Panthers Host Loyola To Open League Tournament
March 3, 2008
#30: Loyola (11-18) @ Milwaukee (14-15)
Tipoff The Panthers enter postseason play as the fifth seed after winding up in a four-way tie for fourth place in the final league standings. Milwaukee dropped a 63-55 decision to UIC Saturday night in a game that saw the Panthers at a 26-14 disadvantage in the foul column and a 39-16 deficit in free throw attempts. The Ramblers dropped an overtime decision in Green Bay Saturday after losing in Milwaukee Thursday. Ross Forman did score 28 points Saturday night. The winner of tonight's game advances to a second round contest against either UIC or Youngstown State. That second round game will take place Friday in Indianapolis. • Game #30 The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team opens play in the 2008 Horizon League Tournament with a first round contest against Loyola Tuesday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena. • Scouting The Ramblers Loyola has split its last 10 games entering the postseason after dropping a pair of contests in Wisconsin this past weekend. J.R. Blount continues to lead the Ramblers offensively at 15.1 points per game while Andy Polka tops the team in rebounding at 6.7 boards per contest. • History Lesson Milwaukee holds a 22-17 series edge over Loyola but the Ramblers have won three of the last four meetings between the two teams. Prior to this latest run by the Ramblers, UWM had won 11-straight over the Ramblers. The Panthers had also won seven-straight over the Ramblers in Milwaukee until Loyola pulled out a win last season. All-in-all, though, there have been plenty of competitive games between the two schools in recent seasons, including a pair of meetings in Horizon League Tournament semifinals.
• First Time With The Ramblers Leon Young scored 21 points and Loyola forced overtime with a last-second tip-in before pulling away for a 73-68 win over UWM Dec. 8 at the Gentile Center. The Panthers looked to have the game won when Marcus Skinner converted a pair of free throws to put Milwaukee up 56-52 with 19.4 seconds remaining. But, after J.R Blount cut the lead to 56-54 on two free throws with 11.2 seconds left, UWM's Ricky Franklin was called for an offensive foul before the ball was inbounded. On Loyola's ensuing possession, Blount missed a long three-pointer but Tracy Robinson tipped-in the miss with 0.7 seconds remaining to force overtime. The Ramblers then pulled away in the extra session, making 4-of-5 from the field and 9-of-12 free throws while leading the entire way. • Second Time With The Ramblers Paige Paulsen and Ricky Franklin scored 16 points apiece and UWM tallied a 45-31 rebounding edge to claim a 68-53 win over Loyola last Thursday at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Allan Hanson added 13 points for the Panthers while Jason Averkamp had nine points and nine rebounds. After Loyola cut the Milwaukee lead to a point 16:22 to play, UWM scored 13-straight points to essentially put the game away. • Tournament Breakdown Much of the seeding for this year's Horizon League Tournament came down to the final day of the regular season, and in the end four teams wound up in a tie for fourth place. Butler holds the tournament's top seed and Indianapolis will be the site of the second round and semifinal games. Cleveland State is the second seed and, like Butler, receives a bye into the semifinals. Wright State dropped into the third seed and will host 10th-seeded Detroit Tuesday night. UIC claimed the fourth seed thanks to its season-sweep of UWM and will host ninth-seeded Youngstown State Tuesday. Milwaukee is the fifth seed thanks to its sweep of Green Bay and its split with second place Cleveland State, with the Panthers hosting eighth-seeded Loyola. Finally, Valpo captured the sixth seed by splitting the season series with UWM and will host seventh-seeded Green Bay Tuesday. • UWM In The Tourney UWM is playing in its 13th Horizon League/MCC Tournament and carries a 9-9 all-time tournament record into this postseason. Seven of those wins have come in the last five seasons, with six of them coming at the U.S. Cellular Arena.But, UWM has never played a first round league tournament game at home. • Other Tourney Tidbits Home teams have gone 13-2 in the first round since the Horizon League starting using the current tournament format in 2003. Seventh-seeded Youngstown State won at sixth-seeded Green Bay in 2003, while eighth-seeded Loyola won at fifth-seeded Wright State in 2004. Meanwhile, only two teams seeded fifth or lower have advanced past the second round. • Celebrating The Seniors Barring a return home for the league title game next Tuesday, the contest with Loyola will be the final homecourt appearance for UWM's three seniors. Allan Hanson, Paige Paulsen and Marcus Skinner were officially honored Saturday night prior to the final regular season home contest. Short capsules on Milwaukee's three veterans: Paige Paulsen has made his mark in Milwaukee during his two active seasons as a Panthers. After transferring from Northern Illinois, Paulsen earned Horizon League All-Newcomer honors a season ago, when he was also named the state newcomer of the year by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This season, Paulsen has 391 points and 185 rebounds while making 73 three-pointers. He has started 59 games in his UWM career. Marcus Skinner has exploded onto the scene during his second season in Milwaukee, going from a reserve role into one of UWM's key starters. In fact, his efforts earlier this year led him to become the only Panther to earn Horizon League Player of the Week honors this season. He has played in 56 games while earning 24 starts and has nearly 300 points and over 200 rebounds in his career before missing the last two-plus games with a high-ankle sprain. Allan Hanson is bringing to a close an extensive Panther career this season. Hanson was a key reserve during his first two seasons on a pair of NCAA Tournament teams before capturing a spot in the starting lineup much of the last two seasons. He has played in 113 games over four seasons, earning 55 starts. He has nearly 500 career points while making 93 three-pointers. • Collecting Some Awards A pair of UWM players picked up some hardware when the Horizon League announced its annual postseason awards Monday morning. Senior Paige Paulsen collected Second Team All-Horizon League honors while freshman Deonte Roberts earned a spot on the all-newcomer team. Entering the postseason, Paulsen is 12th in the league in scoring while sitting eighth in rebounding. Meanwhile, Roberts has started 24 games this season and is the first UWM true freshman to earn a spot on the all-newcomer team since Adrian Tigert was honored in 2002. • Running Through The Roster The Panthers find themselves entering postseason with just 10 players plus redshirt Brad Carroll on their active roster. When practice opened in mid-October, UWM had 18 players in uniform. But, over the next two months, five players either left the team or were dismissed. Avery Smith (dismissed Nov. 7); Torre Johnson (dismissed Dec. 18); Roman Gentry (left team Dec. 18); Kevin Johnson (left team Dec. 20 - officially dropped from roster Jan. 18); and Tim Flowers (left team Dec. 20 - officially dropped from roster Jan. 23) all were scholarship players that are no longer part of the roster. Plus, walk-ons Joe Allen and Zach Holt were both injured during the preseason. Throw in the redshirt for Carroll and the injury suffered by Marcus Skinner during the last week of the regular season, and UWM has recently been dressing just nine players ready to see game action. • Summing Up The Regular Season An amazing series of ups and downs marked the 2007-08 regular season for the Panthers. After enduring a six-game losing streak from late November to mid-December, Milwaukee put together a six-game winning streak from late December until the loss at Butler Jan. 12. The winning streak marked UWM's first six-game win streak since Milwaukee won eight-straight from Dec. 17, 2005, to Jan. 11, 2006. Since that run, the Panthers have had an additional three-game winning streak and a three-game losing streak. Overall, UWM has gone 11-8 since opening the season 3-7. • Quick Hits The Panthers are now 52-20 in regular season and postseason contests at The Cell since their return in 2002-03. Combining games at both the Klotsche Center and the U.S. Cellular Arena, UWM is now 57-14 in regular season Horizon League home contests over the last nine seasons ... the six non-league teams that have beaten UWM are a combined 123-47 entering play Tuesday ... UWM has now fielded six different starting lineups this season, though the Panthers had used the same starting five over a stretch of 17 games until the injury to Marcus Skinner forced another change. Eight different players have earned starts ... after making just 11 three-pointers in the first 22 games of the season, Allan Hanson has made 11 threes in the last seven games ... as a team, the Panthers made 11 threes in last Thursday's win over Loyola, their second-highest tally of the season ... Milwaukee's 26.8 percent shooting clip last Monday against Valpo was its lowest since shooting 22.2 percent in the opener of the 2005-06 season at Memphis ... UWM's 32 three-point attempts last Monday against Valparaiso tied a season-high by the Panthers. Milwaukee also tried 32 in a win over Green Bay in January ... Charlie Swiggett's two best collegiate games have come against the Missouri Valley, with the sophomore scoring 16 points at Missouri State last year and 13 points at Bradley Saturday ... after its win Feb. 16, Milwaukee has now beaten its in-state rival from Green Bay 13 times in the last 18 meetings between the two schools. That streak includes wins in nine of the last 10 contests in Milwaukee, with UWM's average margin of victory nearly 17 points per game in those nine wins ... the Panthers have rallied from a double-digit second-half deficit to win a game four times this season. Most recently, Milwaukee trailed Green Bay by 12 points with 14 minutes to play Saturday before rallying for a 10-point win. UWM almost did it again Monday night after trailing by 14 points before rallying to within a point. • Last Time Out Scott Vandermeer scored 17 points and added 13 rebounds as UIC captured a 63-55 win over UWM Saturday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Jason Averkamp had 11 points and eight rebounds while Ricky Franklin added 10 points for Milwaukee, which could not overcome a 26-14 deficit in fouls or a 39-16 disadvantage in free throw attempts. • Can't Say Enough About `Kamp' It didn't take long for sophomore walk-on Jason Averkamp to become a fan favorite. After making some contributions off the bench throughout the season, Averkamp has been thrust into a bigger role with the injury to Marcus Skinner. He responded by scoring 21 points off the bench against Valparaiso Monday, contributed nine points and nine rebounds (including five offensive boards) in the win Thursday over Loyola and then had 11 points and eight rebounds Saturday against UIC. Averkamp has also made his first two collegiate starts this past week. • Youth Is Served UWM's underclassmen continue to step up as the season goes along. Saturday against UIC, sophomore Jason Averkamp led the way with 11 points while junior Ricky Franklin added 10. Thursday against Loyola, Franklin shared team-high scoring honors with 16 points. Monday night against Valpo, the leading scorer was Averkamp while next on the list was Franklin. Last Saturday at Bradley, sophomore Charlie Swiggett and freshman Anthony Hill were the top scorers. Plus, UWM's three leading scorers in the Green Bay win Feb. 16 were all underclassmen and junior Deion James led the Panthers in scoring Feb. 20 at Cleveland State. • Simple Stats In-depth analysis could lead to a wide variety of "keys to victory" for a UWM team that has dropped six of its last eight outings yet has still gone 11-8 since starting the year 3-7. But, two simple stats might point out the real keys to winning. First, UWM is 13-6 when it either wins in the rebounding battle or the numbers are even, while the Panthers are 1-9 when being outrebounded. Next, UWM is 12-4 when it scores 70 or more points but just 4-9 when allowing 70 or more. • Change Is Good With the number of roster changes UWM has endured throughout the 2007-08 season, the team's overall individual stats can be a bit deceiving. In fact, a look at the individual stats since the Panthers began playing with their current roster Dec. 19 shows great balance and solid figures in a number of category. Numbers for some of UWM's key performers from the last 19 games: Paige Paulsen 13.8 ppg. 6.5 rpg Ricky Franklin 10.5 ppg. 4.3 rpg Marcus Skinner 9.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 57.5% Deion James 9.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg Deonte Roberts 8.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg• Up Next If UWM can win Tuesday night, it will advance to a second round tournament matchup against either UIC or Youngstown State. That game would take place Friday at 7 p.m. EST/6 p.m. CST at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The winner of that game would then take on host Butler in the semifinals Saturday. |
