PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The fields for the NCAA Division III men’s and women’s basketball tournaments have been revealed, and several teams from the Philadelphia area will take part.
On the men's side, Swarthmore College is in the NCAA Tournament for a seventh straight season as champions of the Centennial Conference. The 20-8 Garnet have won nine in a row coming into the tourney.
“I think every year is different, and this year has been a little more up and down than previous years,” said coach Landry Kosmalski. “But our guys have been great, and they figured it out and have gotten hot at the right time. So we're excited to have a chance to keep playing.”
Swarthmore will play Virginia Wesleyan in the first round Friday at 4 p.m. in Hartford, Connecticut.
Farther north in Keene, New Hampshire, 20-7 the Eastern University Eagles, out of St. David's, Pennsylvania, will take on the College of New Jersey in the first round on Friday at 3:45 p.m. The Eagles are champs of the Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth for the first time in program history, and head coach Dan Pruessner says his group will be a tough out.
“We're that team that will stay with you, stay with you, stay with you. And if we can get that run, you know, it's gonna be a problem for our opponent, and so that run never happens unless it starts on the defensive end,” he said.
Stockton University, down in Galloway, New Jersey, makes the field for a third straight season. The 17-10 Ospreys will play Tufts in the first round Friday at 4:15 p.m. after earning an at-large bid into the field.
Stockton head coach Scott Bittner wants his team to take advantage of their season being extended.
“There were some people on the committee that believed in us,” he said, “and I think we owe it to them to go up there and, you know, compete our butts off and show that we were deserving of getting this at-large bid.”
Glassboro, New Jersey’s Rowan University also got an at-large bid. The 19-7 Profs will face Carnegie Mellon in Washington D.C. to open things up on Friday at 3:15 pm. Profs interim head coach Eric Brennan feels his team is ready to go.
“I think that we know who we are and we believe that we can play with anybody out there, but they also understand that winning is a fragile thing and you really have to bring your best effort every night and your best performance,” Brennan said. “So, you know, looking forward to seeing what we can do Friday.”
And over in Chester, Widener University men's and women's teams are tournament-bound.
The Widener men earned an at-large bid into the tourney. The 23-4 Pride have been nationally ranked much of the season and they will host their first round game on Friday night against Roger Williams at 7:40 p.m. Head coach Chris Carideo's team has been hard to guard this season.
“We only have two guys that really average double figures in (grad student forward) Dominic Dunn and (senior guard/forward) Kevin Schenk. But we average almost 85 points a game. We have a slew of guys averaging nine or eight or seven and we really spread it out and we really share the ball on offense,” Carideo said of his squad.
The Widener women are the champs of the MAC Commonwealth and the 23-4 Pride will head to Lewiston, Maine to play Springfield College in the first round on Friday at 4:00 pm. Head coach Alisa Kintner says she's really enjoying the ride this season.
“It's been unbelievable. It was a surprise type of year and a special type of year and it just keeps going. You know, we've been underdogs from the very beginning and we loved it,” she said.
The winners of games on Friday will advance into the second round of the tournament which will be played Saturday across the board.