We just don't have enough firepower on the floor. The freshman will get better more experience and Elam, Dixon and Konneh have showed particular promise, but we simply do not have enough firepower.
Subsequently, Milwaukee was blown out of the gym by Northern Kentucky Friday night. It is not a game I want to recap nor remember. Suffice to say that we didn't play any defense in the first half (gave up 50!) and didn't do much offensively the entire game. We lost yet again, this time to the Norse, 85-67.
It was the worst Panther home game we've played in 4 years. We lost nearly all of the 50/50 balls and were embarrassed on the boards. This did not look like a Milwaukee team who belongs in the HLT Semifinal conversation let alone any kind of HLT Champion/March Madness" conversation.
To be sure, the injuries are there in thorns (D-Lo (shoulder) was limited and left the game after 7 minutes of limited mobility on the floor). But Elam was back for Friday night and it hardly mattered. Fields is in a boot, now (and Fields may be out for the season... 😞).
This team is decimated by the injury curse (much like the Green Bay Packers were before their ignominious playoff exit last night). And a Milwaukee Panthers program that was predicted to win the Horizon League may struggle to win 14 games unless D-Lo and/or Fields were to return this month.
"We've got to have two things," Panthers head coach Bart Lundy said. "We've got to make less mistakes and have more toughness."
But not all is lost-- there are glimmers of hope!
Sunday featured the next home contest versus IU Indy (shouldn't they go by "Indianapolis" 🤷?- I digress).
Milwaukee (8-10, 4-3) played another uneven game and yet another terrible first half but played a solid second half to storm back and down the IU Indy Jaguars, 95-83, to stop the losing streak and get back to a winning conference record.
Josh Dixon had a stellar game offensively, scoring 20 on 4-6 from 3pt. It was a nice preview of what may be to come if we can get him (and Konneh and Elam and a lot of these young players) to stay at UWM.
Aaron Franklin (19pts, 14reb) posted a double-double and defended better than anyone today. Franklin has been a vocal veteran leader, and it'll help even more if others can rally around and emulate his leadership.
Amar Aguillard (28pts, 7reb) supplied several crucial cutters to the hoop late in the game to help seal the victory. He seemed unstoppable against the subpar Jaguar defenders. Now if we can do the same against Greg Kampe's squad this Friday...
With very little roster space to work with, the Panthers have finally figured out how to win with an empty cupboard- as we'll have to for most of the rest of this season (this "W" was against a bad team, but a conference win is a conference win, and this conference is still wide open).
Milwaukee hosts Oakland this Friday at Panther Arena at 6pm. Time for a better direction after some severe turbulence due to injuries.
go panthers.
press on. 🏆🏀
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