Both Widener basketball programs looking to make a bit of history at the D-III tournament

Alisa Kintner has been around a lot of good teams during her 21 years at Widener, but nothing quite compares to what she has witnessed over the last two years.

Kintner has helped spark one of Widener’s most improbable revivals in women’s basketball program history, going from an 11-15 record last season to 23-4 this one.

“Last year going 11-15 and coming back this year and having the success that we’re having, it was the biggest turnaround I would say since I’ve been here from one team to the next,” Kintner said. “It’s the biggest turnaround and the biggest surprise that I’ve ever seen in my 21 years.”

Widener’s women are going to the Division III NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2020, when they lost in the semifinals of the MAC Commonwealth Conference tournament but secured an at-large bid.

Nobody, not even the players on the team, saw the run coming. While the Pride always believed they had a talented group, a 23-4 record and a conference championship would have felt like a fever dream this time last year.

“It was a really good experience to win the championship this year and I don’t think any of us saw it coming if we were talking about this at the beginning of last year,” said sophomore forward Mia Robbins. “There’s just a sense of unity in our team and it was just a great experience to experience with my best friends.”

It isn’t just the Widener women turning heads. The men’s team is also going dancing after finishing as regular season MAC Commonwealth champs, also with a 23-4 record.

The women’s last trip to the tournament during the 2019-20 season ended in a disappointing 82-66 opening-round loss to Christopher Newport, though the COVID-19 pandemic prematurely ended the tournament the very next round.

Last year, the men sneaked into the tournament with a 19-9 record but fell to Tufts, 78-66, in the first round.

Not only did both teams make the tournament this year, but both teams have a chance to make some noise.

“Watching the women’s team and our men’s team have such great seasons alongside each other has been extremely fun,” said men’s basketball coach Chris Carideo. “I don’t think we have both made the tournament together since 2009. Our teams have always gotten along very well; we are excited for them.”

The Widener men entered the MAC Commonwealth tournament as the top seed, and beat fourth-seeded Alvernia, 80-70, to open up the tournament before being upset by three-seed Eastern in the conference final, 98-69. An at-large bid sent the Pride dancing, and they believe they have more to prove than the display shown in their last outing.

“I know our guys just want to get back on the court and compete again,” Carideo said. “I know they want to get the bad taste out of their mouth from last Saturday and compete against someone else. Our expectation is to be the best version of Widener University basketball that we can be. If we play the way we have all season, we can make a run in the tournament.”

The significance of the milestone isn’t lost on either Kintner or Carideo. Both have cemented themselves as all-time program greats. Carideo is the second-winningest coach in Widener men’s basketball history, and Kintner was named MAC Commonwealth’s coach of the year on Tuesday.

The most striking part of the teams’ trip to their respective NCAA Tournaments isn’t what has happened on the court, but what has happened off it, Kintner said.

Coaches and players on the women’s team hopped on a bus from Chester to Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday. Before making the nine-hour trip, the team heard from faculty, professors, students, and members of the community.

“We had a sellout crowd the last two games,” Kintner said. “Our gym holds 1,500 people, and we had people out the door. So it’s been nice to see the community get involved and support us.”

Kintner doesn’t want to compare her teams, but there’s something about this one that just feels different. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is graduate guard Jordan D’Ambrosio, who is the only player left from the 2019-20 team that qualified for the NCAA Tournament.

“When I went [last time] I was just a little baby freshman,” D’Ambrosio said. “I didn’t really know what to expect from the experience. But I thought it was an awesome experience and I just keep relaying to the rest of my team that it’s just special, just take it all in. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The women opened their tournament Friday afternoon with a 57-50 victory over Springfield in Lewiston, Maine. The men rolled past Roger Williams, 101-70, Friday night at home.