Tipoff
• No. 19 IU South Bend makes their third straight NAIA Tournament appearance on Friday night, when they face Kansas Wesleyan in the Opening Round of the 2022 NAIA Men's Basketball National Championship.
• The Titans have earned the No. 8 seed in the Liston Quadrant; Kansas Wesleyan will play as the No. 9 seed.
•
Dylan Allen leads the team with 14.3 points per game, while Donyell Meredith is averaging 14.1 points per game. Three Titans are averaging double figures this season, with
Miles Tracy scoring 12.3 points per game.
• The Titans are averaging 82.7 points per game, good for 18th-most in the NAIA. Kansas Wesleyan has the 52nd-ranked offense, averaging 79.4 points per game.
• The IUSB defense ranks 19th in the NAIA, averaging 65.7 points allowed per game, their lowest average since 2012-13 (56.6 ppg). Kansas Wesleyan ranks 54th, allowing 69.3 points per game.
• IU South Bend finished the first half of the season with an 11-3 record, the program's best-ever mark in the fall semester.
• The Titans have three active players who are part of the program's 1,000-point club.
Dylan Allen is the 20th player in IUSB history to score 1,000 career points, and entering play on Friday, has collected 1,626 points. Allen now sits 2nd on the IUSB all-time scoring list.
• Allen is also the Titans' all-time winningest player, having played in 82 victories since his freshman season of 2017-18.
• With his appearance against St. Ambrose on Saturday, Allen broke the program's all-time record for games played, now at 132 games.
• Donyell Meredith became the 21st Titan to reach 1,000 career points, on his first field goal in the win over St. Ambrose on Senior Day on Feb. 19. Meredith now has 1,049 career points, and is 18th on the all-time IUSB scoring list.
•
Miles Tracy matched his career high with 23 points in the loss to Lincoln during the CCAC Tournament, and became the program's 22nd player to reach 1,000 career points.
• The Titans are in their third straight NAIA Tournament, after previously never qualified in program history.
Series History
• Friday marks the first-ever meeting between the Titans and Coyotes.
• IUSB is 1-1 all-time in the NAIA Tournament, with a win over Rio Grande (Ohio) and loss to Indiana Wesleyan last season.
• The Titans qualifies for the tournament in 2020, but did not play their first-round game before the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
About Kansas Wesleyan
• The Coyotes enter the tournament with a 22-10 overall record, having won five of their last six before falling to Oklahoma Wesleyan in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals.
• Kentucky Wesleyan have gone 0-4 this season against teams ranked in the NAIA Coaches Poll.
• Jun Murdock is the team's scoring leader, with 14.0 points per game. Murdock was an All-KCAC First Team selection, and scored a season-high 30 points in two games - in losses to Bethany (Kan.) on Jan. 5, and at Saint Mary (Kan.) on Feb. 3.
• A.J. Range earned All-KCAC Second Team honors and is the Coyotes' second-leading scorer with 12.0 points per game.
• Head coach Anthony Monson is in his sixth season as head coach at Kansas Wesleyan, and making his first trip to the NAIA Tournament as part of the Coyotes' staff.
• Friday's game will be the first NAIA Tournament appearance for Kansas Wesleyan since 2007, and just the third in program history, the first coming in 1950.
Last Time Out
• Junior forward
Miles Tracy led No. 19 IU South Bend with 23 points - reaching 1,000 for his career in the process – but the Titans were upset in the semifinal round of the CCAC Tournament by Lincoln, 67-64 on Feb. 25.
• Tracy's 23 points matches his career high and moves him up the all-time IUSB scoring list as the 22nd player in program history to reach 1,000 points.
Dylan Allen finished with 11 as the only other player for the Titans to finish in double figures. Donyell Meredith was closing in on a double-double, with 10 rebounds and eight points on the night.
• The visiting Lynx jumped out to an early lead, going up by as much as 12 before the Titans closed on a 9-1 run going into the halftime break.
Micah Poole gave IUSB their first lead of the game on his layup with 41 seconds remaining, as the Titans went into the locker room leading 29-28.
• Lincoln responded at the start of the second half, opening on a 9-2 run to reclaim the lead. The Lynx matched their first-half lead of 12 points, 54-42 with 7:44 remaining, but the Titans would close the gap over the next three minutes, as Tracy scored 12 straight points for IUSB during a 12-2 run.
• Both sides would trade baskets down the stretch, but a three-pointer from Lincoln with 33 seconds left pushed the visitors lead to 65-60. Tracy and Meredith each scored to close the gap again, but ran out of time on the comeback as a potential game-tying shot was off the mark in the final seconds.
IUSB in the Polls
• The Titans were ranked No. 19 in the final NAIA Coaches' Poll of the regular season, released on Wednesday, moving up one spot from their rank two weeks prior.
• The No. 19 spot in the NAIA is the highest national ranking in program history for IUSB. The Titans set previous all-time highs when they were ranked Nos. 20, 22, 24, and 25 earlier this season.
• IUSB earned their first-ever national ranking earlier this season, when they debuted at the No. 25 spot in the Coaches' Preseason Poll on Oct. 27.
• The Titans were picked first in the CCAC preseason poll on Oct. 25, ahead of Olivet Nazarene and Saint Xavier, who were ranked 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
• Home of IUSB basketball and volleyball, the
Student Activities Center is celebrating its 20th season as the Titans' home court.
• The Titans are exactly .500, with an all-time record at the SAC of 133-133 (.500).
• In 2019-20, IU South Bend recorded a all-time high of 14 wins in the
Student Activities Center, going 14-2 at home. This season, the Titans went 13-2 at the SAC.
All-CCAC Team
• IU South Bend was well-represented among the 2022 All-CCAC Men's Basketball Team awards, as the league announced its all-conference awards on Mar. 1
• Four players earned All-CCAC honors, as
Dylan Allen was named to the All-CCAC First Team and
Sergio Diaz was named the CCAC Defensive Player of the Year. Donyell Meredith and
Miles Tracy both picked up All-CCAC Second Team honors.
NAIA Tournament
• The 16 hosts sites for the NAIA Opening Round was announced on Thursday. Each host site will will feature four teams, and the winner from each site advances to the round of 16 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.
Locations Host Institutions
Alexandria, La. LSU Alexandria (La.)
Bourbonnais, Ill. Olivet Nazarene (Ill.)
Caldwell, Idaho College of Idaho
Crestview Hills, Ky. Thomas More (Ky.)
Helena, Mont. Carroll (Mont.)
Lakeland, Fla. Southeastern (Fla.)
Marion, Ind. Indiana Wesleyan
Montgomery, Ala. Faulkner (Ala.)
New Orleans, La. Loyola (La.)
Omaha, Neb. Omaha Sports Commission
Oskaloosa, Iowa William Penn (Iowa)
Park City, Kan. Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
Rocklin, Calif. William Jessup (Calif.)
Talladega, Ala. Talladega (Ala.)
Waxahachie, Texas SAGU (Texas)
Wichita, Kan. Visit Wichita/Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference
Up Next
• With a win, the Titans will face either Oklahoma Wesleyan or St. Katherine's (Calif.) in the second round on Saturday, Mar. 12.
• Tipoff with a spot in the final 16 and a trip to Kansas City, Mo. is scheduled for 4:00 pm ET.
