To Thunder, it's very sweet to be among final 16

Wheaton College didn't expect to get an at-large berth in the Division III NCAA men's basketball tournament. Now that the Thunder is in, it's proving it belongs.

"We were surprised to get into the tournament, we were surprised to get the bid, but we were very confident heading into the tournament," Wheaton All-America guard Kent Raymond said. "Despite the fact we got the surprise at-large, we know we play in one of the top two or three conferences in the country. … Even though we faced two conference champions last weekend, we were very confident. We knew we could play with them."

The Thunder, coming off two tourney wins last weekend, left town Thursday morning for Hope College in Holland, Mich., where it will play in the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since the Division III tournament began in 1975. The Thunder meets Whitworth College of Spokane, Wash., at 5 p.m. today. With a win the Thunder will play the Hope/Ohio Wesleyan winner Saturday night for a Final Four berth.

"It's pretty awesome," said starting guard Andrew Jahns, a freshman from Wheaton North. "I never really experienced anything like this in high school. It's a great feeling, especially as a freshman, first year in the program."

The Thunder had reason to doubt it would be in the tournament at all after tying for second place in the CCIW regular season and losing in the semifinals of the league postseason tournament.

"It was only a couple, three years ago that we were 21-4 and didn't go, and we've been fifth in the nation and didn't go," coach Bill Harris said. "So you're just not sure. Thankfully the tournament has expanded a little bit (to 59 teams), and the fact that they are now using opponents' winning percentage, which essentially says we are measuring strength of schedules."

The Thunder has beaten conference champions such as Chicago, Loras and Augustana this year, helping its case.

"We've beaten all these conference champions. That got us onto the board as an at-large team," Harris added.

"You just don't want to leave it any year in the hands of a committee. We're just thankful that this year that committee saw the strength of our schedule and the teams that we've beaten and put us in the field."

The Thunder (21-7) knows enough about Whitworth (21-6), yet another conference champ, to be wary but not worried.

"They have five good players, they have five legitimate starters that are good players, and they have two or three who come off the bench who are pretty good. So it won't be easy. They're pretty big, too, compared to us," Jahns said.

"It'll be a good matchup, but I think we're the better team and we can come out and get a win. If we play our game, we can play pretty well. We'll see what happens."

Whitworth, which beat the Thunder by 3 to win the 2006-07 Lee Pfund Classic at Wheaton, features 6-foot-5 forward Ryan Symes, who averages 19.5 points a game.

"He posts up a lot and is very good around the basket, and then he can come out and he's a (35) percent 3-point shooter," Harris said. "He's their leading scorer and he's a stud player."

Harris expects the 6-3 Raymond to defend Symes, the Northwest Conference Player of the Year.

"When you get to the final 16 of the country, you're playing the best kids in the country, at our level, obviously. They're a very, very talented basketball team," Harris said.

Pirates guards Ross Nakamura and David Riley also shoot the 3-pointer very well.

"We've got to get up on them and make sure they don't get open looks. And they run a lot of motion that brings their shooters off of staggers so you've got to work very hard to make sure you don't give them open looks," Harris said.

Wheaton is no slouch at the long ball itself, having used 3-pointers from Raymond, Ben Panner and two from Jahns to overtake Loras in the waning moments of last Saturday's second-round game.

Raymond averages 23.9 points a game and can score from inside as well as outside. Panner averages 13.5, and the Thunder gets the job done inside thanks to bruising 6-8 center Andy Wiele, who averages 15.4 points and 10.4 rebounds.

Wheaton backup guard Jeremy Berntsen is questionable with a concussion suffered in Saturday's win.