SELINSGROVE, Pa. – The Susquehanna University men’s basketball team has been unanimously selected to finish first in the Commonwealth Conference during the upcoming season, as picked by the league’s eight head coaches and released by the conference on Monday.

The Crusaders are the defending Commonwealth regular-season champions and return four starters and 10 letterwinners from last year’s team that finished 18-8 overall and 11-3 in the league before losing to Elizabethtown 92-86 in the conference finals.

Head coach Frank Marcinek enters his 15th season just one win shy of breaking the program record for career victories of 201 that he shares with Don Harnum.

Moravian was picked to finish second in the poll followed by Elizabethtown, Widener, Lebanon Valley, Juniata, Messiah and Albright.

The Crusaders open the 2003-04 season at Houts Gymnasium on Friday, November 21 at 8 p.m. against Penn State Altoona in the Pepsi/Weis Markets Tip Off Tournament.