DETROIT (7/3/13) – The past four months have provided the University of Detroit Mercy with four postseason appearances (two NCAA appearances), three conference players of the year, two conference championships, one All-American, and the unique status of being among the nation's best Division I-AAA schools.
"Our athletic administrative team and coaches have spent countless hours working to build successful teams in and out of the classroom, while also striving for conference championships and post-season appearances," stated Interim Director of Athletics Jason Horn. "We have been going through a leadership shift and are building a renewed culture of winning across the board. There is a slogan that some local people use "Detroit hustles harder" and that's what we aim to do in Calihan Hall."
During the 2012-13 season only four of the 32 division I universities that all compete in men's and women's basketball, men's lacrosse and women's golf reached the postseason. Detroit was the only DI-AAA member in the group, which included three powerhouse programs, all of which will be in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) starting next year.
The other thee schools were Duke, North Carolina and Notre Dame. The Irish will join the ACC this fall.
Detroit's men's basketball team recorded its third 20 win season over the last four years and reached the postseason for the second-straight year with a trip to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT).
The Titans (20-13, 12-4 HL) finished among the best in the state with an RPI of 64, only trailing national runner-up Michigan and Big Ten foe Michigan State, while also being one of the best in the nation in turnover margin (+5.5) and scoring (77.8) where they finished ranked fifth and eighth, respectively.
Detroit made 16 appearances on the ESPN family of networks, which set a new school record for games on ESPN. The Titans also had seven episodes of the Titan Court Report, which won a Michigan Emmy for the second-straight year, along with three games airing on FOX Sports Detroit.
The Titans then captured the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) championship in 2013, the first postseason tournament win for the women's program since 1981. In the postseason, UDM was the No. 1 seed and had the chance to play all four games at home, defeating Belmont University, College of Charleston, University of Pennsylvania and McNeese State University in the title game to win and cut down the nets in Calihan Hall.
Detroit ended the season at 21-13, its second-straight winning season and the first time it has had back-to-back winning seasons since 2001 (17-12) and 2002 (16-14). Not only did the Titans post back-to-back winning seasons, the Titans now have two-straight years of 20 wins, the first time that has happened since they had four-straight years between 1978-82. The 21 wins were also the most since UDM went 23-7 in 1997.
The winning included setting a school record with 16 home wins, tied for the second most home victories in the country.
The men's lacrosse team then made history to keep the postseason run going as the No. 4 seeded Titans defeated No. 1 seeded Marist College, 7-6, before erasing a 9-4 third-period deficit to down No. 3 Siena College, 11-10, in overtime to win its first MAAC Championship in school history.
The win vaulted the Titans into the national spotlight as they made the NCAA Championship for the first time, meeting the tournament's No. 2 seed University of Notre Dame in South Bend. The season would end with a 9-7 loss, but Detroit made national headlines by leading 5-1 at the half and 7-3 entering the fourth period. The trip to the postseason also saw the program receive its first votes ever in a national poll in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Coaches' Poll.
The Titans also did the work in the classroom as a league-high 18 student-athletes earned All-Academic Team recognition, with the next highest team in the MAAC at 11.
It was a historical season for the women's golf team as it won its second Horizon League championship running away from the field to post a 20-shot victory. The win gave UDM an automatic bid to the NCAA Regional – for the second time (2010) - where Detroit placed 24th at the NCAA Central Regional Championship, held at the Jimmie Austin OU Golf Course on the campus of Oklahoma.
The Titans claimed nine wins on the season - in just 12 events - and those nine team titles match the Titan all-time total coming into the 2012-13 campaign. The nine wins also tied for the most in NCAA history with the 1999-2000 Arizona Wildcats.
Detroit will aim to continue its postseason run this fall as both the men's and women's soccer programs look to finish atop of the Horizon League standings again. Last year the men's team won the HL regular season title with a 6-1 record and hosted the Horizon League Championships for the first time since 2005. While the women's team finished tied for first in the regular season with a 5-2 mark, and will focus on making it first trip back to the NCAA Tournament since 2004.
