Quakers Ranked First in D3hoops.com Poll
GREENSBORO, N.C. (2/2/10) - Guilford College’s men’s basketball team took over first place in this week’s D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll released late Monday. The Quakers earned 24 of 25 first-place votes and hold a 53-point edge over second place Williams College. Two-time defending Division III champion Washington University in St. Louis earned the remaining first-place vote and sits third in the poll with 567 points.
The ranking marks Guilford’s all-time high in the D3hoops.com poll. The Quakers last sat atop a national men’s basketball poll in 1968 when they held the top spot in the final National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) rankings.
The Quakers (18-1) are one of four Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) teams ranked among this week’s top 18 teams and the second conference club ranked first in the D3hoops.com Poll. Virginia Wesleyan College (17-2), the only team to beat Guilford this season, held its seventh position for a second straight week. Eastern Mennonite University (15-3) sits in 16th place and Randolph-Macon College (15-4) is ranked 18th. Randolph-Macon was ranked first in the Jan. 4 poll. Eastern Mennonite visits Guilford next Wednesday (2/10) in the teams’ lone regular-season meeting
Coach Tom Palombo’s (left) Quakers are enjoying the best start in school history with an 18-1 overall record. The Quakers extended their winning streak to 14 with an 82-73 road victory over Randolph-Macon Jan. 30 when the Yellow Jackets were ranked ninth nationally. The 14-game winning streak matches Guilford’s third-longest in school history and the longest since a 16-game skein in 2007-08. The Quakers are also in the midst of a 17-game home winning streak and a 19-game home winning streak against ODAC foes.
Since 2006, Guilford has won 84.4 percent (92-17) of its games, the highest percentage among North Carolina men’s college basketball teams. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (83.8%, 114-22) has the state’s second-best percentage, followed by Duke University (97-27, 76.4%). Over the past two seasons, Guilford’s .863 winning percentage (44-7) ranks ninth among all NCAA men’s basketball teams through games of Jan. 31, 2010.
The senior trio of center Tyler Sanborn and guards Rhett Bonner and Clay Henson accounts for over 64 percent of the Quakers’ offense. With a league-high 16 double-doubles this year, Sanborn averages 19.9 points and 13.7 caroms per game. His rebounding figure leads the league and ranks third in NCAA Division III through games of Jan. 31. Bonner averages 14.7 points and a team-high 3.2 assists per contest. He ranks among the ODAC’s best in free-throw percentage (.896) and three-point percentage (.438). Henson, the league leader in three-pointers per game, stands fifth in the league in scoring (18.5 ppg.) and is 20 points shy of 1,500 for his career.
Guilford hosts league-rival Hampden-Sydney College Wednesday (2/3) in the Quakers’ annual V Foundation Game to benefit cancer research. The Quakers visit ODAC-foe Washington and Lee University Saturday (2/6) at 3:00 p.m.