Goal #2-completed, Goal #1-not yet
Last November the Dordt College Men's Basketball team determined that we were good enough to win 20 games this season. It was our #2 goal. Yesterday, we got our 20th win in the final game of the regular season against Briar Cliff.
Our record stands at 20-8 (12-6 in conference play). This has placed us in the #4 seed for the conference tournament, my first ever conference tournament in my collegiate career. Earning a first round bye with the 4th seed, we await the winner of Tuesday night's game between Doane (#5) and Concordia (#12). Concordia, victorious over Trinity in last year's national tournament and eventual runner-up, dropped off the deep end this year and finished poorly.
We have had several other great accomplishment for the basketball program. We went from not even recieving votes in the preseason poll, to being ranked 6th after we beat preseason #1 Northwestern at home. We stayed in the ranking all year long, as high as 4th and as low as 25th (most recent). We lost a close game to Robert Morris (currently ranked #2 in NAIA div. I). We had a 9-game win streak in the first half of the season, and never had more than a 2-game losing streak.
The upcoming week is another big challenge for us, and we still have one more goal that we want to accomplish. Our #1 goal was to go to the National Tournament for NAIA div. II men's basketball. The conference tournament begins Tuesday night and ends next week Tuesday night. We can make it to the national tournament by 1) winning the conference tournament championship, or 2) playing well enough throughout the week to get an at-large berth into the national tournament.