Tonight the ball will go up on the 2005-06 college basketball season as Bethune Cookman travels to the Carrier Dome to take on the No. 16 Syracuse Orange.

Bill Raftery will be perfecting his “man to man” call, Dick Vitale tells us who his PTP, Rolls Royce or anything else that sounds corny and ridiculous is. However, that’s not why every November I fall completely head over heels in love with college basketball.

I’m that guy that stays up until two in the morning watching some west coast team on cable TV that you’ve never heard of because of the corny excuse “I just love watching them play.” The true reason I love college basketball is the stories that evolve in small campuses all across the country.

In the small town of Lewisburg, Pa. (nearly 5,000 population) everyone in the orange and blue faithful are all quoting Bob Dylan because the times they are a-changing.

As the Bucknell Bison approach its 2005 season, excitement is buzzing around a season that could be even more magical than the previous one. One thing is for sure about the defending Patriot League champion program, if they make back-to-back, they’ll bring the band.

Last season, the Bison won its first Patriot League title in school history led by head coach Pat Flannery, who’s entering his 11th season on the bench. When the NCAA Tournament committee sent them to play Kansas in Oklahoma City (1314 miles from its campus), the pep band decided to go on its Spring Break. The Bison got the regionally based crowd to turn toward the orange and blue during its shocking 64-63 upset of the 3rd-seeded Jayhawks with the help of Northern Iowa’s band.

“The victory was almost surreal,” said Flannery after taking the Bison to the first NCAA Tournament victory in program and league history. “It is proof that good things happen to those who work hard for it. The players in this program truly earned that victory, and it’s a memory that they will carry forever.”

At that point, the athletic department had an idea. Bucknell worked a handshake deal with Oklahoma State’s band to play in its second round contest with the Wisconsin Badgers. So, with the Bison remarkably up by one with nine minutes to play, there was the OSU band in Bucknell t-shirts playing the Bison fight song they’d just learned only hours before game time.

At the very least, Bucknell officials realized that when you attend the dance in March, you got to bring the music. This is what college basketball is all about.

‘It shocked me,” Bucknell senior guard Charles Lee during the post game press conference said of the crowd’s “B-I-S-O-N” chant during a timeout. “It really felt good to have fans behind us.”

“With the leadership, excitement and respect that the Patriot League has developed since I have been the head coach at Bucknell, I believe this is a wonderful time to be in charge of this program,” Flannery said.

The Bison return all five starters and 12 of 13 lettermen from last year’s 23-10 squad. Bucknell will be led by Patriot League Preseason Player of the Year Chris McNaughton and senior co-captains Charles Lee and Kevin Bettencourt.

The Bison received a single vote in the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches’ Poll, and they are ranked eighth in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll. The attention Bucknell is different than the humble beginnings that the small, quiet campus is used to but Flannery says the question of how he plans on dealing with the public eye is a good problem to have.

“It’s just incredible the amount of attention that we’ve gotten,” Flannery told the Lebanon Daily News. “The hardest thing is to keep our kids’ feet on the ground. But at the same time, our chests ought to be out, and we ought to be proud of what we did. I’m excited about getting started (this season).”

It is clear that Flannery is speaking as a college basketball fan, not a leader of a program. Honestly, he speaks for all us.

Matt Stevens is a senior journalism major. If you would like to discuss his favorite Bob Dylan quotes, e-mail him at [email protected].