Posted on Jan 31, 2001

The men's basketball squad is battling for the home court advantage in the February 20th UCAA quarterfinals. With Tuesday's (Feb. 6) 91-72 win over Skidmore, Union improved held onto fourth place with its 6-4 league record. The Dutchmen are trying to hold off fifth place Rensselaer, which has a 4-5 circuit record.

Four of the Dutchmen's five regular-season games will be against UCAA opponents and all four of those games will be on the road. Only next Tuesday's non-league game (Feb. 13) against Williams will be in Memorial Field House. This weekend the Garnet plays at Clarkson and St. Lawrence before traveling to Rensselaer and Vassar next Friday and Saturday (Feb. 16 & 17).

Freshman Forward
Ryan Freundlich

Besides looking to secure the home court advantage, the Dutchmen are looking to keep a very positive streak in tact. Head coach Bob Montana has guided his squad to more victories than the season before in each of his first five seasons. His rookie year of 1996-97 saw the Dutchmen finish with a 7-18 overall record. The 97-98 campaign saw them end at 11-14 before the 98-99 squad ended at 15-11 for the team's first winning season in five years. Not only did last year's Dutchmen finish at 17-12, they posted the first back-to-back winning seasons since the 1974-75 / 1975-76 campaigns.

The last time Union had three winning seasons in a row was in 1980-81 (14-12), 1982-82 (13-11) and 1982-83 (21-5). The '82-83 team is the only one in the long history of Union basketball to be invited to the NCAA tournament.