Colgate’s Raiders Ready For Return Trip to NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

For the third time in the last four seasons, the Colgate Raiders men's basketball team is goin' dancin'.

They enter the NCAA Tournament with a 23-11 overall record, including 15-straight wins - the most recent of which saw the Raiders ravage the Patriot League tournament with victories of 28, 20 and 16-points respectively.

Coach Matt Langel spoke with WIBX 950 about preparing to return to the national stage.

''I think we've all learned together," Langel said, noting that almost of his players who see game action were on last year's team for their first round loss to Arkansas. For some it'll be their third bite at the bracket.

Looking ahead to Friday night's opening round matchup with No.3 seed Wisconsin, in which Colgate is a 7.5-point underdog (as of Tuesday night), "Whether it's going well, or it's not going well, I hope that we can kinda stay together - in fact, I'm really confident that this group will stay together and play the full 40-minutes," Langel said.

"We've had the bullseye on our back all year long, especially this group because of the successes of previous years. I think being the underdog will allow us to play with a freedom and, hopefully, a confidence that we've earned because of what we've been able to do this year and the last couple years," said Langel.

Nelly Cummings - a Senior guard who led the team with 14.5 ppg this season. He also led the Raiders with 14 points in last year's NCAA Tournament defeat against Arkansas.

Jack Ferguson - a fifth-year Senior guard who will be making his 3rd NCAA Tournament appearance. In 2021-22, Ferguson averaged 12.6 ppg and 4.5 rebounds.

Tucker Richardson - another Senior guard, standing 6-foot-5, 210lbs who put up 12.6 ppg and 5.6 rebounds a game this season, good for second best on the boards.

Ryan Moffatt - this 6-foot-6 Junior was good for an even 10.0 ppg, and showed some sharp shooting from 3-point range making nearly 45% of his shots from beyond the arc (55-of-123).

Keegan Records - the 6-foot-10 forward wrapped up his Junior year averaging 10.0 ppg while leading the Raiders in rebounds (6.1 per game) and blocks, denying 54 scoring attempts.

Jeff Woodward - posted an average of 6.5 points, 4.1 boards per game. The 6-foot-11 Center, only in his Sophomore season, totaled 26 blocks for the year.

Oliver Lynch-Daniels - after playing his first two college campaigns with Houston Baptist, the 6-2 Senior transferred to Colgate. Coming of the bench he showed accuracy from long range (54%), knocking down 47 of 87 attempts.

The 14-seeded Raiders square off against 3-seed Wisconsin on Friday night, tipping at 9:50 p.m. on TBS.