GAMEDAY (Mar. 6, 2020): Rensselaer's season continues with an NCAA Tournament First Round contest against New England College at Tufts University ... The Engineers, who are 23-4, and Pilgrims, who are 21-6, tip off at 3:30pm.

NCAA TOURNAMENT SECOND ROUND: Either RPI or New England College will face the host Jumbos or Western Connecticut State in the Second Round on Saturday at 6pm ... Tufts, which is 21-6, and West Conn, which is 20-7, play at 6pm on Friday.

RECORDS BY LOCATION: RPI has played 15 games away from Troy, going 13-2 with a 2-1 neutral site record ... The Engineers are 11-1 in away games and 10-2 at home.

HOW THEY GOT HERE: Rensselaer is the only at-large selection of the four schools in the Tufts Bracket ... The other three earned automatic bids for winning their conference championships: New England College captured the New England Collegiate Conference; Tufts won the New England Small College Athletic Conference; and West Conn won the Little East Conference.

EIGHTH APPEARANCE: This season marks the first since 2008-09 that RPI has qualified for the NCAA Championship ... This is the eighth time in school history, having also qualified in 1958, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1991 and 1996.

FARTHEST ALL-TIME: The Engineers deepest run in the NCAA Championship was 1996 when it reached the Sweet 16.

THIS YEAR'S FIELD: Rensselaer has not played any of the other three teams in this year's bracket in NCAA Tournament action ... It has not played any of the three this season either.

ALL-TIME: The Engineers are 1-0 all-time against the Pilgrims, having defeated them 117-72 at Merrimack in 1995 (Dec. 28) ... RPI is 1-1 against Tufts with a win in 1999 and a loss in 1980 and 2-0 versus West Conn (1981, 1982).

IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: RPI is 3-9 all-time in NCAA Tournament games, which included consolation games in the past ... Rensselaer's first victory was against Albany in a 1975 consolation (72-55) ... Its two wins in 1996 came against Hartwick (68-55) and St. Lawrence (78-70) before a loss at Franklin & Marshall (74-58).

RECORDS SET: The Engineers had a school record-tying 18-game winning streak from mid-November through early-February ... They also established the school records for overall wins and conference victories (17-1).
STANDINGS: The Engineers won the Liberty League regular season title with a 17-1 record, two wins better than the second place teams, Hobart (15-3) and Ithaca (15-3) ... The Bombers (23-5) won the conference tournament with wins over St. Lawrence (8-17), Hobart (21-5) and Rensselaer ... The Statesmen join RPI and Ithaca in the NCAA Tournament field.

PRESEASON POLL: The 2019-20 Liberty League Preseason Poll put Rensselaer in sixth place.

CAPTAINS: Seniors Kevin Davis and Mitchel Wayand serve are the Engineers' captains.

UP TO 65: Seniors Mitchel Wayand and Kevin Davis have been a part of 65 wins in their Rensselaer tenures, which is second for any class ... The Class of 1993 holds the mark with 70 ... Three other classes won 61 contests.

DEFENSE & REBOUNDING: The Engineers are third in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 60.6 points per game ... RPI out-rebounds the opposition by 6.7 boards per game while causing 16.7 turnovers per contest ... Rensselaer averages 9.7 steals and 19.0 points off turnovers, which is nearly seven points more than the opposition (12.9) ... RPI scores 73.1 points per game.

LEADING SCORER: Junior forward Patrick Mahoney is Rensselaer's leading point producer, averaging 15.1 points on 161 of 347 attempts - both team-highs ... He pulls down 5.7 rebounds, while having registered 39 assists and 26 steals in 28.3 minutes.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Patrick Mahoney earned Liberty League Player of the Year and All-Liberty League First Team ... He is sixth in the conference in scoring (15.1 points) and fifth in field goal percentage (46.4%) ... He is a three-time Liberty League Performer of the Week who has scored at least 20 points in seven games with a high of 32 ... He has three double-doubles.

THIRD TIME: Rensselaer has had three student-athletes named Player of the Year in the Liberty League ... Tom Schneider was chosen in 2006, Sam Simmons in 2009 and Patrick Mahoney in 2020.

REBOUNDING & ASSISTS LEADER: Dom Black, a sophomore guard, leads the Engineers in minutes (31.0), rebounding (6.2), assists (94) and steals (58) ... He is third in scoring average (11.4) and blocked shots (12) ... Black's hometown of Arlington is less than five miles from Medford.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Dom was named the Liberty League Defensive Player of the Year and All-Liberty League Second Team ... Among the Liberty League leaders, he is second in steals per game (2.1), third in assists per game (3.5) and sixth in assists-to-turnover ratio (1.3) ... He has had multiple steals in 19 of the 27 games and at least three assists in 20.

SECOND TIME: Rensselaer has had two student-athletes named Defensive Player of the Year in the Liberty League ... Dan Martin was chosen in 2013 and Dom Black in 2020. 

TOP SHOT BLOCKER: Mason Memmelaar, a sophomore forward, is second on the team in scoring (13.2) and third in rebounding (5.5) while averaging 24.0 minutes ... He has made 54.6 percent of his shot attempts (148 of 271) with 52 assists, 39 steals and a team-best 21 blocks ... He was an All-Liberty League Honorable Mention selection.

COACHING STAFF OF THE YEAR: Head coach Mark Gilbride and assistant coach Erich Kaempffe were named the Liberty League Staff of the Year ... Among the conference schools, Rensselaer is first in scoring defense, field goal percentage (47.0), defensive rebounds (30.4 per game) and steals per game (9.70) ... It is second in scoring margin (12.5), field goal percentage defense (41.2), rebounding margin (6.8) and steals per game (9.70).

SECOND TIME: Rensselaer has earned Coaching Staff of the Year twice ... Mike Griffin and his assistants earned the award in 2011 and Mark Gilbride and Erich Kaempffe captured this year's award. 

LIBERTY LEAGUE ALL-ACADEMIC: Junior Jeffrey Coulter (aeronautical engineering), sophomore Aiden Glennon (materials engineering) and senior Mitchel Wayand (biomedical engineering) each garnered Liberty League All-Academic recognition ... Honored student-athletes must have at least sophomore athletic and academic standing with a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.30.

RPI LAST TIME OUT: Ithaca scored 14 points in overtime on its way to defeating Rensselaer 80-69 in the championship game of the Liberty League Tournament on Sunday in Troy ... The Engineers put four players in double figures, led by freshman Jonny Angbazo's 17 points, four rebounds, an assist, two steals and a block ... Dom Black scored 14 points with 10 rebounds and four assists, while Kevin Davis had 13 points and four assists ... Will Rubin went for 11 points with five rebounds for the Engineers ... Sebastian Aldrete finished with game-highs of 28 points and 11 rebounds with four assists, two steals and a block on his way to earning the Most Outstanding Player award ... Riley Thompson finished with 19 points (12 in OT), along with four assists and two steals.

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK: RPI's Jonny Angbazo was selected as the Liberty League Men's Basketball Rookie of the Week following his play in the Liberty League Tournament ... The freshman forward led the Engineers in scoring, tallying 14.5 points per game on 64.7 percent shooting from the field (11 of 17) ... He also had 3.5 rebounds per game with three steals, two blocks and an assist in 21.9 minutes.