Indiana Wesleyan men’s and women’s basketball are preparing to compete in the opening rounds of the NAIA National Championship.
The Lady Wildcats finished the season ranked No. 4 in the NAIA and knew for a couple of weeks that they would be hosting the first and second rounds of the national tournament. The men’s team, on the other hand, was expecting to go on the road until they found out during the selection show last Thursday that they would also be hosting.
“It was just kind of a shock. We were not expecting it at all. We are excited to be able to stay home,” said assistant coach Caleb Muthiah.
The men’s team received the No. 5 seed in the Duer Quadrant and will face off against the No. 12 seed Madonna University (Mich.) on Friday at 3 p.m. The Lady Wildcats received the No. 1 seed in the Liston Quadrant and will take on 16th-seeded Philander Smith University (Ark.) at 5:30 p.m. on Friday.
Women’s basketball graduate assistant Emily Detmers says the Crossroads League champion Lady Wildcats will have to make a team effort in order to avoid an upset against the HBCU Athletic Conference champion Panthers.
“They’re playing their best basketball right now. They have won 5 straight,” Detmers said. “They are going to be really hungry coming in here.”
The Lady Wildcats are known for their intense defense that forces teams to turn the ball over 20.5 times per game. They also score the ninth-highest points per game in the NAIA at 81.1, but the Lady Wildcats will have their hands full facing the Panthers, who force the sixth-most turnovers in the NAIA at 23.8 per game.
“They are probably going to try and press us, so we have been doing some press break (in practice),” Detmers said. “They are a really good rebounding team, so we have had to focus on doing drills, taking care of the ball, making sure our offense is ready to go.”
The men’s team for Indiana Wesleyan played Madonna once already this season down at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where they beat the Crusaders 113-75. Coach Muthiah does not think this game will be as much of a cakewalk.
“They finished the regular season 10-1; they have some pretty elite scorers,” Muthiah said. “This is not a game to take lightly.”
The Wildcats have had a handful of players go in and out of the lineup with injuries, leading to some consistency issues during the season, but they feel like they are back on pace and hitting their stride at the right time.
The Lady Wildcats lost All-American and leading scorer Lilli Frasure for a month late in the season due to a wrist injury. They lost their only two games of the year during that time frame.
“Both of those losses were pretty close conference games,” Detmers said. “I think we have learned how to play in the end of games, which is going to be needed for the national tournament.”
Winning the conference tournament was one goal for the women’s team, but Detmers said the senior class has the dream of bringing a third national championship home.
“These last couple of weeks, the seniors have done a good job of encouraging our team to stay hungry,” Detmers said. “Yeah, we achieved one of our goals, but that is not the main goal.”
How a team plays during the regular season in December or January is not necessarily a dictator of how a team will perform in the national tournament. Junior men’s guard Luke Brown said it is about getting hot at the right time.
“We are catching fire at the right time, ” Brown said. “If we can make it to Kansas City, we can make some noise.”
Muthiah added that they need to take things one game at a time.
The other teams visiting Marion, Indiana, for the tournament on the women’s side, are Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.) and Grand View University (Iowa). Life University (Ga.) and Johnson University (Tenn.) are on the men’s side.
The winners of the first-round games on Friday will play each other on Saturday. The women’s winner on Saturday heads to Sioux City, Iowa, while the men’s winner heads to Kansas City, Missouri, for the NAIA National Championship Round of 16 and beyond.
