Nova Southeastern aims for 100th consecutive win at home
Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill.
A century is 100 years.
A football field is 100 yards long.
And, if all goes well for the Sharks, Nova Southeastern University’s men’s basketball team will extend its home winning streak to 100 on Tuesday in the Sunshine State Conference quarterfinals.
Here are five takeaways from the streak, which is now at 99 games:
1: THE BASICS: The Sharks have gone 2,203 days without a home loss.
This is the longest home winning streak in the history of NCAA Division II men’s basketball. The previous record was 80 in a row, held by Philadelphia University, now known as Jefferson. NSU broke that record on March 9, 2025.
The last opponent to leave NSU’s Davie campus with a win was Florida Southern, 102-96, on Feb. 15, 2020.
No player on NSU’s current roster has lost a home game, and the program is now chasing the all-time NCAA record of 129 consecutive home wins, accomplished by Division I power Kentucky from 1943 to 1955.
The next-longest Division I home win streaks are 99 games by St. Bonaventure (1948-1961) and 98 by UCLA (1970-1976).
“Those streaks were all a long time ago,” NSU coach Jim Crutchfield said. “Nobody’s done this in at least 50 years.
“This is my favorite record because it involves so many different players and coaches.”
2: HOW IT BEGAN: The streak started on Feb. 26, 2020, with a 91-87 win against Barry University.
For NSU, point guard Nick Smith had a team-high 20 points and a game-high 11 assists. He’s now NSU’s associate head coach.
Also for NSU, RJ Sunahara had 11 points and a game-high-tying 12 rebounds. He’s now an NSU assistant coach.
During NSU’s streak, the Sharks have won two national titles (2023, 2025), and hey have finished second once (2024).
3: CLOSEST CALLS: On March 13, 2022, Kobe Rogers — then an NSU freshman — caught a tough in-bounds pass and hit a buzzer-beating jumper in the lane to lead the Sharks past Union 81-80 in a South Region semifinal playoff game.
Rogers, who is now a senior role player for the Louisville Cardinals, was swarmed by celebrating teammates.
“We had media there that night,” Smith said, “and I think that night was the start of who we are today.”
Earlier that season, on Dec. 19, 2021, NSU had an even greater escape, defeating Virginia Union, 93-88, in overtime. With just a couple of seconds left in regulation — and with Virginia Union leading 76-74 — Smith threw a full-court in-bound pass that was intercepted.
The game appeared to be over.
“I was ready to go through the handshake line,” Crutchfield said.
However, a referee ruled that the Virginia Union player who intercepted the ball had his foot out of bounds. That gave NSU new life, and Smith in-bounded the ball to Rogers, who made a short jumper to send the game to OT.
4: BEST INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE DURING THE STREAK: On Dec. 19, 2022, Sunahara scored 41 points in a 122-104 win over Bluefield State.
Sunahara made 18 of 24 shots — an absurd 75.0% – and 5 of 7 on free throws. He made no three-pointers, taking just one as he was dominant in the lane. He also had two assists, but who needs assists when you’re shooting 75%?
“I didn’t dribble much in that game because my teammates put me in such good spots to score,” Sunahara said. “I remember making a lot of short corner buckets.”
Smith joked that Sunahara’s two assists probably came as the result of fumbling the ball in the general direction of a teammate.
Turning serious, Smith said: “He could fill it up in bunches. He was the best forward to ever play for NSU, and it’s great to have him on our staff.”
5: THE FUTURE: If all goes well, the Sharks will extend their streak to 105 games by the end of this season, including the South Region playoffs.
And if the streak lives on through next season, the Kentucky streak could be in danger early during the 2027-2028 campaign.
“As a team, we don’t talk about the streak at all,” Sunahara said. “But we have a good fan base, and we owe it to them to put out a good product.”
Added Crutchfield: “[The streak] is almost beyond belief.”
