldn’t you need an IV, too?
“It certainly gives you perspective,” Griffin said. “You’re trying to help your players. Is it one sense exhausting? Yes, it is. The circumstances leading into these overtimes, some of them you can’t even draw up. But if you really just dive into the health of your kids, win or lose, then you think less about it.
“It’s chaos. I was good with eight. I did not need nine. It’s just the type of year it’s been. I don’t know how to explain it.”
Southern Indiana was the first overtime finish in the second game of the season. A week later, the Bison blew a 15-point lead and lost in two overtimes to Mount St. Mary’s, but three days after that, they came from 21 points down to stun Richmond in double OT.
Next, the Radford loss in December, when Bucknell ran out of bodies, four of the Bison fouling out. The new year didn’t stop the need for extra work. On Jan. 2, Bucknell squandered a 20-point lead and lost to Lehigh, and six days later, let go of an 11-point lead but survived to beat Lafayette. That made six overtime games in 63 days. Later, in January, there was another at Boston University.
The wildest of the bunch was Feb. 8, when Bucknell roared from 13 points down in the final 3:17 of regulation against Army but eventually lost the 116-110 shootout in double overtime.
That tied the record with eight. March came; would there be time for a ninth?
Sure, the Bison went up 17 in the first half against Loyola, but blown leads and big rallies have been a feature of this phenomenon. It was all gone in the second half, and then Bucknell recovered to survive and advance. The Bison have now won seven in a row and 10 of their past 11. Most of them, blessedly, required only 40 minutes. Two weeks after the 116-110 loss to Army, they beat the Black Knights by 31. They haven’t lost in regulation since Jan. 20.
“You know who we’ve really put through the ringer?” Griffin said. “Our fans. Our fans are absolutely exhausted.”
But he has seen his team gain grit and steel from all the extra work. Such as Noah Williamson, a 7-footer who grew up in Latvia and has been the leading scorer in six of the overtime games. Or point guard Josh Bascoe, who has played 40-plus minutes in eight games, including 43 Thursday night.
“Experience is the greatest teacher,” Griffin said. “You learn there’s one of two ways to go about attacking an overtime. One is playing not to lose and one is playing to win. Early on in our overtimes, even though we won some, we were playing not to lose. At this point, we’re taking a very aggressive stance and playing to win.
“A game like tonight, do we walk into the huddle after regulation and worry? No, we’ve been through it so many times. It was more about endurance than anything else. The physical endurance and the mental endurance in these situations become key, but the main thing you learn is play to win vs. not to lose. Those are two completely approaches to the game.”
Griffin is a Bucknell alum in economics who scored 1,000 career points and captained the team his senior season. By now, it would be only natural if he had a complex in any tight game.
“That probably happened in game 5,” he said. “When it goes down to the last two minutes and it’s a one-possession game, is there an element of no, not again? For sure. We’ve seen every — in the basketball industry what is called special situations — and we saw them all early. I would say that we have a better idea of how to score and what’s required defensively, depending upon the time and the score. You can’t be in the situations we have and not have a very strong understanding of what you do.”
One other thing they have now: The NCAA record.
“I think it’s cool actually,” Griffin said. “ I brought it up to the team after the game. I said, `Fellas, you guys are going down in history.’ It’s all part of the experience. What makes Bucknell pretty unique is we really care about the experience and here’s one that might not ever get broken.”
There is still a Patriot League tournament to win and an NCAA Tournament berth to secure. Next is Navy on Sunday. Wouldn’t a comfortable 10-point win be nice?
“Unfortunately,” Griffin said, “what probably gives me the most anxiousness is just knowing that it’s not going to happen that way.”
He’ll keep the IV handy.
