Spartans Move into Men’s Basketball Top-25
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The University of Tampa men's basketball team is listed in the national rankings, coming in at No. 22 in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) NCAA Division II poll.
The Spartans remain have won six straight games to open the 2012-13 season, including four straight away from the Martinez Center. UT's most recent victory was a dramatic 83-82 triumph over Armstrong Atlantic State University at the Saint Leo Classic. UT also has South Region wins over Palm Beach Atlantic, Puerto Rico-Bayamon, Clark Atlanta and Fort Valley State.
Tampa is the lone Sunshine State Conference school in the top-25, as fellow NCAA South Region foe University of Alabama in Huntsville comes in at No. 4. Florida Southern is listed as receiving votes.
UT has shot into the national rankings following an impressive offensive showing as the Spartans are shooting .486 from the field and .408 from 3-point range. The duo of Da'Markco Foster and Anthony Griffis has led the Spartans as they average 19.8 and 13.8 points per game respectively.
Head coach Richard Schmidt has his Spartans back in the national rankings for the first time since the 2010-11 season. This is also the earliest in the season that the Spartans have been listed in the top-25 since 2002.
Tampa returns to action on Thursday at home against Shaw University. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m., before UT heads to Puerto Rico for three games in a four-day span.
Live stats and a video webcast for all home games will be available through TampaSpartans.tv. Live stats for road games will be available through TampaSpartans.com.
Fans may follow University of Tampa athletics on Twitter (www.twitter.com/utspartans), Facebook (www.facebook.com/tampaspartans), YouTube (youtube.com/utathletics) and Instragram (tampaspartans). UT also offers blAst, a free text messaging service that sends text alerts following all Spartan events. To sign up, please register at www.tampaspartans.com.