March 3, 2008

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Three members of the Bucknell men's basketball team earned postseason all-star recognition on Monday, highlighted by senior guard John Griffin's first selection to the All-Patriot League First Team and sophomore forward Stephen Tyree's nod as the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Year. Freshman center Todd O'Brien was named to the all-rookie team.

Griffin led the team in scoring during the regular season, averaging 13.2 points per game. He connected on 74 3-pointers, third-most in school history and five shy of the Bucknell record with the Patriot League Tournament still to come this week. Griffin has scored 20 or more points six times this season, including a career-high 31 points in an overtime win at Colgate on Feb. 6.

In Saturday's regular-season finale at Army, Griffin tied the school record for career games played with 125, and he will break that mark when Bucknell travels to Navy on Wednesday for the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals. With 1,060 career points, Griffin ranks 27th on Bucknell's career scoring list, and he also ranks second in career 3-point field goals (215), ninth in steals (133) and sixth in free-throw percentage (.805).

With Griffin's selection, Bucknell has now had a first-team all-league pick in 24 of the last 25 years, dating back to its days in the East Coast Conference.

Tyree is the second Bucknell player to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors. Abe Badmus received the award in its inaugural year in 2005.

PL Defensive Player of the Year Todd O'Brien

The 6'3" Tyree was one of only two Bison to start every game this season (Griffin was the other). One of the league's most versatile players, he was often assigned to mark the opposition's top scorer, and throughout the year he guarded everyone from point guards to power forwards. Tyree also led the team and ranked ninth in the Patriot League in rebounding at 4.8 per game.

Tyree's offense came alive in the second half of the season. He had never in his career scored in double figures until doing so in 10 of the last 16 games. During that span Tyree was 50-for-75 (.667) from the field. In 14 league games he also shot 66.7% (46-69) from the field, No. 1 in the PL. Tyree also leads the team in assists with 82.

O'Brien is Bucknell's ninth all-rookie selection since joining the Patriot League in 1990-91. The 6'11" center has seen action in all 29 games, including two starts. He is averaging 4.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game while shooting 42.9% from the field. O'Brien leads the team and ranks third in the league in blocked shots with 37.

Joining Griffin on the All-Patriot League First Team were Navy's Greg Sprink, who was also named player of the year, American's Garrison Carr, Army's Jarell Brown and Holy Cross' Tim Clifford.

Todd O'Brien earned PL All-Rookie honors.

Named to the second team were Bilal Abdullah and Andrew Brown of Lafayette, Chris Harris of Navy, Kyle Roemer of Colgate, Derrick Mercer of American and Marquis Hall of Lehigh.

In addition to O'Brien, the other all-rookie selections were Rob Keefer of Lehigh, Mike Venezia of Colgate, Romeo Garcia of Navy and Andrew Beinert of Holy Cross. Keefer was named Patriot League Rookie of the Year.

Navy's Billy Lange earned his first coach of the year honor.

Bucknell finished 6-8 in Patriot League play and tied for fifth place with Army and Lafayette in the league standings. The Bison enter the Patriot League Tournament as the No. 7 seed and will face No. 2 Navy on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Alumni Hall.