The Lake Forest College women's basketball team is 7-0 in league play and alone atop the Midwest Conference standings. 

That is where the Foresters figured to be. 

The Lake Forest College men's basketball team is also 7-0 in league play and alone atop the Midwest Conference standings.  

That is where the Foresters dreamed of being when this season began.  

As it's turning out, dreams sometimes come true. So far, this has been a dream season for the LFC men's squad.  

Tuesday's 76-58 thumping of highly regarded Knox College by the men's team and an equally impressive 69-40 wipeout by the women's team means that the only two unbeaten teams in Midwest Conference basketball are both from the same school.  

The Forester men (8-5 overall) won just four games last season and went a humbling 2-14 in the league.  But with a strong freshman class providing depth, fourth-year coach Chris Conger suddenly has his team poised to win the school's first-ever league title.  

"We're only as good as our weakest link, but our weakest link is very good," said Conger.  "Our freshman (Fred Bell, Eric Tolar, and Lee Taylor) have really given us depth.  We definitely have the capabilities to win the conference, but we still have a long way to go.  We have to come into every game focused."  

Easily the biggest piece of the LFC puzzle is center J.R. Jurecko.  A four-year varsity starter at Libertyville High, Jurecko is in his second year at LFC and has emerged as a dominant force in the paint.  

"J.R. draws so much attention that others can get open, and he distributes the ball very unselfishly and gets everyone involved," said Conger.  "We've had seven or eight different players lead us in scoring in games this year, so teams just can't center around one guy.  It's a total team effort."  

In Tuesday's win, Jurecko had 13 points and 11 rebounds in 28 minutes of action.  Bryan Bertola lit up from the outside and led the Foresters with 17 points.  

The LFC women have been as spectacular as advertised this season, as Tuesday's win was their 12th in 13 games.  

Unlike the men's team, the Forester women are used to winning.  Last season, they went 20-3 overall -- including 15-1 in the league -- before inexplicably flushing it all down the drain with a poor performance in the league's post-season Final Four tournament.  

That loss is now fuel on the fire that burns in the belly of the Foresters as they hunger for the league tourney title and an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.  

"We're definitely hungry to win the conference title," said LFC coach Jackie Slaats who is also the school's athletic director.  "We're playing good basketball right now.we have a lot of intensity.  We're getting contributions from everyone, and I'm happy with the way things are going so far."  

The Forester women, however, were overwhelming in the second half on Tuesday versus Knox, holding the Prairie Fire to just 12 points in 20 minutes by playing its trademark swarming defense.  

LFC's women's superstar is junior Alison Grubbs, a first-team all-conference pick and a Division III All-American selection in each of her first two years.  She scored 17 points on Tuesday.  

LFC's other all-conference players are seniors Melissa Schneider and Addi Murphy.  

Not surprisingly, Slaats - whose teams have one at least 14 games in each of the 12 past seasons -- is thrilled with the way things are going so far this season.for both teams.  

"Coach Conger has really done an amazing job with the program, " the athletic director said.  "Not only is he a great coach, he's a great person as well, and it's nice to see someone like that succeed."

"I'd like people to think of Lake Forest College as having a great basketball program - not just the women or men, but as a program itself - she added.  "It would be amazing if we could both win conference titles.  The two teams are really close.  They usually travel to conference games together and - with both of us winning -- the trips have been a lot of fun."  

Whether the winning continues in the second half of the season remains to be seen.  But for now, basketball at Lake Forest College in a win-win proposition and a no-lose situation.