The St. Louis Rams are not the only team that has completed a remarkable turnaround in the past year. The Lake Forest College men's basketball team has repeated the last-to-first feat and won the school's first-ever outright Midwest Conference Championship. The Foresters, who won just four games (4-18) overall and finished dead last in the MWC last year with a 2-14 record, completed a perfect regular season (16-0) in the conference last weekend, and are 17-5 overall and ranked fifth in the latest NCAA Midwest Region Coaches Poll. Not bad for a team picked to finish ninth in the ten-team MWC by a pre-season poll of the league's coaches. Forester Head Coach Chris Conger, in his fourth year at the helm of the Forester program and the favorite to win his second Conference Coach of the Year award, explains his team's resurgence, "Immediately after last season was over, we started talking about the great turnaround we were going to have. We talked openly about the turnarounds that Ohio State [ to Big Ten champs] and other schools had pulled off. We knew it was going to take a great deal of hard work, but the players believed it could be done." The team's success and confidence did not come immediately, though. The Foresters started the season 0-3, including a 102-74 blowout at Kalamazoo to open the season. Since then LFC has rattled off wins in 17 of their last 19 games, including their current 12-game winning streak. "We've come so far not only from last year, but from the beginning of the season," explains Conger. "We played some tough games early and were playing so many new players that it took them awhile to adjust to the college game. It took us a few games to gain some confidence and our tough early season schedule allowed our newcomers to progress at a high rate." 

"We did two key things in the off-season. We recruited a talented group of freshmen and the players already in our program renewed their commitment to winning by bettering their work ethic." The Foresters have eight newcomers on their 15-member roster and only five players on last year's pre-season roster are now on the team. The result has been one of the deepest and youngest teams in the Midwest. Eight players are averaging over 15 minutes of action, six of whom are freshmen or sophomores. Conger has not only surrounded himself with quality players, but a quality coaching staff as well. "I really feel blessed with our staff. Our players see their unbelievable work ethic and dedication, and the players feel that is what is also expected of them. The assistant coaches are not only great teachers of the game, but they are also fantastic recruiters. This program is where it is at today because of them." Scott Rucker is in his third year with Conger, Brian Sommerhauser his second season, and Mike Hirsch his first year. 

A stingy defense and balanced offense has helped the Foresters to their current record. Lake Forest leads the MWC is defensive points allowed (64.9 ppg) and conference opponents are shooting just 36.2% against the Foresters. Offensively, six players are averaging at least 8.0 points per game and eight different players have led the team in scoring at least once. Junior center J.R. Jurecko leads a balanced scoring attack with 13.8 ppg. He is also leading the team and the conference in rebounding for the second straight year, averaging 8.8 boards per game. Do-it-all guard Brian Bruha, a sophomore, provides additional help in a variety of categories. Bruha, despite standing just 5-10, is second on the team in rebounding (5.5) and scoring (10.8), and leads the squad in assists (3.0) and steals (2.9). He also draws the opponent's top guard on the defensive end of the floor.  

 "At the outset of the season, we set two goals for ourselves," Conger added. "We wanted to win the Midwest Conference and go to the NCAA Tournament. A lot of people probably thought we were setting ourselves up for failure with those goals, but we've stayed focused throughout the majority of the season." With a Conference Championship in their back pocket, the Foresters have claimed one of their goals and will host Knox, Ripon, and Lawrence this weekend (Feb. 25-26) for the MWC Tournament, with the winner gaining the Forester's other goal - the MWC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.