Panthers Host Flames In Regular Season Finale
Feb. 29, 2008
#29: UIC (15-14, 8-9) @ Milwaukee (14-14, 9-8)
Tipoff The Panthers clinched no worse than a tie for fourth place and a home game in the first round of the league tournament with a 68-53 win over Loyola Thursday night. As it has done all season, UWM overcame adversity to claim the win, as the Panthers were playing without Marcus Skinner, sidelined by a high ankle sprain. In his place, Jason Averkamp contributed nine points and nine rebounds while Paige Paulsen and Ricky Franklin scored 16 points apiece. The Flames are also still looking to secure part of fourth place and a home game in the league tourney after losing in Green Bay. Prior to Saturday's game, UWM will honor seniors Paige Paulsen, Marcus Skinner and Allan Hanson. • Game #29 The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team wraps up the regular season with a Saturday night contest against UIC at the U.S. Cellular Arena. • Scouting The Flames UIC starts Saturday with plenty to play for, as the Flames are looking to get a share of fourth place in the league standings while also capturing the fourth seed for the league tournament. Josh Mayo continues to lead the Horizon League in three-point shooting percentage while his tally ranks second in the nation. Scott Vandermeer averages 9.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game while collecting 77 blocks this season.
• History Lesson UWM and UIC have battled in some important and memorable contests in recent seasons, with the Flames owning a slight, 8-6 edge in the last 14 meetings between the two schools. The two squads met three times last season and have met four times in the league tournament over the last six seasons. Eight of the last 14 meetings have been decided by eight points or less. UIC has beaten the Panthers in Milwaukee as recently as the 2005-06 season. • First Time With The Flames Josh Mayo scored 29 points and UIC shot 60.3 percent from the field on its way to a 91-73 win over UWM Dec. 6 at the UIC Pavilion. The Flames took control of the game with a 19-4 burst midway through the first half. Torre Johnson scored 30 points to lead Milwaukee, which also allowed UIC to make 13-of-20 from beyond the arc. • Celebrating The Seniors While the Panthers now know they will get to play a home game in the first round of the league tournament, Saturday's contest against UIC will serve as Senior Night for UWM's three seniors. Allan Hanson, Paige Paulsen and Marcus Skinner will all be honored prior to the contest. Short capsules on Milwaukee's three veterans: Paige Paulsen has made his mark in Milwaukee during his two active seasons as a Panthers. After transferring from Northern Illinois, Paulsen earned Horizon League All-Newcomer honors a season ago, when he was also named the state newcomer of the year by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. This season, Paulsen has 726 points and 349 rebounds while making 112 three-pointers. He has started all 58 games of his UWM career. Marcus Skinner has exploded onto the scene during his second season in Milwaukee, going from a reserve role into one of UWM's key starters. In fact, his efforts earlier this year led him to become the only Panther to earn Horizon League Player of the Week honors this season. He has played in 56 games while earning 24 starts and has nearly 300 points and over 200 rebounds in his career. Allan Hanson is bringing to a close an extensive Panther career this season. Hanson was a key reserve during his first two seasons on a pair of NCAA Tournament teams before capturing a spot in the starting lineup much of the last two seasons. He has played in 112 games over four seasons, earning 54 starts. He has nearly 500 career points while making 93 three-pointers. • Injury Update Senior Marcus Skinner has been diagnosed with a high-ankle sprain and is expected to be sidelined for Saturday's game. He was injured in the opening minutes of action Monday night in the loss to Valparaiso. Meanwhile, senior Paige Paulsen returned to the starting lineup Thursday night after missing half of the game with Valpo Monday when he was poked in the eye. • Alumni Notes Prior to the game Saturday night against UIC, UWM will host its annual Alumni Game. About 20 former alums are expected to play in the game, which starts at 4 p.m. at the U.S. Cellular Arena. A number of other alums will be in the crowd during the Panthers' game against the Flames. Plus, plenty of other Panthers are still pushing forward with a professional basketball career overseas. At last count, 11 former Panthers were either still playing or were very recently on the roster of a pro team. The biggest news item among former Panthers recently was the transfer of Clay Tucker from Siviglia Wear in Italy to BC Khimky Moscow. He was leading Italian Seria A in scoring when he was transferred, with the BC Khimky team looking for an extra boost in their quest for Russian Superleague and ULEB Cup championships. • 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 52-19 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 57-13 in regular season Horizon League home contests over the last eight-plus seasons. The Panthers are 9-6 at home this season, including wins in seven of their last nine home games. • Sorting Out The League The Horizon League's regular season is down to the final day and there is still a lot undecided about the seedings for the league tournament. Butler has clinched the top seed while Detroit knows it will be the 10th-seed. Everything in between remains up in the air pending results on Saturday. UWM knows it will play a home game in the league tournament but could still be the fourth, fifth or sixth seed. Simply put, the Panthers will be the fourth seed with a win Saturday, while UWM would be either fifth or sixth with a loss. • Winning And Losing UWM has experienced plenty of highs and lows in the first 28 games of the 2007-08 season, finding itself at the .500 mark heading into the final weekend of the regular season. 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 had a three-game winning streak and a three-game losing streak. Overall, UWM has lost six of its last eight games while still having won 11 of its last 18 outings. • Learning The Lessons Of A Challenge Perhaps one of the answers to UWM's much-improved play over the last two months comes from the idea the Panthers' non-league schedule truly got them ready for league play. In fact, the six non-league teams that have beaten UWM are a combined 119-45 entering play Wednesday, and UWM's overall non-league schedule is ranked 57th nationally. Wisconsin, Marquette and Drake are all nationally-ranked while Sam Houston State is 19-6, Northern Iowa is 15-13 and Bradley is 17-13. • Updating The Roster UWM's roster is officially down to 13 players, with 10 of them active for the rest of the season. But, with the loss of Marcus Skinner to injury, the Panthers will actually have just nine active players for this weekend. 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 UWM has now fielded six different starting lineups this season, though the Panthers had used the same starting five over a stretch of 17 games until the injury to Marcus Skinner forced another change. Eight different players have earned starts ... after making just 11 3-pointers in the first 22 games of the season, Allan Hanson has made 11 threes in the last six games ... as a team, the Panthers made 11 threes in Thursday's win over Loyola, their second-highest tally of the season ... Milwaukee's 26.8 percent shooting clip Monday against Valpo was its lowest since shooting 22.2 percent in the opener of the 2005-06 season at Memphis ... UWM's 32 three-point attempts Monday against Valparaiso tied a season-high by the Panthers. Milwaukee also tried 32 in a win over Green Bay in January ... Charlie Swiggett's two best collegiate games have come against the Missouri Valley, with the sophomore scoring 16 points at Missouri State last year and 13 points at Bradley Saturday ... after its win Feb. 16, Milwaukee has now beaten its in-state rival from Green Bay 13 times in the last 18 meetings between the two schools. That streak includes wins in nine of the last 10 contests in Milwaukee, with UWM's average margin of victory nearly 17 points per game in those nine wins ... Milwaukee's loss at Cleveland State last Wednesday snapped an 11-game winning streak by the Panthers in the series ... the Panthers have rallied from a double-digit second-half deficit to win a game four times this season. Most recently, Milwaukee trailed Green Bay by 12 points with 14 minutes to play Saturday before rallying for a 10-point win. UWM almost did it again Monday night after trailing by 14 points before rallying to within a point. • Last Time Out Paige Paulsen and Ricky Franklin scored 16 points apiece and UWM tallied a 45-31 rebounding edge to claim a 68-53 win over Loyola Thursday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Allan Hanson added 13 points for the Panthers while Jason Averkamp had nine points and nine rebounds. After Loyola cut the Milwaukee lead to a point 16:22 to play, UWM scored 13-straight points to essentially put the game away. • Can't Say Enough About `Kamp' It didn't take long for sophomore walk-on Jason Averkamp to become a fan favorite. After making some contributions off the bench throughout the season, Averkamp has been thrust into a bigger role with the injury to Marcus Skinner. He responded by scoring 21 points off the bench against Valparaiso Monday and then contributed nine points and nine rebounds (including five offensive boards) in the win Thursday over Loyola. Averkamp made his first collegiate start in the contest. • Youth Is Served UWM's underclassmen continue to step up as the season goes along. Thursday night against Loyola, junior Ricky Franklin shared team-high scoring honors with 16 points. Monday night against Valpo, the leading scorer was sophomore Jason Averkamp while next on the list was Franklin. Saturday at Bradley, sophomore Charlie Swiggett and freshman Anthony Hill were the top scorers. UWM's three leading scorers in the Green Bay win Feb. 16 were all underclassmen and junior Deion James led the Panthers in scoring Feb. 20 at Cleveland State. • But Don't Forget The Vets UWM's senior class stepped up at a good time to get the Panthers back on a winning track. Paige Paulsen scored 16 points in the win Thursday. It was his highest point tally since he scored 24 points against Youngstown State Jan. 24. And, Allan Hanson added 13 points, his second-highest scoring mark and third double-figure outing of the season. • Change Is Good With the number of roster changes UWM has endured throughout the 2007-08 season, the team's overall individual stats can be a bit deceiving. In fact, a look at the individual stats since the Panthers began playing with their current roster Dec. 19 shows great balance and solid figures in a number of category. Numbers from the last 18 games: Paige Paulsen 14.3 ppg. 6.4 rpg Ricky Franklin 10.6 ppg. 4.3 rpg Marcus Skinner 9.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 57.5% Deion James 9.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg Deonte Roberts 8.4 ppg, 3.7 rpg• Simple Stats In-depth analysis could lead to a wide variety of "keys to victory" for a UWM team that has dropped six of its last eight outings yet has still gone 11-7 since starting the year 3-7. But, two simple stats might point out the real keys to winning. First, UWM is 13-5 when it either wins in the rebounding battle or the numbers are even, while the Panthers are 1-9 when being outrebounded. Next, UWM is 12-4 when it scores 70 or more points but just 4-9 when allowing 70 or more. • Up Next UWM will open Horizon League Tournament play Tuesday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena. The opponent is still to be determined but the game will start at 7 p.m. |
