Men's Basketball Ranks 13th in January 24th Basketball America Poll

by Sports Information
1/23/02

LANCASTER, PA -- The Franklin & Marshall men's basketball team moved to twelvth in this week's Basketball America poll as the Diplomats finished the week 1-1 with a win over Dickinson (63-55) and an overtime loss at Lebanon Valley (62-56 OT).

The ranking is F&M's second top-20 pick of the week as D3Hoops.com selected Franklin & Marshall #17 in the nation on Monday.

The Diplomats, who started the year 12-0, have now gone 2-3 over their last five games as the team was ranked as high as #2 in the nation on January 1.

Overall, center Steve Juskin (So., East Hanover, NJ/Hanover Park) leads the Diplomats in scoring and rebounding with an average of 13.2 points and 6.9 boards per game. In addition, is just off pace to reset the single season blocked shot record at the College as he now has 35 through 17 games, an average of 2.06 per game.

Through 25 regular season games, Juskin will finish with 51 blocked shots, three short of surpassing the school single season record of 53 set by Darren Sanborn in 1995-96.

Two-time All-American forward Alex Kraft (Sr., Lansdale, PA/Lansdale Catholic) is second on the team in scoring with an average of 11.5 points per game.

Kraft, who raised his career total to 1,470 points is now 33 points away from surpassing Jeremiah Henry '96 (1,502 points) for fourth on the all-time scoring leader board at the College. In addition, he is tied for 9th all-time in rebounding at F&M with 633 boards, equaling Dave Fabricant '69.

Historically, he is the fifth F&M player to rank in the top ten in both major categories, joining Chris Finch '92 (1,287 points, 638 rebounds), Phil Hoeker '89 (1,333 points, 661 rebounds), Dennis Westley '81 (1,357 points, 669 rebounds) and Terry Scott '88 (1,663 points, 964 rebounds).

Elizabethtown College, which fell to F&M 83-80 in the Mayser Center on November 20 for their only loss of the year, jumped to #8 in this week's Basketball America poll.

In the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Regional rankings, Elizabethtown and Catholic University remained tied for #1 in the region, followed by Gettysburg, Alvernia York and Neumann. Cabrini, F&M, Goucher and Muhlenberg picked up Honorable Mention status following last week's rankings in which the Diplomats were picked sixth in the region.

Ironically, F&M's season is eerily similar to the one experienced by the 1999-2000 Diplomats who started the year 9-1 before suffering four losses immediately following the Rotary Tip-Off the New Year Tournament, including three straight games. F&M would rally to win their next 12 straight games, claim the Centennial Conference title and advance to their fourth Final Four appearance in school history following a 75-61 win over Dickinson College on January 22 in the Mayser Center.

Further, F&M was ranked #19 in the country by D3Hoops.com entering their run to the Final Four, only two spots lower than their current rank in the same poll.

Basketball America is available online at www.basketballamerica.com, while the NCAA Mid-Atlantic rankings are available at www.ncaa.org.