Feb. 18, 2013 D3hoops.com Top 25
The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team is No. 3 in the Feb. 18 D3hoops.com national poll, up one spot from last week. The Titans (21-3, 13-0 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin) play at No. 5 North Central at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in an attempt to become the first CCIW school to go undefeated in league play since the 1973 Augustana team was 16-0.
The Titans trail No. 1-ranked St. Thomas, who is 24-1 and received 24 first place votes and No. 2 Amherst (23-2, one first place vote). The Titans passed Middlebury (22-2), who slipped to No. 4 nationally after losing to Amherst by a 104-101 score in three overtimes.
From the CCIW, North Central (21-3) went to No. 5 this week from No. 8 and Wheaton (19-5) improved to No. 20 from No. 21.
Illinois Wesleyan was ranked No. 7 in the Nov. 27 poll, No. 8 preseason and No. 3 in the final D3hoops.com poll last season.
Media links for Tuesday night's game at North Central:
Three top 20 teams will be at the Shirk Center this weekend as, for the first time, the Titans will serve as hosts of the men's CCIW postseason tournament. North Central plays Wheaton at 5 p.m. on Friday (Feb. 22) with IWU meeting Augustana in the second game (30 minutes after the first game ends).
The winners will play Saturday night at 7:30 for the NCAA automatic tournament bid.
The men's tourney has been at Augustana three times (2006, 2007, 2008), at North Central twice (2011, 2012), and at Wheaton (2009) and Carthage (2010) once.
With a 13-game winning streak, IWU is 13-0 in the CCIW for the first time the 1976-77 squad started with 14 wins (Carroll was in the league then and it was a 16-game schedule). That team ended 15-1.
The 1969-70 team went 16-0 in the CCIW and trailed at the half in nine of those games. The 1964-65 team was 12-0.
Not since 1973 (Augustana, 16-0) has there been an undefeated CCIW champion. Since 1973, CCIW schools have won six NCAA D-III titles, finished second twice and third three times but no undefeated league champion. In the 39 years since Augie's 16-0 season, 13 champions had one loss and 15 champions had lost twice.
