Milwaukee's hometown state university team played a solid game last night at Panther Arena, leading throughout most of the contest and defeating a middle-of-the-Horizon-pack Youngstown State team (whom we may see yet again in the HLT), 78-65.
Youngstown's bigs Chris Carroll and Rich Rolf proved a lot to handle for the Panthers who had only a still-hobbled Fields, Franklin and Konneh to go up against the Penguin giants.
But the Panthers proved resilient and Aaron Franklin (17pts, 11reb double-double night) proved downright invaluable. Stevie Elam added 19 on another stellar perimeter performance (4-8 from 3pt) along with 8 rebounds, EPW had 11pts, 5reb, 4ast and Chandler Jackson added 14 points, many of which were scored at critical junctures late in this game.
Milwaukee had an answer for every YSU run- usually in the form of an Elam triple or Jackson rabbit-out-of-hat field goal conversion from anywhere on the court he finds.
This team manages to make the most of the roster that is still healthy enough to play.
(oh and to add to the never-ending plague of injuries, Amar Aguillard went down last night with what may be a serious ankle injury in the final minutes) 😑
It was a good way to close out an otherwise disappointing, injury-plagued '25-'26 regular season. The injuries are mostly season-ending and so will continue into the Horizon League Tourney.
But in the HLT, there is an opportunity for a fresh start. A "dark horse run", is not out of the realm of possibility. This is the Horizon League after all, not the B1G, SEC, Big 12 or the ACC.
Let's hope that, whether we play Oakland, Robert Morris or someone else in the first-round next week, that we win. And then win again. And then... who knows? All it takes is four-in-a-row.
The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee is now a fixture of omnipresent advertisement downtown- should we abandon that?
Panther Arena Update: With developers chomping at the bit to demolish the Miller High Life Theatre and possibly eventually Panther Arena as well for added hotel and parking space for the Baird Convention Center, nobody knows just how much longer we will be able to call Panther Arena our home.
Anyone who was at the Green Bay game last weekend can attest to how awesome Panther Arena is when the team is playing in meaningful games and the crowd brings many voices with much energy.
The most recent development is an accusation that the proposal process was "rigged" by the WCD and that a missing piece of the puzzle is a proposal assessment that Panther Arena requires around $50 million dollar investment in modernizing the roof and electrical systems.
Milwaukee AD Amanda Braun is quoted as being "concerned" about this needed investment and presumably how it will affect the future of this long-time and long-debated Milwaukee Panthers Basketball's home game venue.
Let's hope for the best and another 10 or 20 years of the Milwaukee Panthers playing downtown. When this team gets consistently good and moves up in the college basketball world, everyone will understand why we need to hold on to the Arena and its atmosphere and competitive advantage. We can go big or go home, back to a gym, and maybe back to DII. There is no in-between in the NIL era of DI hoops.
go panthers.
press on. 🏆🏀
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