Goucher Men's Basketball To Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Its First Season; 1990s All-Decade Vote Begins On Monday

BALTIMORE, Md. – The Goucher College men's basketball team had its inaugural season during the 1990-91 season, and the 2020-21 year marks the 30th Anniversary of that first season. Goucher Athletics will celebrate the men's basketball program throughout the spring semester on the Goucher athletics website and its social media outlets.

"It's baffling to me that it's already been 30 years since Goucher men's basketball began competitions," said head coach Tom Rose. "There have been some very talented Division III players that accomplished great careers while representing Goucher. Most importantly, in those 30 years, there have been many friendships that originated and exist today because of this program. All of our men's basketball alumni have been an important part of its history."

In the fall, Goucher Athletics honored the 2010 decade with All-Decade teams for all sports. As part of the 30th Anniversary Celebration, we will vote on the Men's Basketball All-Decade Teams of the 1990s and the 2000s. The members selected for those All-Decade teams will join the 2010s All-Decade selections for a vote to name a Men's Basketball 30th Anniversary Team. Voting will take place only through the website at athletics.goucher.edu/vote.

We will start the 1990s Men's Basketball All-Decade Team vote on Monday, January 18 and voting will run similar to the all-decade votes in the fall through Friday, January 22 at 9 a.m. We will then announce the 1990s All-Decade Team in the afternoon on January 22. The 2010s Men's Basketball All-Decade Team vote will run in the same fashion the week of January 25-29.

"These all-decade teams will recognize and show appreciation to those individual men's basketball alumni for their career accomplishments on the court and also hopefully allow our alumni to reflect back on the memories with their teammates at Goucher."

After taking the month of February to honor and recognize Black History Month, we will kick off a month of March Madness with the fan vote for the Men's Basketball 30th Anniversary Team the week of March 1-5. There will be other features on the men's basketball team throughout the rest of the semester.

"By recognizing three all-decade teams and eventually an all 30th Anniversary team allows our current men's basketball student-athletes to have a better understanding of our program's history and how their efforts now impact the future of it during these challenging times."

Leonard Trevino started the Gophers program and the squad had its first season in 1990-91. The team had its first winning season in the program's fourth season with a 17-9 mark in 1993-94 to post the squad's first Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) Championship. The following season, the team repeated as the CAC Tournament champion, earned its first berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament, and finished the year 19-10. Goucher registered the school's first NCAA Tournament win with a 102-91 decision against Lebanon Valley in that season.

The squad won 20 games for the first time in program history and earned its third CAC Championship in the 1996-97 season, registering a 23-6 record along with its second NCAA Tournament win against Cabrini. The 1996-97 season also started a string of three-consecutive 20-win campaigns. The Gophers would win the CAC crown one last time in 1998-99 with a program-record 23-5 mark. Trevino was named the CAC Coach of the Year in 1993-94 and 1998-99.

In a 12-year span starting in 1993-94, the Blue and Gold registered a non-losing season 11 times and posted a 199-121 record.

During its 30 seasons in program history, the Gophers have produced 10 players that have reached 1,000 points in their career: David Clark (1,833, 1991-95), Predrag Durkovic (1,643, 1993-97), Bakari Ward (1,587, 1995-99), Tavar Witherspoon (1,338, 1995-98, 99-00), James Russo (1,316, 2004-07), Jonathan Garritt (1,307, 2002-06), Pierre Jones (1,129, 2002-04, 06-07), Thabo Letsebe (1,120, 1999-03), Dwayne Morton (1,119, and Trevor Quinn (1,036, 2001-05).

Clark was named the CAC Player of the Year in 1993-94 and Ward received the honor in back-to-back seasons in 1997-98 and 1998-99. In addition, 20 times the Gophers earned all-conference honors in the CAC and four times in the Landmark Conference.

Goucher has only had two head coaches in program history with Rose, a 1995 graduate of Goucher, taking over the program he played for and for Trevino, who recruited and coached Rose for two seasons, in 2016-17.