HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College men's basketball team debuted at No. 8 in the NCAA's initial Mid-Atlantic Region rankings release on Wednesday. The regional ranking is the first in program history. The Fords (16-5, 11-3 CC) have already secured a winning record and conference tournament spot for the first time since the 2010-11 campaign and still have four more games to play in the regular season.
The NCAA will announce three more sets of regional rankings during the coming weeks. The next two regional rankings will occur on Wednesday, February 19 and Wednesday, February 26. The regional rankings ultimately lead up to the selection of at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament after each conference has decided its automatic qualifier. The Centennial Conference's automatic qualifier will be awarded to the conference's tournament champion. The final regional ranking will be announced on Monday, March 2 after the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Selection Show which will air at 12:30 p.m. and reveal the entire bracket.
Already locked in as one of the five teams in the Centennial Conference Tournament, the Fords can clinch a first-round bye tonight with a win against Muhlenberg (8 p.m.). Haverford is currently sitting in third place overall, three games up on the Mules heading into the final two weeks of the regular season. Haverford has only finished among the top three teams in the conference standings once in program history, doing so before making a run to the Centennial Conference Championship game in the 2006-07 playoffs.
Haverford's 16 wins are already the second most in program history, trailing only the 1976-77 team which finished its season at 18-8 overall after appearing in the Middle Atlantic Conference South Championship game. This year's Fords have already set a program record for home victories (10) and are just one victory shy of tying the record for most Centennial Conference wins (12-6 record during both 2004-05 & 2006-07 seasons).
After closing its three-game road trip tonight at Muhlenberg, the Fords will return home this Saturday for Senior Day against McDaniel. Haverford closes the regular season with No. 1 Swarthmore and No. 7 Johns Hopkins the following week. Those two schools are ranked first and second in Mid-Atlantic Region, respectively, to give the Centennial Conference three representatives.