Diplomats Rank 20th in Week 12 D3Hoops.com Men's Basketball Poll

by Sports Information
2/25/03

LANCASTER, PA - The Franklin & Marshall College men’s basketball team received 140 votes to rank #20 in the D3Hoops.com Top 25 Division III Men's Basketball poll for the period of February 18th-24th.

The ranking marks a four spot slide for F&M that was ranked #16 last week following a #19 ranking in the February 11th poll.

The Diplomats (21-4, 10-3 Centennial Conference) are one of three Centennial Conference team to receive national recognition as Ursinus tallied 12 votes to rank 32nd and Johns Hopkins earned three votes for 36th.

One of the most successful intercollegiate basketball programs in Division III history, Franklin & Marshall defeated Dickinson (78-48) to clinch the Centennial Conference West Division, but fell at Johns Hopkins (68-65).

The division championship marked the fifth straight season the Diplomats have claimed the West (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003).

In the history of the Centennial Conference, F&M has won the CC West eight times (1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003) to tie Muhlenberg's record of eight division titles as the Mules claimed the East in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.

F&M is led by center Steve Juskin (Jr., East Hanover, NJ/Hanover Park) and guard/forward Asaf Ganot (Sr., Tenafly, NJ/Tenafly). Juskin paces the Diplomats in scoring (15.9 per game) as the 6-6 center also tops F&M in blocked shots with 84, 25 more than his previous school record of 59 established in 2002. For his career, Juskin now has 192 blocks, 972 points and 508 rebounds as he is on pace to become the ninth player in F&M men's basketball history to record 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in a career.

Overall, he ranks among the Conference leaders in scoring (15.9, seventh), rebounding (7.4, seventh), field goal percentage (.488, 13th), assists (2.40, 14th), blocked shots (3.36, first), offensive rebounds (2.00, 11th) and defensive rebounds (5.44, fifth).

The Diplomats "stopper", Ganot has been a force on both ends of the court leading F&M in assists (98), steals (44), rebounds (201) and offensive boards (65) while averaging 8.6 points per game.

In the Centennial Conference, Ganot is among the leaders in rebounding (8.4, sixth), field goal percentage (.520, 11th), assists (3.92, fourth), steals (1.76, fifth), blocked shots (1.48, fourth), assist/turnover ratio (2.80, first), offensive rebounds (2.60, sixth) and defensive rebounds (5.44, fifth) per game.

Guard Jackiem Wright (Jr., Sicklerville, NJ/Moorestown Friends) leads the CC in free throw percentage (.898, 53-of-59) and rates in the top fifteen in points (13.9, 11th), three-point field goal percentage (.451, third), and three-point field goals made (2.92, second) per game.

At point guard, Duran Searles (Jr., Camden, NJ/Peddie School) has directed the Diplomats offense to an average of 82.2 points per game, the best average in the CC this year.

Individually, Searles is one of three Diplomats scoring in double-digits as he has made 82-of-169 field goal attempts and 58-of-73 from the line for 260 points, an average of 10.4 marks per game.

Off the bench, the guards Brandon Jones (Jr., Philadelphia, PA/Germantown Friends), Brandon Smith (Fr., Reading, PA/Governor Mifflin) and forward Bob Lynch (So., Richboro, PA/Council Rock) have ignited the F&M offense in limited minutes.

In 19.6 minutes per game, Lynch is shooting a team best 88-of-139 (.633 percentage) for 9.3 points and is grabbing 7.4 boards, while Smith is averaging 7.6 points 45 assists and 72 rebounds.

As a team the Diplomats rank among the CC's best in scoring offense (82.2, first), scoring defense (63.2, first), scoring margin (+19.0, first), free throw percentage (.710, third), field goal percentage (.492, first), field goal percentage defense (.398, first), three-point field goal percentage (.408, first), three-point field goals made (6.60, fourth), three-point field goal percentage defense (.310, first), rebounding offense (40.8, second), rebounding defense (32.5, second), rebounding margin (+8.3, second), blocked shots (6.76, first), assists (16.24, second), steals (9.52, first), turnover margin (+2.92, first), assist/turnover ratio (1.06, first), offensive rebounds (13.40, third and defensive rebounds (27.36, second) per game as the 2003 F&M squad is among the most statistically dominant teams in the history of the Conference.

Franklin & Marshall will continue the season on Wednesday, February 26 as the Diplomats will play host to East #2 seed Washington College in the semi-finals of the CC playoffs, while West #2 Johns Hopkins travels to East Champion Ursinus. Game time for both contests is set for 7:30 p.m.

D3Hoops.com is widely considered the preeminent source of information on Division III basketball in the electronic medium. D3hoops has appeared in Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Hartford Courant and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, among other publications.

D3 Hoops.com 2002-03 Division III Top 25 (Week 12 Poll)
Rank Team (1st Place Votes) Record Pts.
1 Randolph Macon (17) 27-1 616
2 Washington U. (3) 23-1 586
3 Williams (3) 24-1 561
4. Hampden-Sydney 25-2 552
5. UW-Stevens Point (2) 23-2 536
6. Rochester 21-3 491
7. Hanover 24-1 463
8. Wooster 23-2 436
9. Catholic 22-3 430
10. Amherst 21-3 418
11. Hope 20-4 364
12. Ramapo 23-2 355
13. Whitworth 22-3 313
14. Illinois Wesleyan 18-5 222
15. Buena Vista 22-3 218
16. Capital 20-5 200
17. Albion 21-4 174
18. UW-Oshkosh 19-6 162
19. Carthage 18-6 142
20. Franklin & Marshall 21-4 140
21. UW-Whitewater 19-6 130
22. St. Thomas 20-5 124
23. Christopher Newport 21-4 121
24. Rockford 24-3 93
25. Mary Washington 21-4 60

Others receiving votes: Babson 59; Savannah Art & Design 33; Augustana 27; Wittenberg 26; Scranton 16; Clark 14; Ursinus 12; Rowan 11; Occidental 5; Wabash 4; Johns Hopkins 3; William Paterson 3; DePauw 2; St. Josephs (ME) 1; Western Connecticut 1; Wheaton (IL) 1