Head coach
Bob Schlosser and his 2001-02 NCAA Division III National Runner-Up men's basketball team are the sixth team to be inducted into the Ira R. Herr Athletic Hall of Fame in school history. The '01-02 team won a program record 29 games (29-3) and a Commonwealth Conference Championship, before taking the College on a journey through the NCAA Tournament.
E-town hosted its first ever NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament game March 2, 2002, defeating Alvernia 95-84 in front of a near capacity crowd at Thompson Gymnasium. The Blue Jays stuck together and pulled out a two-point victory over Cabrini in the Sweet 16 and a narrow four-point victory over Clark (Mass.) in the Elite Eight to claim the NCAA DIII Atlantic Sectional Championship. They then headed on to Salem, Va., for the Final Four.
Led by Bob Porambo's 21 points and double-figure scoring outputs from Jon English (19), Chad Heller (18) and Brian Loftus (14), the Jays downed Rochester, 93-83, in overtime to set up a clash for the national title with Otterbein. Though Elizabethtown would fall just shy of claiming the school's fourth team national title, the 2001-02 men's basketball team's accomplishments remain the benchmark for the storied program.
Members of the 2001-02 team include:
Jim Barron '04, Darryl Brown '04, Jon Connor '05, Kyle Conrad '05, Ian Daecher '04, Justin Edwards '03, Jon English '03, Andrew Flynn '05, Chad Heller '03, Dan Keane '05, Brian Loftus '03, Brian Marquette '02, Jonathan (Rocky) Parise '02, Bob Porambo '02 and Graham Smith '05. Head coach
Bob Schlosser, was in his 12th season with the Jays back in '01-02. His assists were
Barry Acker, Andy Burkholder '97 and Brad Karli '99.
Four of the team's players: Conrad, English, Loftus and Porambo, are in the program's 1,000-point club. Parise set new school records for assists in a game (14 vs. Moravian) and a season (217) during E-town's magical run. No team in Blue Jay men's basketball history has ever scored more points (2,903) or averaged more points per game (90.7) than the 2001-02 team did.
