Wisconsin
The loss to the Badgers was almost inevitable. A Panther team with a recent multi-week bout of influenza making the rounds was playing the Badgers at the Kohl Center (their Mecca, where they hardly ever lose) on zero days of rest just after destroying a solid-but-not-S-tier Purdue Fort Wayne team at Panther Arena.
But Milwaukee, outside of a first half 8+ minute spell of not being able to score a point, played tough and kept things within 10-14 points for much of the contest. In a different venue, with a healthier roster, with the absence of that 8-minute scoring drought, things may have ended differently for Milwaukee.
We hadn't played Wisconsin since 2019 and haven't beaten them since 2015. It would be an incredibly positive thing for Wisconsin sports fans if Wisconsin and Marquette regularly scheduled games against Milwaukee, but as Milwaukee has appeared dangerous in recent seasons, I am not holding my breath for the scheduling coaches and AD officials at UW and MU to jump at any opportunity to play Milwaukee (and Green Bay for that matter) more regularly.
Something truly for the fans like a 4-team round robin tournament between Marquette, Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Green Bay would be ideal for fans. It would make too much sense from a "state college hoops" visibility and competition and relevancy standpoint.
But it wouldn't make enough money for some peoples' liking and so may never happen despite it being a great idea and something the state of Iowa already does.
So, we lost in Madison to even our overall record to 7-7 but Josh Dixon played like a fearless leader well beyond his years and there were many positive developments (UW shot abysmally from 3pt). Anyways.
Wright State
The New Year's Day game at the Nutter Center was almost a great comeback victory for the Panthers. Milwaukee was outrebounded nearly 2:1 in the first half and entered halftime down 41-28 after a terrible first half that could have been much worse were it not for some timely scoring by Dixon, Jovanovich and Fields.
The team came out of the gates flat in this one, which is somewhat to be expected with this being their 3rd game in 3 cities in 4 days. Things got out of hand rather quickly and Milwaukee found themselves down by 20 points before long into the first half before UWM finally clawed back some points to enter halftime at least within shouting distance of the Raiders.
But in the second half the Black and Gold (or Black and Cream as we were in our now-uniform "alternate" black and cream road unis) chipped into Wright State's advantage and eventually came within 1 point of the lead several times in the final minutes. But it wasn't to be. The Raiders made the free throws they needed to secure the victory and drop Milwaukee's conference record to 3-1.
Next up is a game at Green Bay on Monday of next week. That can hopefully be the start of another winning streak. This Milwaukee team is still in a good position to do well in the Horizon League; but close losses like today certainly do not help.
go panthers.
press on. 🏆🏀
Comments