Panthers Set To Host Green Bay Saturday Night
Feb. 15, 2008
#24: Green Bay (13-11, 7-7) @ Milwaukee (12-11, 7-6)
Tipoff The Panthers have lost three-straight games and are coming off an 83-75 overtime loss to #9 Butler Tuesday night. Milwaukee led by 12 points early in the game and then rebuilt a six-point lead with under three minutes remaining before allowing Butler to score nine points in a row. Ricky Franklin then forced overtime with a three-pointer but UWM never led in the extra session. The Phoenix have dropped two-straight contests, including an 81-64 decision at Cleveland State Monday. Following tonight's game, Milwaukee will return to the road for its final two away contests of the regular season. UWM plays at Cleveland State Wednesday and at Bradley Saturday. • Game #24 The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team plays host to in-state rival Green Bay in a Saturday night contest at the U.S. Cellular Arena. • Scouting The Phoenix Green Bay has dropped two in a row entering this weekend's contest but the Phoenix remain squarely in the picture for an upper-division finish in the Horizon League. Mike Schachtner leads the team at 16.7 points per game while Ryan Tillema and Rahmon Fletcher also average in double figures. Green Bay is just 3-9 on the road this season but has won league road contests at Loyola and Detroit. • History Lesson Green Bay holds a 22-16 lead in the all-time series with UWM, though the Panthers have sliced into that advantage in recent seasons. UWM has won 12 of the last 17 meetings between the two schools. The two teams split two meetings a season ago, with Green Bay claiming a win in Milwaukee before the Panthers bounced back to win in Green Bay on the final day of the regular season. UWM then won in Green Bay again earlier this season. The Panthers had won eight-straight over the Phoenix in Milwaukee until UWGB's victory last season.
• First Time With The Phoenix Paige Paulsen scored 19 points to lead four players in double figures as UWM captured a 65-61 win over Green Bay Jan. 19 at the Resch Center. The Panthers built a 12-point second-half lead and then held off a late Phoenix rally despite the loss of two guards to fouls with over five minutes left. But, Ricky Franklin had a key tip-in with just under two minutes left and then Marcus Skinner and Charlie Swiggett teamed up to capture an offensive rebound with 8.6 seconds remaining. Allan Hanson then followed with two free throws to put the game away. • Sorting Out The League With just two weeks to play in the regular season, not much seems to have been decided when it comes to the final Horizon League standings and corresponding tournament seeds. Butler stands in strong position to claim the regular-season title but does still have to face second-place Wright State, third-place Cleveland State and fourth-place UIC. Meanwhile, just two games separate second-fifth place and two games seperate third-seventh. Key positions that remain up for grabs include the second seed, which allows for a bye into the semifinals, and the sixth seed, which is as low as a team can finish and still play a first round home game. • Homecourt Advantage Milwaukee has posted a strong homecourt record since returning downtown to the U.S. Cellular Arena for the 2003 Horizon League Tournament. The Panthers are now 50-18 in regular season and postseason contests at The Cell since their return, and UWM had a 19-game homecourt winning streak until back-to-back home losses to UIC and Missouri State spoiled the run in 2005-06. Combining games at both the Klotsche Center and the U.S. Cellular Arena, UWM is now 55-12 in regular season Horizon League home contests over the last eight-plus seasons. The Panthers are 7-5 at home this season, including wins in five of their last six home games. • Busting That Bracket UWM will take on Bradley in an O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters game, ESPN officials announced earlier this month. The contest will be played Sat., Feb. 23, at Carver Arena in Peoria, Ill., with the contest tipping off at 8 p.m. CST and airing on ESPN360. The Braves (14-12) have positioned themselves for a run at the postseason. In fact, after suffering through a six-game losing streak with top performer Daniel Ruffin injured, Bradley has bounced back to win six of its last seven games. The BracketBusters agreement includes a return game by Bradley to the U.S. Cellular Arena next season, with that game date to be announced. • Winning And Losing UWM has experienced plenty of highs and lows in the first 22 games of the 2007-08 season. In fact, after enduring a six-game losing streak from late November to mid-December, the Panthers put together a six-game winning streak from late December until the loss at Butler Jan. 12. The winning streak marked UWM's first six-game win streak since Milwaukee won eight-straight from Dec. 17, 2005, to Jan. 11, 2006. Since that run, the Panthers have won three-straight and then lost three-straight, entering Saturday's game having won nine of their last 13 contests. With still two weeks to play, Milwaukee has also shown marked improvement from a season ago. In fact, the Panthers have already exceeded their overall win total and league win total. Plus, UWM has won five true road games this season. • Learning The Lessons Of A Challenge Perhaps one of the answers to UWM's much-improved play over the last six weeks comes from the idea the Panthers' non-league schedule truly got them ready for league play. In fact, the five non-league teams that have beaten UWM are a combined 92-27 entering play this week, and UWM's overall non-league schedule is ranked 54th nationally. In case you haven't paid attention, Wisconsin, Marquette and Drake are all nationally-ranked while Sam Houston State is 18-5 and Northern Iowa is 15-10. • Updating The Roster UWM's roster is officially down to 13 players, with 10 of them active for the rest of the season. Since the start of the year, the Panthers have lost five scholarship players. Those that have departed include Avery Smith (dismissed Nov. 7); Torre Johnson (dismissed Dec. 18); Roman Gentry (left team Dec. 18); Kevin Johnson (left team Dec. 20 - officially dropped from roster Jan. 18); and Tim Flowers (left team Dec. 20 - officially dropped from roster Jan. 23). Of the 13 on the roster, Joe Allen and Zach Holt are both sidelined for the season by injury while Brad Carroll is redshirting this season, though he does dress for games. Walk-ons Deion James and Jason Averkamp are also part of the active roster. • Quick Hits Leading scorer Paige Paulsen saw a streak of 11-straight games in double figures snapped when he scored just eight points at Wright State Feb. 2. He did come back to score 11 points against Butler Tuesday but has made just 14 of his last 49 shots from the field ... key reserve Deion James is averaging 9.5 points per game in his last 11 outings, reaching double figures six times in that stretch. But, he has not been in double figures in the last three games ... Ricky Franklin has reached double figures offensively in four of his last six games and has scored at least eight points in 11 of his last 12 contests ... Kaylan Anderson has averaged 7.5 ppg in the last two games in which he has appeared. He appeared at Detroit and at home against Butler, but did not play against Wright State ... the Panthers have overcome double-digit deficits to win games three times this season, including a 17-point deficit at Ball State Nov. 14 and a 14-point deficit with 6:30 to play in a home win over Detroit Jan. 3 ... UWM has already fielded five different starting lineups this season, though the Panthers have used the same starting five over the last 13 games. Seven different players have earned starts. Last season, the Panthers used seven different starting lineups with eight different players earning starts. • Last Time Out Mike Green scored 24 points and added 13 rebounds as ninth-ranked Butler pulled out an 83-75 overtime win over UWM Tuesday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Pete Campbell added 12 points, all after halftime, and the Bulldogs turned the ball over just seven times. Marcus Skinner scored a collegiate-best 25 points to lead Milwaukee, which led by as many as 12 points in the early going and by six with 2:55 remaining. Allan Hanson pitched-in with 18 points for the Panthers. • Hitting A Slump UWM has dropped three-straight games and you don't have to look too closely at the statistics to find some reasons why. The Panthers have shot just 37.9 percent from the floor in their last three outings while averaging just 62.3 points per game. UWM has also turned the ball over nearly 15 times per game during the recent streak while also being outscored, 53-35, from the free throw line. Nearly every one of those trends counters the numbers from the previous 10 games, as in that span UWM averaged less than 12 turnovers, shot 40 percent from the field and outscored its opponents 173-113 from the charity stripe. • The Skinny On Skinner The most pleasant individual development of the 2007-08 season is the play of senior Marcus Skinner, who has gone from a little-used reserve to a strong presence inside. Tuesday night, Skinner played the best game of his career, pouring in a collegiate-best 25 points to go with 10 rebounds. But big numbers are hardly a new trend for Skinner, who has averaged 15 points an 8.8 rebounds per game in his last six outings. He also has five double-figure scoring efforts and four double-figure rebounding efforts in that span. Skinner now has six double-doubles, including a streak of three-straight last month, and earned Horizon League Player of the Week honors Jan. 28. • Big Shot Al Senior Allan Hanson played his best offensive game of the season Tuesday night, scoring a season-high 18 points while knocking in five 3-pointers. To put it in perspective, Hanson had made just 11 three-pointers in the first 22 games of the season. But, perhaps the big outing will serve as a launching pad for the senior to get his overall numbers closer to his career norm. Hanson is shooting just 26.2 percent from three-point range this year after entering the season as a 35.9 percent career three-point shooter. • Those Last-Second Shots You don't often get multiple chances in a season to tie or win a game with a last-second shot, but Ricky Franklin has cashed in on both of his chances for a buzzer-beater this season. Franklin hit a three at the buzzer to force overtime at Ball State in November, with the Panthers pulling that game out in the extra five minutes. Then Tuesday, Franklin rushed the ball up the court and hit a three with 0.7 seconds remaining to force overtime against Butler. Franklin isn't the only one making key late shots, as a Paige Paulsen three with two seconds left led UWM past Detroit earlier this year. • Second-Half Stumbles After winning the first eight times it had a halftime lead this season, the Panthers have lost the last three times they have led at the half. In fact, those three losses make up the current three-game losing streak. While UWM hasn't lost any big leads in any of those three games, the Panthers have been outscored 111-91 in the second half of their last three outings. • Improving The Defense There is no question much-improved play on defense is a big reason for UWM's winning ways of late. After the Panthers fell to UIC Dec. 6, they had allowed 80 or more points in five-straight games and were allowing opponents 79 points per game and a 48.2 percent shooting clip. Since that time, opponents are shooting just 43.3 percent from the field and scoring just 65.1 points per game. The Panthers hadn't allowed more than 73 points in this span until Butler scored 83 in overtime Tuesday night. The pinnacle of the defensive performances may have come Jan. 7 in Youngstown, when UWM allowed just 39 points and 24.5 percent shooting. • Getting Everyone Involved UWM's success in league play has found a number of people getting involved offensively. In fact, the Panthers have had five players reach double figures twice in the last five games. In league play, two players on the active roster are averaging in double figures, with Paige Paulsen (14.2 ppg) and Ricky Franklin (10.6 ppg) leading the way. Deion James, Deonte Roberts and Marcus Skinner all aren't far behind, with Skinner averaging 9.8 ppg, James 8.7 ppg, and Roberts averaging 7.7 ppg in Milwaukee's 13 league contests. • Winning Numbers The trends leading to UWM victories have become rather apparent of late. One quick place to look is the free throw line, with UWM outscoring opponent by more than five points per game in wins while being outscored by nearly two points in losses. In fact, the Panthers have made nearly as many free throws (215) as their opponents have attempted (217) in the 12 victories. UWM has also crashed the glass, outrebounding opponents by nearly three boards per game in 12 victories while capturing almost 13 offensive rebounds per contest in those games. UWM has been outrebounded by more than four boards per game in 11 losses. Finally, look no further than on defense, with opponents shooting 48.3 percent in 11 UWM losses against just 42.2 percent in 12 Milwaukee victories. • Up Next UWM plays its final two road games of the regular season, heading to Cleveland State Wednesday and Bradley Saturday. |
