Photo Courtesy of Sports Information
By Jenna Horning, Staff Writer
In the NCAA Division III, the Susquehanna men’s basketball team was named number 16 in the nation in preseason rankings from “Basketball Times.”
Head coach Frank Marcinek is headed into his 32nd season of coaching at Susquehanna and, along with his coaching staff, was named the 2020 Landmark Conference Men’s Basketball Coaching Staff of the Year.
“I’m coaching the greatest group of kids that I’ve ever coached. We have the best chemistry, best togetherness, best comradery, and the most unselfish attitude,” Marcinek said.
The team had an impressive season last year to earn this national honor. They ended the year with a 21-8 overall record and an 11-3 record in the Landmark Conference.
They were named the Landmark Conference Champions last season after they defeated Scranton 86-69. This allowed the team to compete in the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Tournament where they fell short in the second round to number nine Wittenburg, with a final score of 79-73.
Lukas Yurasits, a junior double major in physics and chemistry in the Columbia University Engineering program, is a starting guard on the basketball team and was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Landmark Championship game.
“Even though I had won MVP of it all it didn’t matter to me as much as the fact that us as a team won,” Yurasits said. “The amount of work we had put in, trying to outwork other people, and just to see the smile on our coaches’ face… to be able to win it for him and to solidify ourselves as a young team, despite all the people who doubted us showed our hard work paid off.”
Now coming off a memorable season, the River Hawks hope to continue their success with four returning starters and both a skilled roster and coaching staff. The team typically plays ten players in a game. This not only shows how deep their roster is in skill, but also how much trust they have in one another.
“We love this ranking as a team. This ranking gave us confidence. It also showed us that we are here now and we have to show them we are here to stay,” Yurasits said.
Under coach Marcinek the River Hawks have competed in the NCAA tournament three times in the last five years with the goal of not only returning this year, but also improving from last season.
The team has been practicing throughout the fall as much as they can while following safety guidelines and protocols in order to prepare for this upcoming season that the Landmark Conference intends to have.
“I really look forward to the chance to go to the gym with these guys like they look forward to going to the gym with one another,” Marcinek said. “This is the best part of my day and this team truly is a family.”
