Tommy Funk (above, as a senior at Wood in 2016) had a very strong freshman season at West Point. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

While Andrew was having a solid junior season with the Vikings, Tommy had a strong introduction to the college game. As a freshman at West Point this past year, he started all 32 games, averaging 9.1 ppg and 4.8 apg, which was good enough for second in the Patriot League. He earned All-Patriot Rookie League honors for his efforts.

It also gave Funk a peek into a league which had several programs following his progress.

“Watching my brother this year kind of acclimated me to the league,” Andrew Funk said. “I think that I was kind of unique with the [Bucknell] recruits, having a brother (in the Patriot League) I knew what I’d be getting into if I committed there.”

Bucknell is also coming off a successful year, Davis’s second since taking over the program from Dave Paulson, now at George Mason. The former Randolph-Macon head coach followed up on a 17-win debut campaign in 2015-16 by guiding the Bison to 26 wins last year, winning the Patriot League tournament championship and making the program’s fifth NCAA tournament since 2005.

“They’re getting a tough, smart player that wants to win,” said Wood’s fifth-year head coach John Mosco. “Hard-nosed, aggressive, plays downhill, scoring mentality, plays well with other teammates, can do a lot of things and he can score a lot of different ways.”

Funk cited Bucknell’s history of success as a reason he picked the school over his two other finalists, Delaware and Penn. He took his official visit to Bucknell back on Aug. 26-27 and followed up with one to UDel this past weekend, but even the presence of good friend Ryan Daly on the Blue Hens’ roster wasn’t enough to sway him from the school which had emerged in his mind as the leader.

“Delaware made the decision very hard for me,” he said. “I think before the Delaware visit I wasn’t really ready to make that decision yet. I think the weekend gave me some clarity with Bucknell, but it wasn’t like I wanted to use the visit to compare it, that’s just how it worked out.”

A 6-foot-4 combo guard, Andrew -- the middle of five Funk boys -- is a smooth outside shooter, capable of playing either the ‘1’ or the ‘2,’ skills he demonstrated at Wood and really proved this summer on the AAU circuit with the Jersey Shore Warriors.

He piled up nine scholarship offers before narrowing his choices down.

When Funk gets to school, the Bison will be needing to replace current senior point guard Stephen Brown (11.1 ppg, 4.7 apg in ‘16-17), plus wing Zach Thomas (15.9 ppg, 6.6 rpg) and Nana Foulland (15.0 ppg, 7.8 rpg) at other positions. Current junior Kimbal Mackenzie (11.9 ppg), sophomore Avi Toomer (3.2 ppg) and freshman Jimmy Sotos will all be ahead of Funk in the backcourt rotation, but there’s certainly the availability for Funk -- the only currently committed player for Bucknell’s 2018 class -- to earn minutes.

“Coming in as a freshman, (the coaches) didn’t promise playing time but they promised the opportunity, spelling people both on the ball and off the ball,” he said.

Before Andrew gets to start his college career, he’ll try to lead Wood to back-to-back league, district and state championship titles, though they’ll have fierce competition for all three. This year, he’ll be one of four senior Division I-bound starters for Mosco’s Vikings, along with the yet-to-decide Tyree Pickron, Seth Pinkney and Karrington Wallace.

He also gets to impart some more knowledge on his twin brothers, Albert and Michael, a pair of 6th graders who are the final of five Funk boys. Though their hoops futures are still far from decided, the pair have gotten quite the exposure towards what it takes to get that coveted Division I scholarship.

“They’ve definitely soaked it up, all the things my brother and I went through,” Andrew Funk said. “They soak up all the games, all the practices, all the conversations.”

There’s certainly one college league they’re going to know very well.