Undefeated Widener men’s basketball ready for test
At 10-0, Widener is one of 11 undefeated men’s basketball teams left out of the
417 schools in Division III, entering play Wednesday night. It’s the best start since
2005-06 when the Pride won its first 12 games.
And now Widener is about to embark on the most ambitious part of its schedule when it takes on two Division I opponents on the road over the next three days. The Pride travels to Easton to face Lafayette (6-2) Thursday night and then visits Penn (54) at the Palestra Saturday. What makes this stretch so unique is that the Lafayette game counts for both teams. The Penn game, though, is an exhibition for the Pride but a game for the Quakers.
Confused? Don’t be. There’s a simple explanation.
Under NCAA rules, Division III teams can play 25 games and hold two scrimmages. It can trade one of the scrimmages for an exhibition game, which Widener had to do when Penn coach Steve Donahue approached Chris Carideo over the summer about playing a game.
Carideo had already committed to playing the Leopards, where one of Carideo’s former players, Penncrest AllDelco Andrew Radomicki, is an assistant under former Monsignor Bonner coach Fran O’Hanlon. But then Donahue approached Carideo at a recruiting event. Since his schedule was full but he was still looking for another scrimmage, Carideo agreed to play it as an exhibition.
“I was under the impression that they wanted to do an exhibition in October or November, but their date was December,” Carido said. “I told Steve that we can still do it, but I’m playing Lafayette that Thursday. Steve said we’ll do it Saturday and we’ll do it early, like 1 o’clock.”
Carideo said the purpose of playing both contests was to give his players the same experience he had as a player at Widener in the early-tomid 1990s. The Pride, then the Pioneers, played a Division I team every year when Carideo played for legendary coach C. Alan Rowe.
“Every kid that comes out of high school wants to be a Division I player,” Carideo said. “They want to play on a Division I stage. They want that opportunity … I really looked forward to those games against the University of Delaware, Drexel and Radford because it was a chance to play in that arena.”
Widener’s success this season can be attributed to its defense, a balanced offense and an ability to win in various ways. The Pride ranks
18th in Division III in scoring defense (62.1 ppg), No. 16 in field goal percentage defense
(37.5) and No. 26 in 3-point field goal percentage defense
(27.9). Widener has scored 75 points or more seven times and held the opposition under 60 points four times.
“We’ve won it a lot of different ways,” Carideo said. “We’ve won scoring 80 and we’ve won scoring 50, so that’s a good thing. As a coach, I know we’re not a one-trick pony. We can score if it’s a good day for us, but we will defend and we will grind it out and play an ugly game and still win that way if we have to.”
Offensively, the Pride has four players in double figures, led by senior swingman Elijah Boyd and junior guard Jared Peters at 12.7 ppg each. Sophomore forward Kenny Lewis (12.0) and senior swingman Connor Laverty (11.0) have been key contributors, too.
“Connor Laverty and Elijah Boyd have been terrific,” Carideo said. “They’ve been great leaders. They’ve really kind of pulled our underclassmen along. Our only junior, Jared Peters, has been terrific as well. Those three guys carried us the second half of last year when we lost two starters and got us to the conference championship game. We didn’t have a great record last years, but we got to the conference championship, which for us, considering where we were, was a great accomplishment. Those three guys have carried it over into this year and I think that’s why we are where we are.”
The odds are Widener won’t be undefeated when the weekend comes to a close, but that won’t take away the experience the players, their families and fans will have over the next three days.
“The parents are tickled and the alums are ecstatic,” Carideo said. “There’s a reception going on pregame and at halftime (at the Palestra). The university is really loving it. It looks good for our school to be up there competing against them. Our basketball alums have been calling me asking how they get tickets. That part of it has been really special and really fun.”