BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The No. 9 Titans will celebrate the careers of their four seniors when the Illinois Wesleyan University men's basketball team hosts 13th-ranked Wheaton College Saturday, Feb. 12. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. and will be the second leg of a doubleheader with the IWU women's basketball team.
    Illinois Wesleyan upped its record to 18-4 overall, 11-2 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, with a 51-49 buzzer-beating win at Millikin University, Feb. 9. The win kept the Titans in the lead in the CCIW race, one game ahead of Wheaton. The Thunder grabbed an 87-71 win over Carthage College, Feb. 9, for WC's fifth straight victory.
    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.
LET'S PLAY FOR THE KIDS!: Illinois Wesleyan will donate all ticket proceeds from Saturday's game to St. Jude's.
THANK YOU SENIORS!: Saturday's contest will serve as Senior Day for Illinois Wesleyan's Peter Lambesis, Matthew Leritz, Gavin Markgraff, and Cory Noe. Together, the group has helped IWU amass a 63-23 overall record, good for a .733 win percentage.
    Lambesis, known as a lock down defender, has played in 79 games for the Titans. He has scored 709 points, grabbed 244 rebounds, tallied 145 assists, and swiped 101 steals. Lambesis earned Second Team All-CCIW honors as a sophomore, and has garnered D3hoops.com Team of the Week recognition this season.
    A preseason D3hoops.com All-American, Leritz has scored 886 points over 79 games. He has pulled down 527 rebounds, tallied 101 assists, and holds a career field goal percentage of 56.83. He has 15 career double-doubles, is a two-time All-CCIW pick, a First Team Academic All-America awardee, and multiple time CCIW Player of the Week and D3hoops.com Team of the Week selection.
Markgraff transitioned to a student coaching role ahead of this season. He donned the Green and White for three seasons prior to the move, and has continued to make a tremendous impact since.
    Noe, a sharpshooter, has played in 62 games for IWU over the course of his career. He has scored 590 points, while also adding 158 rebounds, 91 assists, 46 steals, and 14 blocks. Noe reeled in D3hoops.com Team of the Week honors earlier this season after being named the MVP of the Jack Sikma Hall of Fame Invitational.
AGAINST THE THUNDER ALL-TIME: Illinois Wesleyan and Wheaton will battle for the 135th time Saturday night. IWU holds a 83-51 lead in the all-time series, which dates back to the 1946-47 season. Despite the Titans' stronghold on the all-time series, the Thunder have come out victorious in six of the past seven meetings.
Wheaton handed Illinois Wesleyan its first loss of the season, Dec. 11, defeating IWU, 67-62, at King Arena. The Titans led by eight at the half, but the Thunder rallied at home over the final 20 minutes to knock off the Green and White. Matthew Leritz led IWU with 21 points and 14 rebounds, while Cory Noe and Luke Yoder tallied 12 points each. Peter Lambesis scored 10 and notched three steals.
DAYS OF THUNDER: Illinois Wesleyan is in search of its first regular season win over Wheaton since Dec. 6, 2017 when the Titans took down the Thunder 82-79 at King Arena. Brady Rose led IWU with 26 points, while Alex O'Neill finished just shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.
RELYING ON THE DEFENSE: In their 51-49 win against Millikin on Wednesday, the offense wasn't flowing, but luckily the defense was. The last time the Titans scored under 51 points in a game was a 49-51 loss to North Central in the CCIW Tournament in the 2005-06 season. Going back even further, the last time the Titans scored under 51 points in a win was in the 1981-82 season, when the Green and White held off Wheaton for a 41-40 victory.
THE GRISWOLD CENTER SCARIES: Going on the road in the CCIW is never an easy task, and the Titans past two matchups at the Griswold Center in Decatur are proof of that. On Wednesday night, the Green and White survived the Big Blue with a two-point victory thanks to a Matthew Leritz buzzer-beater. The Titans and Big Blue did not meet up in Decatur during the 2020-21 season, but they did meet on Feb. 5, 2020 at the Griswold Center where the Green and White again survived with a two point, 76-74, victory.
MR. SROKA STEPPING UP: Sophomore Ryan Sroka has seen his playing time increase since the calendar flipped to 2022. In the first 11 games of the season, Sroka was averaging 16.5 minutes per game and four points per game. Since their first game of the new year on Jan. 12, Sroka has seen his playing time increase to 24 minutes per game. Subsequently, he has doubled his average points per game to eight. In the past week specifically (dating back to Saturday, Feb. 5), Sroka is averaging 10 points per game while providing key defensive minutes for the Titans.
TURNING UP ON DEFENSE: Illinois Wesleyan has held opponents to fewer than 50 points 13 times since the 2011-12 campaign. IWU has accomplished the feat four times this season, with all three occurrences taking place against CCIW opponents.
FEBRUARY FUN: Illinois Wesleyan owns a 69-37 record in the month of February under the direction of head coach Ron Rose.
CCIW WIN NO. 150 FOR ROSE: With Illinois Wesleyan's 73-49 win over North Park, Feb. 7, Titan Head Coach Ron Rose notched his 150th CCIW victory of his career. He now ranks second in IWU history, just ahead of Jack Horenberger's 149 conference wins. Illinois Wesleyan legend Dennie Bridges holds the record for most CCIW victoies with 421 over his 36-year career.
Additionally, Rose is one of two active head coaches with 150-or-more league wins, joining North Central's Todd Raridon (160).
THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE MAN-BUNNED MONSTER: Junior forward Cody Mitchell may not don the man bun any longer, but the St. Charles, Ill. native has been just as key for the Titans despite the hairstyle change. Mitchell led the Green and White with a game-high 14 points in a win over Carthage, Feb. 5. In fact, IWU boasts a 9-0 record when Mitchell scores 10-or-more points this season.
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 181 appearances in the weekly poll are ninth-most all-time. The Titans are currently ranked No. 9 in the poll.
FACING THE BEST OF THE BEST: The No. 9 Titans have played one of the more difficult schedules in all of Division III this season. IWU has faced five current top-25 opponents, including the current No. 3 and No. 8 teams in the country, UW-Oshkosh and WashU, respectively. The Titans are 3-3 against top-25 opponents this year, including wins against the current No. 3, No. 15, and No. 20 teams in the country. IWU's schedule is the 26th-toughest according to NCAA stats.
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 289-57 record on their home floor, good for a .835 win percentage.
ON THE HORIZON: Following their senior day celebration and matchup with Wheaton, the Titans will stay at home for a midweek tilt with North Central on Wednesday, Feb. 16. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside the Shirk Center.
