NCAA tournament, Titan style

The IWU women's basketball team is now 27-0 after winning the CCIW conference tournament with 76-58 and 75-55 wins over North Central and Carthage, respectively. Next step: the NCAA tournament. This will be their third consecutive appearance in the tournament.

Also, congratulations to Christina Solari on her CCIW "Player of the Year" honor, and to Coach Mia Smith for her CCIW "Coach of the Year" honor.

The announcement for Division III NCAA tournament pairings will be at 10 a.m. Monday at www.ncaa.com. The team will have to win either five or six games to take the ultimate trophy, depending on whether they are awarded a first-round bye.

There are no more silly losses from here on out--losing in the NCAA tournament is never something to be ashamed of. But after watching this team plow through CCIW and non-conference opponents like a woodchuck through wood, I think we all expect some degree of success on the national stage. Add in that the Titans will almost assuredly host a game or two (or more), and it's hard not to hold out some "hope" that the women will be playing in a few weeks at Hope College, host of the Final Four.

But no matter what the tournament has in store, a sincere congratulations to the Titan women! What an incredible season!

Perfect regular season

The Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team is now 25-0, completing an undefeated regular season with an 81-75 victory at Elmhurst Tuesday night. The Titans faced their biggest scare all year, as they trailed by 20 with 15:26 to go, but outscored the Bluejays 49-23 the rest of the way. According to IWU's Web site, the Titans are the first CCIW champion since 1998 to go undeafeated.
IWU will host the CCIW tournament this Friday and Saturday, playing North Central (12-12 overall, 7-7 conference) at 8pm Friday. Wheaton faces Carthage in the other game at 6pm. The championship game will be held at 2pm Saturday.

After that, it's on to the national tournament, and one could argue that with all the blowouts this season, having a tough battle and being forced to fight from behind for a change is not the worst thing that could have happened, especially considering they still escaped with an unblemished record. The Titans faced a serious challenge but still came out on top, and that's a good sign.