Wade Chitwood has helped lead his Northwestern team into the NCAA Tournament each of the past two years, and make the best of a tough matchup each time. Photo by Ryan Coleman, d3photography.com

The road to a third consecutive NCAA appearance begins Wednesday night for Northwestern (Minn.) as they will see a familiar foe, Minnesota-Morris for the third time at 7 p.m. in the UMAC tournament.

"We've had two really good, very tight, very competitive games with them," Northwestern coach Tim Grosz said.

The Eagles won the first matchup by nine and the second by three. Both teams have won five straight games going into the four-team tournament. The other schools are Bethany Lutheran and North Central (Minn.). Northwestern has won the previous two UMAC titles to win the automatic qualifier to go to the NCAA tournament.

"They are on a little bit of a streak," Grosz said, noting Morris has won five in a row. "We know any of the four teams in the tournament can win it."

Wade Chitwood leads the Eagles with the 17.2 average including 47.6 percent from 3-point range.

"He's a really talented kid and really good off the dribble," Grosz said. "It's kind of a lost art, but he's one of those guys that can still hit a pull up jumper. He's made a lot of shots for us."

The Eagles certainly have other weapons as well. Lance Westberg adds 12.7 points a contest as well as sharpshooting Tom Gisler, who adds 12.5 points per game and led the nation in 3-point percentage last year and is second this year with a 49.6 percentage. Two other players in Ellis Libby (9.2) and Matt Watnemo (9.1) hover around double digits.

"We really make sure we find the open man and make the extra pass, it makes us hard to guard, Grosz said. "If Wade has an off night, we know we have other people capable of stepping up."

 If the Eagles are able to win the semifinal tonight and championship game Saturday, they will have a third chance at winning a NCAA game. The first two times, the Eagles proved they could hang with the eventual champion each time it played.

"Those last two years' experience will pay off for us," Grosz said. "We'll give whoever we play a good shot if we get there."

Oshkosh registers best WIAC season turnaround

Brad Fischer was confident he could help UW-Oshkosh inject some positive energy and change the culture of the program, which hadn't had a winning season since 2006-07, when he stepped in as new coach at the beginning of the season. Fischer not only helped the team become more cohesive, the Titans have drastically improved from a seven-win team to post a 20-win mark going into the conference tournament.

"I don't think that anyone even internally expected that," Fischer said.

The Titans finished second in the WIAC with a 12-4 mark in league play. Oshkosh won just one game last season in the WIAC. The 11-game improvement in WIAC action is a league record. The previous record was seven games and was set three times. The Titans now will wait and see how they face Friday in the WIAC tournament in Whitewater.

Not bad for a team picked to finish last in the conference.

"That became our rally cry," Fischer said. "That helped drive us a bit."

Senior leadership was important in the Titans vast turnaround as seniors Megan Wenig and Katie Kitzke led the way with Wenig averaging 13.3 points per game and Kitzke adding 12 points a contest.

"Our seniors were hungry to leave their mark before they left," said Fischer, noting that the two each reached the 1,000 point milestone this season.

"As the year went on, we got better and better," Fischer said. "We got some big wins and confidence kind of set on itself. In the past we were struggling to win. We let close games get away. Early on, we were able to win some games."

Fischer said he isn't sure if his team will continue on to the NCAA Tournament regardless of what happens in the WIAC tourney, but is satisfied with whatever happens.

"I feel good regardless how it turns out," Fischer said. "Hopefully it's been good enough. There was a long streak where Oshkosh was in it every year. If we were to get Oshkosh back in the tourney, it would be a great way for the seniors to go out."