It was always going to be an uphill battle.
With a roster of just 8 regularly playing players (Simeon Murchison played just 1 minute), Bart Lundy's Milwaukee Panthers seemingly missed every shot in the first half- and more still in the second- en route to a stinging defeat at the hands of Mark Montgomery's Detroit Titans at Calihan Hall in Detroit Michigan Wednesday night.
Detroit shot the lights out in every respect. Konneh scored 13 and Jackson and Dixon added a dozen each. But outside of those three underclassmen, Milwaukee was as flat as a deflated preseason favorite-turned-bottom-of-the-league team can look.
Deflated and defeated. These are words that a better Milwaukee Panthers program will make verboten. These words represent attitudes that the best of Milwaukee Panthers programs will never tolerate- not for a second- lest that sense of deflation and defeat spreads and permeates, drowning out necessary bravery like the disease of irrational fear.
Chemistry, character and culture matter so, so much more than raw basketball talent alone.
We should make a point to reward teamwork, tutelage and leadership over disruptive talent every time and make this a known and envied feature of this program's (at the moment rather nebulous) identity. If you stand for nothing...
This team didn't get much of a chance to gel, though. But I think the underclassmen thrown into the fire of this crazy season forged a strong bond. If D-Lo, Hubbard, Lovelace Jr. and some others can return, the bonds could strengthen and we might actually have another winning Panthers team with great chemistry; a Panthers team with great communication, accountability, bench support.
There's always this (next) season. And the good thing is, statistical odds are on our side regarding injuries- there will not be another Milwaukee Panthers Basketball season like the injury-plagued gauntlet we just had to go through. And it wasn't all bad- with some unexpected future heroes providing some exciting times despite this stumble to the finish line, we cannot say this team failed to entertain with the little gas they had left after the decimation by injury over the first 3 months of the season.
The HLT Rd. 1 loss to Detroit can be effectively summarized as follows:
FG 3PT FT
37% 23% 60%
In the NIL era it is hard to know what next season will look like. Perhaps Milwaukee can buck the trend of revolving portal doors and hold on to some of the guys who stepped up and stood tall in place of the expected starting 5 (Chandler Jackson, Stevie Elam, Josh Dixon, Sekou Konneh).
It was always going to be the tallest of tasks and the Panthers who were left to battle it out made Milwaukee fans proud of the effort- it could have been so much worse.
Until some interesting news pops up regarding the '26-'27 season, goodbye for now and a big thank you to the Milwaukee Panthers for another entertaining season of college basketball. And a huge thank you to seniors Aaron Franklin and Faizon Fields who provided Panther fans with so much great post basketball over these past few seasons.
Heads high.
There's always this (next) season. 😉
go panthers.
press on. 🏆🏀
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