Swarthmore College is certainly known for its academics, but sporting a men’s basketball team that’s starting off No. 1 in the country in Division III? No one from 10 years ago would have seen that coming, says columnist Mike Jensen for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Something started happening in 2014-15, when their game wins left the single digits. Current coach Landry Kosmalski had been a player and assistant coach then.
Then they took the Centennial Conference Title in 2017, and made the NCAA Elite Eight in 2018.
Last season, they reached, but lost, the NCAA Division 3 national championship game.
Now the preseason poll on D3hoops.com has Swarthmore No. 1.
“We took it head-on,’’ Kosmalski said of the preseason ranking. “Hey, it doesn’t change — we’ve been practicing really well. Some people are going to expect things. The most important thing to us at the end of the day is be who we are and do what we do.”
He calls the ranking “speculative horse manure.”
“It’s great. People get into it. But we can’t get into it. What’s the date on that? It’s Oct. 29. We want it to be in March.”
Read more about Swarthmore’s rise in basketball here.
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