Swarthmore’s tourney dream starts at home
SWARTHMORE >> As he and his Swarthmore teammates gathered to watch the NCAA Division III men’s basketball selection show Monday afternoon, Michael Rubayo made it a point to make sure each player sat in the proper seat.
“We sit in the same seat every time we watch film in here,” Rabayo said.
The 6-foot-8 senior forward was not about to mess with the team’s karma by having one player sit out of place, even though Swarthmore did not have to worry about its tournament fate. The Garnet (22-5) took care of that little piece of business when they won their first Centennial Conference title and earned their first NCAA Division III Tournament bid with a 68-64 come-from-behind victory over Dickinson last Saturday night at the Tarble Pavilion.
The only suspense was the selection of a Swarthmore opponent and the place they’d meet. It wouldn’t take long. Swarthmore’s name was the 17th to pop up on the big screen and the opponent would be the College of Staten Island (21-6), the champion out of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC).
Swarthmore was also picked as one of the 16 host schools for the first and second rounds, so it will be at home for an NCAA Tournament debut Friday night in the second game of a doubleheader at Tarble Pavilion.
Christopher Newport (252), the champion out of the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) faces Morrisville State (22-6), the winner of the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC), in the opener at 5:30 p.m. Swarthmore and CSI are scheduled to square off at 7:30 p.m. The winners meet at 7 Saturday night for a berth in the Super Regionals.
The selection committee did not do Swarthmore any favors. Christopher Newport is ranked third in the nation by D3hoops.com and was the No. 1 team in the final Middle Atlantic regional rankings. But no one gathered in that classroom in the Lamb-Miller Field House was complaining.
“It’s a great time to be a Swarthmore Garnet,” sophomore guard Cam Wiley said.
It’s taken a long time for anyone at Swarthmore to be able to say that with regard to the men’s basketball program. The league championship was the first since Swarthmore captured the old MAC South title in 1950-51.
“This is very special for all of us,” athletic director Adam Hertz said. “We’ve been working to change and develop a culture of competitive and intellectual athletes here for quite a while. We knew we could do it for basketball. We just had to get over the hump. Bringing in Coach (Landry) Kosmalski was the start of changing the culture with that program. He’s done a great job and he’s landed us here.”
The transformation did not happen overnight. The Garnet went 7-18, 8-17 and 11-4 in Kosmalski’s first three years before breaking through with a 22-8 record last season. The Garnet fell to Franklin & Marshall in the Centennial Conference championship game and then dropped an 89-71 decision to Neumann in the ECAC championship game.
That experience hinted, however, that the team was ready to make the next step and be the first in program history to reach the NCAA Tournament. And so the Garnet have.
Swarthmore was ranked as high as No. 15 and was in the D3hoops.com top 25 in seven of the 12 polls during the regular season.
“My freshman year, we weren’t very good,” senior forward Chris Bourne said. “But we trusted our coach and we trusted the recruits that he brought think that’s what turn it around.”
Swarthmore started the season with seven straight wins and 12 victories in its first 13 games, and has won seven of eight headed into the NCAA Tournament. The Garnet showed their moxie when they erased a 58-51 deficit in the championship game to beat Dickinson, 68-64, to secure the first league title and NCAA Tournament bid in program history.
“I really haven’t processed it yet,” Kosmalski said. “Hosting is a big thing and to be in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in our history is exciting to our team and everyone involved.”
“It shows all of our hard work has paid off,” Bourne added. in, and I helped us