Dance Party Part I

The last time both Wheaton basketball teams made it to the NCAA tournament in the same year, they were still called the Crusaders, Y2K was causing mass panic, and Wheaton students were not allowed to dance. That was 14 years ago. The no-dancing policy has since been lifted, and the Thunder men’s and women’s basketball teams are both headed to the “Big Dance”: the NCAA Division III National Tournament.

The Thunder Men ended this past week on a low note after a struggling performance on Friday, Feb. 22, against North Central College that Coach Mike Schauer could only describe as a “disappointment.”

With the loss to the Cardinals, a game in which junior guard Tyler Peters scored 26 of the team’s 50 points and the team only shot 31.9 percent from the field, things looked pretty grim.

Because the team did not get an automatic bid from winning the CCIW tournament, they had a whole weekend to wait to see if they would get an at-large bid for the upcoming NCAA Division III National Tournament.

Coach Schauer said, “I’m not looking forward to waiting three days to see if we are going to continue to play.”

When Monday finally came along, it seemed that a clean slate came with it. Three Thunder Men were named to the All-CCIW team: Peters, junior forward Nathan Haynes and sophomore guard Brayden Teuscher. The Thunder men were named to the National Tournament, and their performance this season earned them the privilege of hosting the first round.

Haynes commented on the honor: “It’s huge! You get to sleep in your own bed. You don’t have to worry about a long bus ride, and most teams just play better at home.”

The Thunder (20-6) will play host to St. Norbert College. St. Norbert (20-5) is a Catholic liberal arts institution from Wisconsin. They won the Midwest Conference and received an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.

Schauer reacted positively to the news.

“I am thrilled that we got into the tournament. It is difficult to do. This time is special to me because it was so unanticipated at the start of the season,” he said. “We were picked to finish fifth in the conference in the preseason coaches’ poll, and were not generating a lot of buzz given how many players we lost from last year’s team.”

The Thunder’s 13th appearance in the NCAA tournament will be with a young but talented team. They feature the CCIW’s top scorer and unanimous first team selection: Peters. He averaged 19.3 points per game (38th in Division III), as well as a 55.2 field goal percentage along with 4.5 rebounds per game and 4.7 assists per game. Peters became Wheaton’s first CCIW scoring champion since the 2003-04 season and was named the CCIW Player of the Week three times this season.

The Thunder also boast the talents of Haynes, the second team selection, and Teuscher, the third team selection. Haynes continued the streak of Wheaton players by leading the CCIW in rebounding at 10.9 rebounds per game (14th in Division III). Haynes is also averaging 10.6 points per game. Teuscher averaged 13.4 points per game, an 83.7 free throw percentage, and 26 steals in league play. Sophomore guard Michael Kvam is also a three-point machine for the Thunder, ranking 20th in the nation and shooting 42.7 percent from behind the arc.

However, any Thunder player or coach will tell you that basketball is not about one man’s accolades but the entire team’s performance. That is where the Thunder are the strongest, boasting Division III’s best three-point shooting team (39.4 three-point field goal percentage), 20th best defense (59.8 points allowed per game) and 34th best scoring margin (+10.7 points per game).

The Thunder will try to end this week on a high note. They will face off against St. Norbert College at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 2, in front of a home crowd that Haynes predicted will be “big” and “significant.” For an interactive NCAA Division III bracket, go to ncaa.com.