Widener’s basketball team is gearing up for another tournament run. The key? Graduate programs.

Chris Carideo knew it was time to put all the chips in the middle.

The Widener men’s basketball coach saw in his team’s first-round NCAA Tournament defeat last March what Widener needed to get over the hump. It was easy to see. Tufts was bigger and deeper.

In a few months, Carideo assembled arguably the deepest team he’s ever coached in his 18 years at the Division III school in Chester.

Call this a perfect storm of sorts. It’s the right window at the right time. How was Widener able to pull together such a deep, balanced team? In part, because the school has postgraduate programs to offer players with extra post-pandemic eligibility. It’s not that simple, but it’s a big reason.

Widener (23-3), ranked No. 13 in the latest d3hoops poll, will play for its second consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth title Saturday night against visiting Eastern after beating Alvernia, 80-70, Wednesday. Three of its top seven scorers are graduate students who came from schools that either don’t offer postgraduate education at all, or don’t have enough programs. Leading scorer Dominic Dunn, from Haddon Township, is in his second year at Widener after graduating from Susquehanna. This is Dunn’s sixth year of college, thanks to an extra COVID-19 year plus an injury waiver. His former Susquehanna teammate, Carlisle’s Howie Rankine, made the transfer to Widener this past offseason. And Mike Kane, a Langhorne native, is at Widener after graduating from Drew University in New Jersey.

“It’s a weird situation when you have a good team, you made the NCAA Tournament, and then you’re adding one-year guys,” Carideo said. “Some guys on the team, knowingly, some unknowingly, made some sacrifices in order to win at this level. And the thing about it is you don’t know it’s going to work.”

Carideo was going to find out fast. He loaded up Widener’s nonconference schedule. The Pride played the current No. 1 team, Hampden-Sydney, during a November event in Ohio and lost by nine. They traveled to Miami for a two-game event before Christmas and won twice.

» READ MORE: From last year: Coaching vet Chris Carideo on guiding Widener back to the NCAA tournament

Widener was blown out in its conference opener against Hood College, but that wake-up call came at a good time, right after the holiday. The Pride went 12-2 in conference play and earned the top seed. When the NCAA revealed its top 16 Division III seeds last week, Widener was the third seed, meaning it could host games through the Elite Eight.

What’s going so well? The experience and depth is easy to see on the stat sheets. Widener has nine players scoring at least five points per game. Dunn leads the way, averaging 14.4 points, while senior Kevin Schenk is at 11.7, the only two players in double figures. Widener’s 11-man rotation features five graduate students. Four of them, including three-point marksman Anthony DiCaro, are transfers. Eight of the 11 are upperclassmen. Experienced teams typically share and take care of the ball, and Widener leads all Division III teams in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Carideo, a former All-American player at Widener in the early 1990s, mentioned some of the sacrifices. Among them is Kane, who started every game at Drew last year and now comes off the bench. Matt Daulerio, a redshirt junior from the Phelps School, led the team in points and rebounds as a sophomore in 2021-22. Now, after a knee injury, he’s playing 13 minutes per game.

“It’s a great problem [to have], so I can’t complain,” Carideo said of finding minutes for everyone.

Despite all the moving parts, Carideo said he’s been impressed by how together and bought in the team is.

Said Carideo: “They really kind of talk things out on their own. They’re very in tune to each other. So it’s been a really fun journey.”

Before the men’s game Wednesday night, a packed Schwartz Center watched Widener’s women’s team erase a six-point halftime deficit to top York College in a 69-59 semifinal victory.

Widener will travel to Messiah for the MAC championship on Saturday afternoon.

The Pride, led by Springfield (Delco) High grad Jordan D’Ambrosio, the team’s leading scorer at 17 points per game, were 11-16 last season. This season, Widener has a 22-4 record, doubling its win total.

The Pride did not receive any votes in the latest d3hoops poll and aren’t expected to be contenders to make a deep NCAA Tournament run, but they have a shot in Saturday’s title game vs. top-seeded Messiah considering that the teams split their regular-season matchups. Widener won, 56-50, at home two weeks ago.