Your Milwaukee Panthers are down and maybe out of the running for a Regular Season Horizon League title, but like the inexorable march of time itself, the '25-'26 regular season schedule rolls on.
After dropping the first game to Wright State in a Raider rout, and the second game to Cleveland State in a near-comeback thriller that ended on a game-tying Stevie Elam lay-in that was cancelled out just two seconds later after a boneheaded foul before time expired and we could go to overtime, this bruised up Panther squad lost yet again to Detroit last night to extend the current losing streak to 3 games.
And the reviews from those in attendance for the game versus Detroit last night are not good.
Last night consisted of a silent and uncaring Panther home bench, a loud and supportive Detroit visitor's bench, and the backdrop of an empty arena of fans bewildered by a team who seemed more interested in padding stats and playing rec-league ball than putting on an NCAA Division 1 men's basketball game.
Oh, and last night featured the return (albeit still ankle-bruised and rusty) of Faizon Fields. But it hardly made a difference (5pts, 1reb in 19 minutes and he fouled out).
The rest of the season remains a big, big challenge (and "?") without any kind of redemption or reversal in sight. There has been talk that perhaps the Horizon League is of such low-major quality that well, anything could happen and there is no excuse to lose any of our games.
But maybe our league isn't all that bad (conference RPI of 18 out of 31 conferences) and our team is just well, pretty bad since the loss of our four best players.
It is tough being a fan in seasons like this. It is tough like being a Brewers fan and knowing that we had little to zero chance of winning even a single game against the Dodgers in the NLCS. It is tough like being a Packer fan, after losing the final four regular season games, and knowing that we were bound to lose in the first round of the 2026 NFL playoffs.
College basketball is a lot more fun and engaging when your team wins consistently and expects to win every single game. This season was a prime opportunity to finally outshine the listless Bucks and a Marquette program that has finally fallen on some hard times.
The casual Milwaukee-area basketball fan eyes and ears and butts-to-put-into-seats at Panther Arena are all there. But the product to sell them most definitely isn't.
This season was the season that Milwaukee Panther hoops was supposed to finally get the recognition that has been mostly absent since 2016, outside of flickers of potential greatness we saw in May of 2021 when Patrick Baldwin Jr. committed and in March of 2024 (20-15, 12-8 record and lost in the Horizon League Championship to who other than... Oakland).
But it wasn't to be; and them's the breaks.
This team will attempt to ready themselves for a final HLT push to get to the NCAA Tourney still, despite all odds- or at least earn the respect of Milwaukee Panther fans by playing hard and representing the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and the City of Milwaukee in a way that we can all be proud of.
I think the latter is all that any Panther fans can realistically expect unless the team's performance changes dramatically over the next couple weeks.
Next up is a road game at Northern Kentucky on Saturday and then another road contest at IU Indy on Tuesday February 10th.
While the outlook remains bleak for this season, there is always hope- we are bound to return some young, hungry players who, if we didn't have all these injuries, would never have gotten to the level they are at and will be at by the end of the season.
And did I mention we have a formidable recruiting class that should negate the inevitable big portal losses we will see? I really hope we keep Elam, Dixon (minus the bad attitude evidenced last night) and Konneh. But the latter of those three (Konneh) is probably all but gone to the transfer portal as he has barely been afforded a starring role despite 2 bigs being done for the season and 2 others being out several games.
Think another team would like to have that P5 post talent and actually utilize and develop that talent?
When you have someone who is 1/2 as good at your position (or in the case of CJ- someone who shouldn't be playing your position) starting over you every game- would YOU want to return? I hope all the good players return but we have to be realistic. Next season's roster will be completely different than this one.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. Things can and will change in a hurry once we start winning in bunches, and especially when we get good enough to win the Horizon League Tournament again.
But that light might be several months or even years away...
Hope springs... I think. 😑
go panthers.
press on. 🏆🏀
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