Delaware Blue Hens in NCAA Tournament for first time since 2014
NEWARK, Del. (BVM) – This moment has been a long time coming for both the University of Delaware men’s basketball program and their fans. On March 8, the Blue Hens clinched a spot into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014 thanks to their 59-55 win over University of North Carolina-Wilmington in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament championship. The appearance marks the first for Delaware head coach Martin Ingelsby as a member of the program and as a head coach.
“I can’t say enough about our team, and our guys’ belief in each other and our program,” Ingelsby said in a school press release. “Give credit to our guys, they were ready to compete. We had to go through the four, one and two seeds, so we earned this title. It says a lot about our team to get it done on consecutive days against the regular season co-champions.”
The championship victory was a long time coming for the Blue Hens, but one that shouldn’t be too shocking for basketball fans to get their heads around. Since Ingelsby took over, Delaware had steadily seen its win total increase each season from the 2016-17 to 2019-20, going from 13 to 14 to 17 to 22 each respective year. The team had also seen its postseason success also build as they went from the CAA Tournament quarterfinals the first two seasons before going to the CAA Tournament semifinals the next two. While the 2020-21 season was a down year for the program as the team went under .500 at 7-8, this is more likely due to the entire year being thrown off because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Once again this season, the Blue Hens saw their regular season win total climb as they won 19 games while only losing 12. This earned Delaware the fifth seed in the tournament, which isn’t the best seed, considering no No. 5 seed had ever won the conference’s tournament. Determined to go further than they ever had under Ingelsby and build on where they were prior to the pandemic, the Blue Hens showed that they were back.
Good morning #BlueHens 😊 pic.twitter.com/wLJjdbQYXp
— Delaware Men’s Basketball (@DelawareMBB) March 9, 2022
Redshirt freshman Jyare Davis, who was named the CAA Rookie of the Year on March 6, continued his strong second half of the season with incredible performances in the postseason, earning him the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player honors. Davis led the Blue Hens in scoring two out of three of the tournament’s games, which were also his first three starts for the program. Sophomores Kevin Anderson and Andrew Carr also joined Davis on the All-Tournament team.
While this may mark the first time Ingelsby has been to the tournament with the Blue Hens, this is far from the coach’s first time going to the Big Dance. Ingelsby’s first time in the tournament was at his first stop in college coaching as an assistant for Wagner College in 2003. Once he left the program to join Notre Dame later that year, Ingelsby would stay with the Fighting Irish through 2016 as both a coordinator of basketball operations and later an assistant coach when the team would go to eight NCAA tournaments and two Elite Eights. For the Blue Hens, having a coach with that much experience in March Madness could pay dividends as they are expected to be searching for upsets as a low-seeded automatic qualifier.
With a player on the rise in Davis and a core of strong contributors including All-CAA second team member Jameer Nelson Jr., who was featured on Scott Van Pelt’s SportsCenter segment “The Best Thing I saw Today” following the game, the Blue Hens could be getting hot at just the right time. Having reeled off three upset wins with strong defense and clutch performances, Delaware knows what it takes to be a tournament Cinderella, now they just have to do it on college basketball’s biggest stage.
