BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan University men's basketball team begins its highly anticipated 2021-22 campaign Sunday afternoon, Nov. 7, with a non-conference matchup with Lake Forest College. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. inside the Shirk Center.
    Illinois Wesleyan enters the season ranked No. 4 in the D3hoops.com Preseason Top-25 after claiming the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championship a season ago. The Titans finished the season with an 8-1 record in its COVID-shortened year, and return several key pieces from last year's squad. Saturday's game will also serves as Lake Forest's season opener under second-year head coach Ryan Davis. The Foresters went 0-8 in its partial 2020-21 season.
    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.

FACING THE FORESTERS: All-time against Lake Forest, the Titans hold a 29-10 advantage in the series. The Foresters are familiar with the CCIW, as they competed in the (then) College Conference of Illinois between its founding in 1947 until 1963.
    The last time the Foresters and the Titans met was Nov. 23, 2019 on the road, where IWU won a close one, 94-90. Peter Lambesis had 12 points, three assists and three rebounds in that game. The matchup in 2019 ended a 56-year drought in meetings between the Foresters and Titans.

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.

PICKING UP WHERE THEY LEFT OFF: IWU returns 63 percent of its scoring from last year's team, which ended the season ranked No. 4 nationally. The Titans return two who averaged in double-digits last season in Matthew Leritz, who averaged a team-high 16.1 points and Cory Noe, who averaged 10.2 points. A historically strong passing team, the Titans also return 71 percent of assists from last season, including Luke Yoder who had a team-high 38 assists, over four per game.

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 279-56 record on their home floor, good for a .833 win percentage.

PRESEASON ACCOLADES: Senior Matthew Leritz was named a D3hoops.com Second Team Preseason All-American. Leritz was one of three CCIW student-athletes named to the 25-player list. During the 2020-21 season, Leritz earned a spot on the D3hoops.com All-Central Region team and was a Second-Team All-American.
    Leritz put together a stellar junior season, averaging team-highs of 16.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. He finished the season ranked third in the CCIW in rebounding and sixth in scoring. Leritz connected on 60 percent of his shot attempts, the third-best field goal percentage in the conference, and knocked down 50 percent of his three-point tries.

FRESH FACES: The Titans welcome in a strong and exceptionally tall recruiting class in freshmen Nick Roper, Nathan Valentine, Parker Wolfe, Trey Bazzell, Shane Miller, Hakim Williams, Harrison Wilmsen, Marko Anderson, along with junior transfer Landon Wolfe. The nine new faces average a height of about 6-foot-4, which is tied with Augustana's four freshmen as the tallest recruiting classes in the CCIW. North Central has the largest recruiting class in the CCIW bringing in 12 freshmen while IWU has the second largest, adding eight freshmen.

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.

NO LONE WOLFE: Despite graduating four-year letterwinner Grant Wolfe last season, the Titans welcome in Grant's two brothers: junior transfer Landon Wolfe and freshman Parker Wolfe. The three brothers all hail from Effingham, Ill., where the youngest, Parker, averaged 25.8 points as a senior last season at Effingham High School. Landon, however, is the all-time leading scorer at EHS, where he was named to the Class 3A All-State Second Team as a senior. At the Division II Minnesota State last season, Landon shot a staggering 52 percent from deep.

LOOKING AHEAD: IWU will play one of the more difficult schedules in all of Division III this season. The Titans have four total match-ups with CCIW opponents Wheaton and Elmhurst, who are ranked preseason No. 6 and No. 10, respectively. On Dec. 19, IWU will battle No. 18 Wash-U in St. Louis and on Dec. 30, the Titans travel to New York City to challenge the No. 2 team in the country, Yeshiva.

THE GAUNTLET THAT IS THE CCIW: The Illinois Wesleyan men's basketball team opens the season ranked No. 4 in the D3Hoops preseason poll. Conference foes Wheaton and Elmurst also ranked in the top 10 in the poll with the Thunder coming in at No. 6 and the Bluejays at No. 10. North Central also received votes in the preseason poll. No other conference in the nation has multiple teams ranked in the top 10 in the preseason poll.

25-YEAR ANNIVERSARY: The 2021-22 season marks the 25th anniversary of the Titans 1997 NCAA Division III National Championship. The Green and White went 29-2 that season, including producing a 13-1 CCIW record, en route to the national title. After escaping with an 85-82 win over Alvernia in the national semifinal, IWU edged Nebraska Wesleyan, 89-86, to claim the school's first-ever NCAA Division III team national championship.
    IWU's Bryan Crabtree was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, and was joined by teammate Korey Coon on the all-tournament squad.

ON THE HORIZON: IWU remains at home next weekend, Nov. 12-13, as host of the inaugural Sikma Hall of Fame Invitational. The Titans will open the two-day tournament against Hope Friday night, Nov. 12, at 7 p.m. IWU will then play either St. John's or UW-Oshkosh Saturday, Nov. 13, at 6 p.m.

ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICANS: Matthew Leritz became the program's 25th Academic All-America honoree, May 26, 2021. His selection increased IWU's national lead on UCLA, Indiana, Kansas, and Duke who have 20 all-time men's basketball awardees each.
    Furthermore, IWU's all-time Academic All-American list currently sits at 142, which ranks in the top-25 across NCAA Division I, II, and III, as well as inside the top-10 in Division III.