Dominic Minicozzi
dominicozzi@ursinus.edu
For the first time since the 2018-2019 season, both of Ursinus’ Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams will be competing in the Centennial Conference Playoff Tournament with not only the goal of becoming conference champions, but also to have the opportunity to compete in the NCAA Division III Basketball Tournament, or March Madness, as it is most commonly referred to. However, before we talk about these postseason miracles becoming a reality, we need to focus on the competition that awaits them following a successful regular season campaign.
Starting off with Ursinus Women’s Basketball, the Bears punched their ticket to the postseason nearly 2 weeks ago with a convincing win over Bryn Mawr College and will now enter the Centennial Conference playoff tournament as the 5th seed. Due to their seeding, they will travel out to Chestertown, Maryland, this Tuesday, February 20th, to take on the Washington College Shorewomen in what is sure to be an entertaining matchup. In the 2023 regular season, Ursinus split even after two matchups with Washington College, collecting a 59-53 victory at home on January 9th and losing by the inverse of that score on February 3rd in their second contest against WAC on the road. While the likelihood of the Bears coming out with a win on Tuesday is relatively high, their schedule for the remainder of the tournament and potentially the postseason is a relatively bumpy one. First and foremost, if the Bears do emerge victorious on Tuesday, they will have to go head to head with one of the top two teams in the conference in their next matchup: The Johns Hopkins Blue Jays and The Gettysburg College Bullets; who were both given a first round bye (meaning that they did not have to compete in the first round of the tournament) due to their high seeding. Nonetheless, there are high hopes for the group of Bears as they embark on their journey to the NCAA tournament and there is no coach we trust more to lead them there, than Head Coach Bobbi Morgan.
Coincidentally, Ursinus Men’s Basketball will also be entering the Centennial Conference Basketball Tournament ranked 5th among their rivals in the Centennial. Their current seeding and guaranteed opportunity to play playoff basketball came in large part due to an incredible upset victory they acquired on Senior Day against the #1 seed, Gettysburg College Bullets. After handing the Bullets merely their 3rd in-conference loss this season, the Bears followed up their final home-game with a poetic victory on the road over Muhlenberg just four days later, which clinched Ursinus their current seed in the Centennial Conference and extended their season. As a result, the Bears will stay relatively local this Wednesday, February 21st, and take a short trip down 476 to take on Swarthmore College in a highly contested matchup. In their 2023-2024 campaign, Ursinus is 0-2 against Swarthmore, but has transformed into a completely different team over the past couple of weeks. The Bears have won four of their last six games in the Centennial Conference and are playing their best basketball at this point in the year. If they do emerge victorious this Wednesday, their next game in the tournament will likely be a rematch against the Gettysburg College Bullets who they upset last Saturday.
Keep an eye out for both of these teams to shake up the Centennial Conference and Division III Basketball as a whole in the coming weeks. Go Bears!!!