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Swarthmore Ready For First Ever NCAA Tourney Appearance

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- For the first time ever, the Division III Swarthmore College men's basketball team is getting ready for the NCAA Tournament.

The Garnet will make their debut in style, as they were chosen to be a host school for the first weekend, opening things up on Friday night with a match-up against the College of Staten Island.

Swarthmore (22-5) earned an automatic berth for the tournament by winning the Centennial Conference crown, beating Dickinson College in the conference tournament title game this past Saturday, 68-64.

 

"That night, I was talking to our coaches," Swarthmore head coach Landry Kosmalski tells KYW Newsradio. "We got together after the game and I said what hit me right away and how I felt in the celebration afterwards, I was pretty quiet during it, but I was just overwhelmed with happiness for our guys. Because I felt that (winning a championship) as a player and as an assistant coach and just for them to get to feel it and celebrate together and be able to remember it for the rest of their lives is pretty special."

Listen to the entire interview with Swarthmore head coach Landry Kosmalski:

 

One of the players that has helped make this success possible is junior guard Zack Yonda. A Conestoga High School product, Yonda talks about being part of a group that has helped turned Swarthmore into an NCAA Tournament team.

"When I got here as a freshman, I knew that there was a culture that Coach Kosmalski had started and the players here had started that it was going to be special one day," Yonda tells KYW Newsradio. "We weren't great my freshman year, but there were signs that we were going to be good. My sophomore year we took a big step, a big growth step and its been upward from there."

Listen to the entire interview with Swarthmore junior guard Zack Yonda:

 

Yonda is second on the team in scoring, pouring in 13.3 points per game. The Garnet are led by sophomore guard Cam Wiley and his 18.5 points a night. Wiley was actually just named the Centennial Conference Player of the Year, while Yonda earned second-team All-Conference honors. Kosmalski was named the Centennial's Coach of the Year

The Garnet average 75 points a game (while allowing 66) and they dominate the glass, outrebounding their opponents by an average of 13 a night. In addition, Swarthmore can lock it down defensively, holding opponents to 38% shooting from the field. But Kosmalski, in his fifth season as head coach of the Garnet, says their success goes beyond just stats and 'x's and o's.'

"We really think in our locker room that the difference is that we have guys that really care about each other and give up their own personal goals or stats for the good of the team," Kosmalski says. "So we're really a cohesive unit and we haven't had any issues of guys trying to step out of that. So everyone supporting each other, caring about each other all the time I think separates us a little bit."

Yonda echoes that sentiment.

"We all care about each other," Yonda says. "We have great leadership. We believe in what we do and we don't get out of sight of what's in the future and we just take things one day at a time, one practice at a time and we try and get better every day."

As far as the match-up with Staten island, Kosmalski says his team will have its hands full with the Dolphins.

"Very good team, well coached," Kosmalski says. "Have a really good point guard (senior Frank Schettino), almost averaging a triple-double, player of the year in their conference. Their bigs really rebound it well. Aggressive offensive team and we've got our work cut out for us to figure out ways the next couple days in practice to get ready to stop them."

The Dolphins are 21-6, champions of the City University of New York Athletic Conference and riding a 15-game winning streak.
The winner of Friday's game will play the winner of Christopher Newport and Morrisville State in the second round on Saturday at Tarble Pavilion.

Swarthmore and the College of Staten Island get underway at 8:00pm on Friday.

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