BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan University men's basketball team closes out its season-opening homestand as hosts of the inaugural Sikma Hall of Fame Invitational Friday-Saturday, Nov. 12-13. The tournament will feature four games, two Friday, Nov. 12 and two more Saturday, Nov. 13.
    The Titans (1-0) will take on Hope College at 7 p.m. Friday night, Nov. 12, following the tournament's opening game between Saint John's University and No. 17 University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. SJU and UWO is set for a 5 p.m. tipoff. Saturday will see the losers of Friday's games square off in a third-place game at 4 p.m., while the championship match is scheduled for 6 p.m.
    Fans can tune into the game via live stats or live stream. Links on how to follow along can be found on the men's basketball schedule page of IWUsports.com.

THE TOURNEY, MADE POSSIBLE BY: Through a generous gift from Greg and Coe Gardner, the Sikma Hall of Fame Invitational will feature four games between some of the most storied programs in NCAA Division III basketball history.
    Greg and Coe Gardner, who both graduated from Illinois Wesleyan in 1960, are the sponsors of the four-team invitational. After earning his MBA from Bradley, Greg returned to IWU in 1965 as an accounting professor, where he later had Jack Sikma as a student. He also served as Illinois Wesleyan's Faculty Athletic Representative from 1967 to 1986 for the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.

STUDENT-ATHLETE: Matthew Leritz, a finance major with a 3.94 GPA, will be officially awarded his 2021 CoSIDA Academic All-American plaque this weekend. With his selection, Leritz is the program's 25th Academic All-America selection, increasing IWU's national lead on UCLA, Indiana, Kansas, and Duke who have 20 all-time honorees each.
    IWU's 25 selections are spread across 15 individuals, including three-time honorees Bob Spear, Greg Yess, and Korey Coon. Spear is the only three-time First Team Academic All-American amongst the group, having earned the honor in 1975, 1976, and 1977. Yess garnered a second team selection in 1980 and back-to-back first team distinctions in 1981 and 1982, while Coon was named to the second team in 1998 and the first team in 1999 and 2000.
    The group will be in attendance as Leritz joins the distinguished club. Longtime Sports Information Directors Stew Salowitz and Ed Alsene were instrumental in the promoting and nominating of IWU's Academic All-America honorees.

PERENNIAL POWERS: Illinois Wesleyan and Hope have two of the winningest programs in Division III history. With their win on Sunday against Lake Forest, the Titans are the third in program wins with 1,691. Hope, whose season-opener will be against the Titans, sits in fourth with 1,656 program wins.

ALL-TIME VS. HOPE: The Titans and Flying Dutchmen have met just three times in their successful histories. IWU has won all three of those match-ups in tight contests. In the 2011-12 season, the Dutch and the Titans met in the second round of the NCAA tournament, where the Titans won a double OT thriller 108-101. The following season, the Titans won 68-67 against Hope in Orlando, Fla. at the Magic DIII Tourney. The last time the two teams met was in the 2013-14 season, when the Titans defeated the Dutch 91-83 at Hope College in Holland, Mich.

REACHING 1700: As a program, IWU men's basketball is currently sitting at 1,690 wins. With 10 wins this season, the Titans will join an elite club as just two other current Division III men's basketball programs have reached the 1,700-win threshold. Wittenberg leads Division III in wins with 1,813, while Wooster is in second with 1,765 program wins.

YOU GET THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: Sunday against Lake Forest, senior Matthew Leritz recorded his seventh career double-double with 23 points and 16 rebounds. Leritz had four double-doubles in nine games in the 2020-21 season and two his sophomore season in 2019-20. 16 rebounds ties for the most in his career, having 16 boards on two other occasions in 2020-21.

20/20 VISION: The Titans were led by seniors Cory Noe and Matthew Leritz in Sunday's victory over Lake Forest. Noe and Leritz each had 23 points in the win, but achieved their point totals in different ways. While Noe scored five of his seven total field goals from behind the arc, Leritz controlled the paint with six of his eight field goals coming from two point range.
    The last time that a pair of Titans had 20 point games was Feb. 25, 2021 in a win against Millikin, where Cory Noe and Charlie Bair had 21 and 24 points, respectively.

HOME COOKING: One of the greatest athletic venues in NCAA Division III, the Shirk Center has been home to more than 600 Titan basketball games between both the men and women. The men hold a 280-56 record on their home floor, good for a .833 win percentage.

VS. TOP-25: As part of the Sikma Hall of Fame Classic, the Titans could potentially match-up with No. 17 UW-Oshkosh on Saturday, Nov. 13. Luckily, IWU is familiar with match-ups against top-25 opponents, especially in the previous two seasons. In the 2020-21 season, the Titans were 3-0 against top-10 opponents as IWU defeated North Central twice and No. 3 Wheaton in the CCIW Championship game. In the 2019-20 season, the Titans were 3-3 against top-25 opponents.

RANKINGS ON REPEAT: Illinois Wesleyan is one of 20 programs that have appeared in at least 100 D3Hoops.com Top-25 rankings. In fact, the Titans 172 appearances in the weekly poll are 10th-most all-time.

ON THE HORIZON: After this weekend's tournament, Illinois Wesleyan will hit the road for the first time of the young season. IWU will head to Michigan for a Friday night game at Alma, Nov. 19, before clashing with Calvin Saturday, Nov. 20. The Titans will tipoff with the Scots at 7:30 p.m. ET, while the Green and White will take on the Knights at 3 p.m. ET Saturday.