City of Basketball Love

By David Comer
—

On October 23, 2024, the MAC Freedom preseason men’s basketball coaches’ preseason poll was released. The Delaware Valley University men’s basketball team was picked to finish last out of eight teams.

Some 129 days later, on March 1, 2025, the Aggies defeated Stevens Institute of Technology - the team that was selected to finish first in that preseason poll - in the MAC Freedom championship game to earn a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament.

On Monday afternoon, the DelVal players and coaches gathered to watch the DIII selection show to learn where they would be headed for their first-round game. They did not have to wait long.

They were the second of the 64 teams to be called when they found out they would be traveling to Middletown, Conn., to play the top seed in the entire tournament, Wesleyan University, a team that is 26-1 after a 26-0 start.

No question that the Aggies will be underdogs yet again.

“That’s the story of DelVal,” fourth-year coach Muhamadou Kaba said. “We’re always the underdogs, but we like it that way.”

The first round of the 64-team NCAA tournament begins Friday at 16 sites across the country with each site hosting four teams and the opening two rounds. Of the 64 teams, 43 earned automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments, and 21 were at-large selections. There are 410 schools nationwide that have DIII men’s basketball teams, so earning a spot in the NCAA tournament is an impressive accomplishment.

The championship game will be played March 22 in Fort Wayne, Ind. If you’re interested in watching any of the games, visit www.ncaa.com, as many games will be streamed live.

For DelVal, which finished the season 15-12, they will have their work cut out for them. Even though the teams are not seeded, it is in essence a one seed in Wesleyan against a 16 seed in DelVal.

“It’s no surprise why they’ve been the number one team in the country all season,” Kaba said. “It definitely will be a tough task for us.”

Kaba said that Wesleyan boasts a terrific backcourt and has a physical team that plays tight defense. Wesleyan, which has five players on its roster at 6-foot-7 or taller, ranked seventh in DIII in points allowed per game and sixth in scoring margin.

DelVal will not be easy to defend, though, especially on the perimeter. Their trio of guards - senior Jake McGinity, junior Antonio Redding, and sophomore Kamal Johnson - lead the way.

“They’re all roommates,” Kaba said. “They have a nice synergy. They all have a nice relationship.”

McGinity is a Neshaminy grad, Johnson is an Audenried Charter product. Redding, who is from Orlando, Fla., is the star of the group.

The 6-foot Redding, a transfer from Lebanon Valley College, is averaging 18.1 points per game. He has made 51.59% (81-of-157) of his three-pointers to rank first in the country; he has also made 91.18% (62-of-68) from the foul line to rank fourth nationally. He has one game where he made 8-of-9 from deep and two games where he made 8-of-10. He also has a 47-point game.

The Aggies will leave Wednesday for the approximately 190-mile bus ride to Wesleyan. Thursday will be spent settling into their surroundings and practicing at Wesleyan.

Come Friday evening, DelVal will find itself on the biggest stage DIII has to offer. And they will find themselves as the underdog yet again.

“That’s all we know,” Kaba said.

~~~

NCAA tournament says: Hello Neumann

Neumann University men’s basketball coach Jim Rullo is no stranger to the NCAA tournament.

As a player at Drexel, he was the captain of the 1993-94 team that won the North Atlantic Conference tournament and lost to Temple (with Aaron McKie, Eddie Jones and Rick Brunson) in a first round game of the Division I NCAA tournament in Landover, Md.

As a coach at Neumann, Rullo, whose first season in charge of the Knights was the 2013-14 campaign, will be making his fourth trip to the Division III NCAA tournament when he and his team travel to Hartford, Conn., to play host Trinity College at 7:10 PM Friday.

Trinity is 24-3 and fourth in the country in the NCAA Power Index (or NPI) and won the New England Small College Athletic Conference championship by defeating top-ranked Wesleyan - which was unbeaten at the time - in the title game. The Bantams are not strangers to the NCAA tournament; they reached the Final Four last season. (A bantam, as provided online, is “any small variety of fowl, usually of chicken or duck.”)

“They’re in a very tough league,” Rullo said. “They’re deep. They’re very well coached. It’s going to be a tough battle.”

Trinity, which is about 250 miles from the Neumann campus, leads the country in scoring defense (56.3 points per game) and scoring margin (20.2 points per game).

“My whole thing to my guys is to not be afraid,” Rullo said. “We’re not playing on egg shells. Anybody that’s in this tournament - they’re good. The thing that makes this game great is that on any given night anyone can beat anyone else.”

The Knights are 20-7 on the season and earned their spot in the NCAAs by winning the Atlantic East Conference tournament with an 83-77 overtime victory over Marymount University. In that game, as has been the case this season, Neumann was led by its four players scoring in double figures - Donte Dupriest (18.9), DJ Earl (17.1), TJ Lewis (13.4) and Bryan Etienne (10.3).

Dupriest, a 6-foot-4 junior forward from Philadelphia, has played in only 15 games this season but has 13 double-doubles to rank him 15th nationally. His 15.1 rebounds per game would rank him second nationally if he had played enough games to qualify.

“He plays with a mentality second to none in terms of desire and determination,” Rullo said. “It is a controlled aggression. It’s just that energy he brings that obviously makes his teammates better.”

Rullo joked that if Dupriest were 4 or 5 inches taller, “he’s not talking to Jim Rullo.”

The veteran coach is looking forward to the opportunity on Friday to return to the NCAA tournament and believes that his team is well prepared. Neumann played at Lehigh in an exhibition game earlier this season and was up at halftime before losing in a game that Rullo said was closer than the 87-67 final score would indicate.

“I knew we had a good group, but that was kind of the turning point,” Rullo said. 

“I’m just happy to be able to do this for the university,” he added. “I embrace that underdog mentality.”

~~~

Mighty Macs off to Ohio for NCAAs

The DIII women’s selection show was posted on the NCAA website at 2:30 PM on Monday. It was not live; it was a recording.

Immaculata University coach Brittany Whalen knew that it was possible to scroll ahead to find out immediately when and where her team would be playing in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“I told them, ‘Don’t do that,’ ” Whalen said. “I wanted to be surprised.”

About halfway through the selection show, Immaculata’s name appeared. They would be playing at Ohio Wesleyan University - nearly 500 miles away in Delaware, Ohio - at 6:30 PM on Friday.

“It’s been pretty surreal,” said Whalen, a 2015 Immaculata graduate and basketball and softball star at the school who is now in her second season as coach. “To win our conference championship on our home court is everything you could ask for.”

The Mighty Macs will be playing a Wesleyan team that is 22-3 and ranked 16th in the NPI.

“They do have two players who seem to be their main forces - a guard and a post player,” Whalen said. “They’re very strong on the defensive end and protect the ball.”

The Mighty Macs are one of the hottest teams in the country. They have won 15 straight and are 22-3 on the season; their three losses are by a combined seven points.

“It’s been thrilling,” Whalen said. “What a great group of girls. They love to compete, and they love to win.”

Immaculata, which won the Atlantic East Conference tournament, is led by 5-foot-10 senior Reese Mullins. The guard/forward from Hockessin, Del., is averaging 15.4 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and leads a balanced offense with six players averaging at least 7.6 points per game.

The Mighty Macs will begin their long trip to the Midwest after practicing Wednesday morning. 

“We’re thrilled to be a part of this,” Whalen said.

~~~

We’re not Lion: Bryn Athyn to make NCAA tourney debut

When Bryn Athyn College men’s basketball coach Sean Westerlund was an assistant coach at Hood College, his team played in the Hampden-Sydney Holiday Classic at Hampden-Sydney College in December of 2019.

“We went 0-2,” Westerlund recalled. “I said I never wanted to come back there ever again.”

Westerlund will be returning to Hampden-Sydney, but he isn’t complaining. He and his team will be playing host Hampden-Sydney in the first round of the NCAA tournament at 6:40 PM Friday. 

Bryn Athyn, which is 20-8 and won the United East Conference tournament, will be making the first NCAA tournament appearance in program history. And it will be doing so against a Hampden-Sydney team that is 21-5, ranked 11th in the NPI, and one season removed from an appearance in the national championship game.

“That’s a storied program,” Westerlund said. “They have one of the best alumni bases in the country, and they’re rabid about their basketball. It will be an electric atmosphere.”

Westerlund said that the Lions will embark on the approximately six-hour drive at 1 PM Wednesday from a campus that is buzzing.

“It’s been really, really neat just to see how the community has rallied around our program,” he said. “The energy around campus has been palpable.”

Both Bryn Athyn and Hampden-Sydney have a common opponent in fellow NCAA tournament participant Gettysburg College - which defeated both Bryn Athyn (77-72 in OT) and  Hampden-Sydney (81-78).

“It’s going to be a heckuva matchup,” Westerlund said.

The Lions rely on a roster loaded with transfers - including UEC tournament MVP, Jakir Hampton, who is among the nation’s top three-point shooters - that rebounded from a 2-6 start to put together this historic season. They will bring a 15-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament. Westerlund knows his team is the underdog - “We’re basically on the 14-seed line,” he said - but he is looking forward to the challenge.

“We are just trying to enjoy the experience as much as we can,” he said. “Soak it all up.”

~~~

All in the family

The first-round matchup between Franklin & Marshall University and Catholic University looks like any other game in the NCAA tournament bracket. But, when you dig deeper, you realize this is not just any ordinary game.

F&M’s John Seidman, a 6-foot-3 senior who was recently named the Centennial Conference tournament MVP, will be playing against his younger brother, Catholic sophomore Googie Seidman, a 6-foot guard. Both are Haverford High graduates.

The older Seidman scored his 1,000th career point earlier this season and is one of only four players in program history with 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists. The younger Seidman has been a part-time starter this season.

This game should be one of the more intriguing first-round matchups. F&M is ranked 21st in the NPI, and Catholic is 35th. 

It will also be interesting to see if John and Googie are matched up against each other and if big brother or little brother wins the battle.

~~~

Local ties in NCAA tournament

There are many local players who will be competing in the NCAA tournament for teams outside of the Philadelphia area. Here are a few of them:

~ In addition to John Seidman, F&M has recently named Centennial Conference player of the year in junior Kevin Nowoswiat, a 6-foot-4 guard from Unionville. That game will be personal for him as well, as Sean Neylon, a senior wing for Catholic out of Unionville, is averaging 17.1 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. Sam Davison, a 6-foot guard from Lower Merion, is also a contributor for the Diplomats.

~ Gettysburg earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and will be playing Chatham University in large part because of senior Carl Schaller, a 6-foot guard from Garnet Valley who is averaging 16.3 points per game.

~ Former George School standout Jack Vreeswyk is the top reserve for The College of New Jersey men’s basketball team, which will be playing Pitt-Bradford in the first round. The 6-foot-4 graduate student is averaging 10.1 points per game and is second on the team with 53 three-pointers.

~ Kabrien Goss, a 5-foot-8 freshman guard from Roman Catholic, has started 21 of 27 games for Montclair State and is averaging 5.6 points and 4.2 assists per game. Montclair State will host Utica University in the first round. Goss will be looking to duplicate his postseason heroics from last season when he made the buzzer-beater to lift Roman Catholic to the Philadelphia Catholic League title.

~ There are several players with local ties for York College, which hosts John Carroll University in the first round, but the most prominent is junior guard Jayden Rowe of Downingtown East. Rowe is averaging 11.9 points per game.

~ Nicole Timko, a Methacton grad, is a key reserve for Carnegie Mellon University, which will play Bridgewater State in the first round. Timko, a 5-foot-10 junior, is averaging 8.5 points in 21.4 minutes per game.

~ University of Scranton (26-1), which hosts Mount Saint Mary College in the first round, has several players with local ties, including graduate student Allie Lynch (Notre Dame), freshman Lizzie Halligan (Notre Dame), freshman Marisa Francione (Conestoga), and graduate student Kyra Quigley (Sacred Heart).

~ Catholic University hosts SUNY Geneseo in the first round on Friday and boasts many players from the Philadelphia area, including junior Carly Mulvaney (Jenkintown), junior Amelia Kennedy (Pope John Paul II), sophomore Ella Iacone (Villa Maria Academy), freshman Sam Blumenthal (Bishop Shanahan), and freshman Olivia Boccella (Lansdale Catholic).

~ Reagan Chrencik, a 5-foot-11 guard/forward from New Hope-Solebury, is averaging 4.7 points and 3.0 rebounds per game off the bench for Gettysburg College, which hosts Stevens Institute of Technology in the first round.

~ Senior Lindsay Boyd (Ridley) is a key reserve for Elizabethtown College, which plays SUNY Brockport in the first round.

~ Messiah University, which plays Washington and Jefferson College in the first round, has won 18 straight and has two area players on its roster in freshman Brooke Fenchel (Souderton) and sophomore EmmyFaith Wood (Upper Moreland).