PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It has been a fantastic season for the Rowan University men’s basketball team in Glassboro, New Jersey, and they hope to continue their strides Friday night when the Profs visit the No. 1 team in the country, Hampden-Sydney College, in the Sweet 16 of the Division III NCAA tournament.
Rowan defeated Carnegie Mellon (81-69) and Catholic (89-85) in the first two rounds of the tourney last weekend. The win over Catholic came on the Cardinals’ home floor in Washington, D.C.
This is the second straight season that the Profs have advanced this far in the tournament. Interim head coach Eric Brennan said at this point, his team is pretty much ready for anything.
"All of these experiences, they are tools in our toolbox now,” he said.
Rowan brings a 21-7 record into this game, which will be a tremendous battle of styles. Rowan averages 89.5 points per game — third in the country — with senior forward Ja’Zere Noel leading the way at 21.4 ppg.
The Profs are at their best when they get up and down the floor, while Brennan said the 28-2 Hampden-Sydney Tigers want to try and lock you down.
“They really hang their hat on their physicality and defense,” said Brennan. “They’re one of the top-scoring defenses in the country. It seems like anybody that plays for them, they’ll go 9, 10 deep. Each one of those guys is in your jersey and they’re defending extremely hard.”
The numbers show just how tough it is to score against the Tigers. They come into this game allowing just 57.6 ppg — fifth in the country.
“For us, it’s matching [Hampden-Sydney’s] physicality, but similar to the first weekend, it’s [also] getting the game up and down so you’re not always playing against a set half-court defense and things like that,” Brennan added.
The winner of this game will play the winner of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Nebraska Wesleyan match in the Elite 8 on Saturday.
Rowan and Hampden-Sydney tip off at 7 p.m. Friday.