April 19, 2006

Center Valley, Pa. - For the second consecutive season, Bucknell junior center Chris McNaughton (Leuterhausen, Germany/Dientzenholfer) was named the Patriot League's Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year. An electrical engineering major, McNaughton finished the 2005 fall semester with a 3.58 grade-point average while leading the Bison to its second-straight Patriot League crown and second-straight NCAA Tournament second round appearance.

The postseason honors were numerous for the towering McNaughton (6'11), who was also named First-Team All-Patriot League for the second-straight year as well to ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District squad and to the NABC All-District team. In addition, McNaughton also earned his second-straight Patriot League All-Tournament team nod as the Bison capped off the first perfect League season in (14-0) Patriot League history.

The Patriot League's career leader in field-goal percentage (61.1 percent), McNaughton led the League and finished ranked 24th nationally with a 57.8 field-goal percentage last year. McNaughton will enter the 2006-07 campaign 37th all-time and the active Patriot League scoring leader with 1,158 points. His 12.8 ppg last season ranked him eighth overall in scoring in the League.

McNaughton is the third two-time Patriot League Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year recipient, and first since former-Bison Dan Blankenship took home back-to-back honors in 2001-02. The first two-time winner was also from Bucknell, Valter Karavanic, who garnered back-to-back awards in 1999-00.

The biggest moment in McNaughton's young career came two seasons ago, when the Bison became the first-ever Patriot League team to win a game in the NCAA Tournament, as the second-year McNaughton hit the game-winning hook shot against Kansas in the first round in 2005.

McNaughton averaged 14.7 ppg in the Patriot League Tournament last season, and scored a career-high 29 points against No. 4 Villanova on Dec. 6, 2005 in Lewisburg, Pa. and led Bucknell with 15 points against No. 1 Duke on Jan. 2.

The Patriot League, which was founded on the principles of admitting athletes who are academically representative of their class, is in its second decade of academic and athletic excellence. Participation in athletics at Patriot League institutions is viewed as an important component of the undergraduate experience. The Patriot League, which began as a successful Division I-AA football conference in 1986 and became an all-sport conference in 1990, includes American, Army, Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy as full members and three associate members. These institutions are among the oldest and most prestigious in the nation and their alumni have played leadership roles in the shaping of our country. In the most recent NCAA Graduation Rate Report of student-athletes, the Patriot League ranked FIRST among NCAA Division I conferences.