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LANCASTER, PA -- Head coach Glenn Robinson and the Franklin & Marshall College men's basketball team will make history on January 16 and 17 as the Diplomats will take on Swarthmore and Washington at home in the Mayser Center in the inaugural "Centennial Conference Basketball Weekend". In its 11th season of all-sports competition, the Centennial Conference will make history on Friday and Saturday as the Conference's ten teams play back-to-back for the first time. Coming off an 82-77 win at Muhlenberg College on January 13 to raise their record to 10-2, 5-0 in Centennial Conference play, Franklin & Marshall has been led by the steady play of forward Bobby Lynch (Jr., Richboro, PA/Council Rock) and center Steve Juskin (Sr., East Hanover, NJ/Hanover Park) who have dominated the paint to account for 352 of the Diplomats' 967 points. Overall, the duo is ranked among the national leaders in the January 12 NCAA Division III men's basketball statistics as Juskin is sixth in the NCAA with 3.6 blocked shots per game, while Lynch is 29th in field goal percentage (59.8). A 2004 Street & Smith's Division III Preseason All-America Honorable Mention selection, Juskin flirted with the first quadruple-double in school history as he tallied 29 points, 10 rebounds, eight blocked shots and six assists versus 2003 Centennial Conference champion Ursinus College in a 108-71 win last week. Overall, he dominated the Bears from the opening whistle to the closing horn hitting 11-of-16 from the floor, one-of-two from beyond the arc and six-of-seven at the charity stripe, while grabbing two offensive and eight defensive boards to key a Diplomats' team which connected on 56.1% of their field goal attempts (37-of-66). A 2003 All-Centennial Conference first team selection following a second team nod in 2002, and a D3hoops.com All-Mid Atlantic third team selection last year, he is the all-time blocked shots leader in Centennial Conference and Franklin & Marshall College history with 261, more than double the runner-up total of Asaf Ganot '03 (123). Further, Juskin ranks 17th in school history in scoring (1,182 points) and 11th in rebounding (619 boards), while rating 13th in rebounding and 19th in scoring in Centennial Conference history. Through the first 12 games of 2003-04, he has tallied 164 points, 79 rebounds, 44 assists and 45 blocked shots. The January 5 Centennial Conference and January 6 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Men's Basketball Player of the Week, Lynch has totaled 188 points, 79 rebounds and 11 blocked shots this season. However, the duo should be challenged on Saturday by the upstart Washington College Shoremen which will enter Mayser at 4:00 p.m. fresh off a Friday night showdown with Dickinson College. A player to watch for Washington will be sophomore guard Kyle Stem who is coming off a career-high 31 point performance at home in a 71-68 victory over Gettysburg College on January 12. Stem's 31 points came courtesy an eight-for-11 shooting performance from the field, including a blistering four-of-seven job from beyond the arc, and 11-of-12 from the free-throw line. Overall, the win snapped an eight game losing streak by Washington and marked the Shoremen's first win over Gettysburg since a 74-65 victory on January 25, 1997. On the year, Stem is averaging 14.3 points per game to rank third on the team in scoring behind forward Jonathan Webb (17.2 ppg, 6.7 rpg) and guard David Horvath (15.7 ppg). For F&M, the Diplomats will be looking for their second straight win over Washington as the team beached the Shoremen 92-62 in the CC playoffs behind 15 points from point guard Duran Searles (Sr., Camden, NJ/Peddie School) and 10 blocked shots by Juskin. The last time F&M and Washington clashed in the regular season the Shoremen stunned Franklin & Marshall 96-86 last year in Chestertown, Maryland. In the game, four different Shoremen reached in double digits as the team shot 31-of-61 from the field while F&M allowed a season high 10 three-pointers on 26 attempts. This year the outcome may be different, but the Shoremen's shooting preferences should not be as Washington has connected on a 99 three-pointers on 314 attempts (31.5 percent) while making 214 of 281 free-throw attempts (76.2 percent). Comparatively, Franklin & Marshall has made 88 of 246 long balls (35.8 percent) and 175 of 267 free throw attempts (65.5 percent) while allowing opponents to connect on 87 of 203 three-pointers (42.9 percent) and 162 of 215 free-throws (75.3 percent). A key area to watch will be the Shoremen's ability to handle the ball against a Diplomats' defense that has forced 233 turnovers in 12 games, an average of 19.42 opponent miscues per game. Further, Washington will enter Mayser to face the Conference's best team in scoring margin (+14.1 ppg), field goal percentage (.492), field goal percentage defense (.424), blocked shots (6.09 bpg), assists (16.91 apg), turnover margin (+4.45) and assist/turnover ratio (1.10). But to remain perfect in the Conference, the Diplomats will first need to knock off Swarthmore on Friday at 6:00 p.m. in the Mayser Center. The holder of a 15-1 home record dating back to an 83-82 loss to eventual CC Champion Ursinus College on January 15, 2003, F&M is in the midst of an 8-0 run in Conference games in Mayser. In addition, Franklin & Marshall, which was upset by Elizabethtown 91-78 on November 25 at home, has not lost more than two games in a year at Mayser over the last three seasons. In 2001, the team's sole home loss came to Muhlenberg in the CC playoffs, while the 2002 team fell to Gettysburg in the CC title game. Last year, Methodist College stunned the team 80-75 in the season opener before the Bears escaped Lancaster with the team's only regular season home Conference loss since 2000. For Swarthmore to tack another loss onto F&M, the Garnet will depend upon the shooting of Matt Gustafson who is averaging 19.6 points per contest. He is backed up by Chris Loeffler and Jeff Maxim who are adding 11.1 and 10.0 markers, respectively, as the Garnet are averaging 68.5 points per game. For the F&M faithful the back-to-back games come at an opportune time as Robinson is quickly closing in on the Division III wins record of 666 victories held by longtime Illinois Wesleyan head coach Dennie Bridges. Robinson, who now holds a career record of 658-233 (73.8 winning percentage) is the active leader in victories in the history of NCAA Division III men's basketball. However, with nine more victories he will surpass Bridges' career total of 666 wins from 1960 to 2001 at Illinois Wesleyan and become the all-time best coach on the Division III level. Historically, he is one of only 41 coaches in collegiate basketball history to have won 600 games entering the 2004 season, led by Dean Smith with 897. Further, among the top 30 coaches on all levels of the NCAA, Robinson holds the tenth best winning percentage as his mark has been bettered by only Kentucky's Adolph Rupp (.822), UCLA's John Wooden (.804), UNLV/Fresno State's Jerry Tarkanian (.784), North Carolina's Dean Smith (.776), Northern State's Don Meyer (.746), Syracuse's Jim Boeheim (.743), Arizona's Lute Olson (.742), Kansas' Phog Allen (.739) and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (.739) entering the 2004 season.
If the Diplomats capture their next nine games, Robinson will shatter Bridges' mark on February 11 at home versus Dickinson College in his 899th game. Following this weekend's "double-dip", Franklin & Marshall will continue the season on January 21 at Dickinson. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.
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