CCIW Conference Tournament, Feb 29 - March 1, 2008

I'm looking forward to the conference tournament in this weekend. A couple great matchups Friday evening...

6:00pm: IWU vs Wheaton
8:00pm: Elmhurst vs Augustana


We've all heard the saying - "it's hard to beat a good team 3 times." Wheaton certainly qualifies as a good team, so we'll see if the Titans can find a way.

2/16/08 game at Wheaton (boxscore)

1/23/08 game at IWU (boxscore)


In my opinion, the key to the first two IWU/Wheaton matchups has been Sean Dwyer's defense on Kent Raymond. Raymond is a 1st Team All-American-caliber player and Dwyer, and the Titans, have held him to 17 points twice. Raymond was 2-12 from beyond the arc in those two games combined. IWU has also done a great job not sending him to the line a ton of times - he has only shot 6 free throws vs the Titans this year (and made all 6 of course).

Speaking of Kent Raymond and free throws, check out his last 5 games vs IWU...

2/16/08: 2-2
1/23/08: 4-4
2/9/07: 20-20
1/17/07: 8-8
2/9/05: 11-11

That's 45-45 from the free throw line!! In his first game vs IWU, January 15, 2005, he was a real dog and only went 3-4.

Keys for the Wheaton game:

* More Sean Dwyer defense with good help from his teammates
* Simple - make shots. Can the Titans put the NPU game behind them and make shots? I hope so.

IWU is in a win or go home situation -- no chance for an at-large bid to the Division III tournament. It's been a great ride with these guys - let's see if they can keep it going. The guys will, of course, need Titan nation out in full force.