The WPI Engineers men's basketball team is the

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

program representing

Worcester Polytechnic Institute The Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a Private university, private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1865, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities and now h ...

(WPI). The Engineers compete in the

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

(DIII) of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) and the

NEWMAC The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of Connecticut, Mas ...

. WPI's men's basketball program began competing regularly as a varsity sport in

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

. The team is currently coached by Chris Bartley. WPI plays its home games at Harrington Auditorium, located on the campus in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, with a capacity of 3,000.

History

Although an informal team played in 1902, the WPI Engineers basketball team was sponsored by the Athletic Association in 1903, but then was abolished in the spring of 1910. The sport was brought back in 1915, but only as an intramural. It wasn't until the winter of 1917–1918, that basketball became an intercollegiate sport again. The team won back to back New England Championships during the 1919–20 and 1920–21 and seasons. According to the

Premo-Porretta Power Poll The Premo-Porretta Power Poll is a retroactive end-of-year ranking for American college basketball teams competing in the 1895–96 through the 1947–48 seasons. The Premo-Porretta Polls are intended to serve collectively as a source of informa ...

, the 1919–20 team would have been ranked 25th in the country. The 1965–66 team was defeated by

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

71–62 on December 8, 1965. The win marked the first career coaching victory for the Hall of Fame coach,

Bobby Knight Robert Montgomery Knight (October 25, 1940 – November 1, 2023) was an American men's college basketball coach. Nicknamed "the General", he won 902 NCAA Division I men's basketball games, a record at the time of his retirement and sixth all- ...

. During the 2012–13 season, the team was ranked second in the nation in

and had their best start ever, going undefeated for their first 22 games. On February 24, 2013, WPI beat

Springfield College Springfield College is a private university in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. The institution's mission, called the Humanism, Humanics philosophy, calls for educating students in spirit, mind, and body for leadership in service ...

in overtime to win the NEWMAC Championship and secure a place in the

2013 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament The 2013 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament of 62 teams held to determine the men's collegiate basketball national champion of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. It began ...

. The Engineers had a program record 27 victories during their 2021–22 season, which included a NEWMAC regular season championship, a NEWMAC tournament championship, and an Elite Eight appearance in the

2022 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament The 2022 NCAA Division III men's basketball tournament was a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division III college basketball in the United States. Featuring sixty-four teams, it began on March 4, 20 ...

. This marked the program's second NCAA quarterfinal game and first since

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

References

External links

* {{Worcester Polytechnic Institute Basketball teams established in 1918 1918 establishments in Massachusetts