updated 2:36 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2006

MILWAUKEE - Chris Braier had to take a second look one Saturday morning. Below Duke, Florida and Pittsburgh, in tiny print at the bottom of the TV screen, another school was listed — Lawrence University of Appleton.

All four were undefeated.

“There was something funny about it,” said the senior forward, who leads the NCAA Division III Vikings with 15 points a game. “You never expect to be on ESPN or someplace like that.”

Coach John Tharp was equally surprised after the Vikings won a road game at St. Norbert on Jan. 21. He had seven messages pop up on his cell phone — all letting him know the Vikings were the nation’s last unbeaten team after the Blue Devils, Gators and Panthers all lost on the same day.

“I just started laughing,” Tharp said.

A month later, Tharp is still in stitches, and the Vikings still haven’t lost, finishing the regular season 22-0 after a 67-52 win against St. Norbert on Saturday.

“You don’t think about it as a coach at the start of the season to win every single game and receive all this attention,” Tharp said.

Lawrence, with an enrollment of 1,300 and about 100 miles from Milwaukee, is the lone unbeaten men’s basketball team in not only the NCAA but the NAIA as well. Both organizations, however, have unbeaten women’s teams.

There’s still a long road ahead — Lawrence hosts the Midwest Conference tournament beginning Friday, and then there’s the 48-team Division III tournament.

But if the Vikings pull it off, they would become the 13th team in men’s NCAA history to finish undefeated. The last time that happened was in 1998 by Division III Wisconsin-Platteville, led then by current Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan.

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Ryan’s Badgers are the only team to beat the Vikings — in a game that didn’t count. They played in an exhibition in November, and Wisconsin led by eight early in the second half before taking command.

“All they had to do is hit some 3s early and they’d be beating us,” Ryan said after the Vikings went 1-for-11 from beyond the arc in the first half. “They were getting decent shots.”

Forward Kyle MacGillis, Braier’s roommate, was amazed at their performance.

“When you go against that high caliber of talent and then realize that these guys really aren’t that much better, it gives you a lot of confidence,” he said. “They may be a little more athletic, taller, better shooters, but overall we’re not that far behind.”

Tharp, in his 12th season, credits the senior leadership of Braier, MacGillis and Keven Bradley, who previously played for Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s 2004 Division III title team.

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“Those guys have made us focus every day,” Tharp said. “It’s not as if I have to motivate them or remind them. They understand what we’re trying to do. If anybody steps out of line or doesn’t work as hard as we think they ought to be, the seniors set them straight.”

Lawrence has had its share of close calls, but Tharp said his players recognize from films when they haven’t played their best. The Vikings have trailed in the second half in more than a third of their games, including a major scare last week against conference rival Carroll College.

Down a point with 3.4 seconds left, MacGillis drove and flipped a pass to Bradley for a winning layup just before the buzzer.

“It was amazing, to a certain degree it was in slow motion,” Tharp said. “The thing I’ll never forget is my eyes went right to the official on the sideline and I saw him running out of the gym signaling to count the basket. ... It was an incredible pass, an incredible play.”

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And maybe a touch lucky after it appeared the clock started a fraction of a second late. Just don’t ask MacGillis.

“I never even heard the buzzer go off,” he said.

Tharp admits he thinks about the possibilities of the Vikings continuing to win and appearing in the national championship game March 18 in Salem, Va.

“It’s very humbling. It’s a dream world,” Tharp said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are — a little kid to now — you always dream about an undefeated season.”

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