HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's basketball team has announced its 2017-18 schedule. The upcoming year will be head coach Patrick Doherty's first at Haverford. He takes over the program following the retirement of Michael Mucci who retired as the program's all-time winningest coach after 22 years leading the Fords.
In Doherty's first season, the Fords will play 13 of their 25 games during the regular season inside the Gooding '84 Arena. With Centennial Conference play taking 18 of Haverford's 25 dates, the Fords will play their seven non-conference games in the first 11 contests of the season.
Haverford hosts Penn State Harrisburg (Nov. 15) for the home opener and also plays Elizabethtown (Nov. 28), Bryn Athyn (Dec. 13), and Eastern (Dec. 16) at home in non-conference action. The Fords are playing Penn State Harrisburg for the third straight year and looking to avenge a pair of close defeats. Elizabethtown and Bryn Athyn are also back on the schedule from last season while the Fords last played Eastern during the 2012-13 season, a 76-61 Haverford win.
Road trips in non-conference action include a weekend trip to New York University for the NYU Tournament (Nov. 18-19) which will also feature Mount Saint Vincent and Clark. The Fords have not played NYU since 2012 and have never met Mount Saint Vincent. Haverford's last contest against Clark was a 63-59 win during the 2010-11 season. Another new opponent on the schedule will be Penn State Brandywine as these teams will meet on January 3 right after the New Year for the first time in program history.
Mixed in with the early non-conference action are four Centennial Conference dates. The Fords will be on the road for three of those contests. Conference play opens at Ursinus on November 21 with trips to Franklin & Marshall (Dec. 2) and Muhlenberg (Dec. 6) the following month. Haverford, who has won five straight meetings with Washington College, will welcome the Shoremen to campus on November 30.
With a number of road games in the conference early on, Haverford will play five of its nine conference games in January on its home floor. The annual rivalry game against Swarthmore, who enters as the defending Centennial Conference Champion, will take place on Wednesday, January 17. That game will be preceded by a trip to Johns Hopkins on Saturday, January 13 which is the site of Haverford's 80-78 overtime victory to close out the regular season last year.
February will see Haverford at home for three of its final five regular season contests. Senior Day, which will also be the team's regular season finale, is set for Saturday, February 17 against Johns Hopkins. The Fords will also hold a celebration of former head coach Michael Mucci on that date in addition to the team's Alumni Game. The two road contests in February are highlighted by Haverford traveling to Swarthmore on Valentine's Day for its second meeting of the year with the Garnet. The Centennial Conference Tournament gets underway on Wednesday, February 21 and continues through that weekend for the top five teams in the regular season standings.
Men's basketball graduated 1,000 point scorer Matt Sherman '17 from its team a season ago, but still features many players who have seen significant time in the starting lineup. That list includes 2015-16 Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year Joe Scibelli who was leading the conference in both scoring and rebounding before missing the second half of last season. Fellow rising juniors Kahlil Garnes, Kyle Goldfarb, and Sam Stogdon each spent at least half the season in the starting lineup while rising sophomores Grayson Roth and Jack Cork also started a significant portion of their rookie campaigns.