The injuries just won't stop plaguing the Milwaukee Panthers.
Lovelace. Hubbard. Jovanovich. Fields. All starters and preseason all-conference team candidates. All three may be done for the season. If one or more return, it will be a huge bonus, definitely not something to bank on.
But soldier on this team must and so that is what they are going to do.
Oakland
Unfortunately, this "skeleton crew" version of the Milwaukee Panthers just couldn't keep pace with Oakland.
After another rocky start and disappointing first half, the Panthers fought back to within 6 with 7 minutes left but technical fouls disrupted the comeback effort- a couple called on Panther players and one on the bench for Lundy complaining about the other technicals (Oakland seemed to initiate a scuffle with a Panther player after a possession which led the second technical foul on Josh Dixon).
Oakland's Michael Hougue (19pts) obliterated the Panther front court- particularly Chandler Jackson who was mysteriously matched up against the big man in the first half.
There were some highlights despite this, the 5th loss in the last 6 games. Sekou Konneh scored a career-high 16 points to go along with 11 rebounds in an impressive double-double effort by the redshirt freshman from Bay View. Aaron Franklin (13pts, 13reb) also posted a double-double and Josh Dixon added 11 points to the Panther attack.
After scoring 28 points in the win over IU Indy, Amar Aguillard was largely absent from this game (just 14 minutes played).
Milwaukee shot just 2-20 from 3pt and 10-18 from the free throw line. The way we are playing recently, "statistically", we are basically handing games to opponents.
And so once again Greg Kampe and the Oakland Grizzlies took down UWM- this time at Panther Arena.
Purdue Fort Wayne
Milwaukee next traveled to Fort Wayne, Indiana to take on the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons on Sunday afternoon and... once again, it wasn't great.
Amar Aguillard made a run for Von McDade's all-time UWM scoring effort of 50 against Illinois toward the end of last century.
Aguillard racked up 35 points in 29 minutes shooting 5-8 from 3pt- by far the best and only real highlight of the day for the Panthers. But sadly, this giant effort didn't rally or inspire the rest of the troops or any of the defense (including Amar's) and hardly made a difference in our ability to compete with PFW.
Embarrassed in the post (several times by former Panther Darius Duffy no less) and making a pitiful poor effort on perimeter defense, the "Milwaukee sieve" seemed to allow endless Mastodon points to pour in on this Sunday afternoon.
Purdue Fort Wayne handily emerged victorious after 40 minutes of battle, handing Milwaukee (8-12, 4-5) yet another defeat, 100-82, and a newfound losing conference record. Things only get harder from here, folks.
Buckle up.
As one Panther fan said a week or so ago, "this will test a lot of Panther fans".
I agree. The lofty preseason expectations and recent successful seasons and nearly successful HLT runs under Lundy make it an even harder test. Unfortunately, with the Baird Center developers sizing up the historic property where we play home games, this was exactly the season we didn't want to be "tested" by injuries to all of our best veteran players.
A lot is riding on public perception of UWM and Milwaukee Panther Basketball. Despite an historic designation, the Arena's continued existence still hangs in the balance...
Let's hope things stabilize, improve and that we can return at least some of these talented underclassmen here in the day and age of 6-7 years of eligibility, DraftKings, NIL, lack of school pride and loyalty and portal hopping.
The future is... not at all clear. And this seems to be the accepted new normal for college basketball.
For UWM to still have a DI basketball program (and one that has competed well in recent seasons up until this disaster of a regular season) despite all this turmoil and change is a blessing that we should all be grateful for. Every season has had its own bit of memorable magic. Even some of the worst seasons.
The good thing about the turmoil and absence of certainty and true meaning these days- things can change on a dime. Maybe next season is our time to shine; maybe this March is.
Maybe things will yet turn despite all the long odds we now stare at.
This tough sled of a road trip continues with league contests against Robert Morris on Thursday and Youngstown State on Saturday.
go panthers.
press on. 🏆🏀
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