Your Milwaukee Panthers looked and played the part they have been playing for a while in their first conference game Saturday night at the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin.
Overrated, "me-1st" and uninspired. 😑
Milwaukee (3-5, 0-1) lost yet again, 70-58 in a game that was never close. It is a shame that Markeith Browning's stellar scoring night (25pts) was overshadowed by this great enveloping Shadow that we cannot seem to escape. But it was. The rainclouds sticking above this Milwaukee Panther Basketball program have overshadowed everything so far this season. Everything.
Not the result we wanted but Markeith Browning masterfully filled a big part of the scoring void left by Freeman (injury)
The patterns that are emerging are mind-numbing. So many of the first 5 games have followed more or less the same 4 Act theatrical performance. And we all know the script by now:
- Milwaukee gets in a 10+ point hole
- Milwaukee enters break down by double digits
- Milwaukee fails to even or even narrow the divide until....
- 5 minutes are left and then we start playing with urgency that gets us slightly closer before we lose the game.
Not so "thrilling" a way to play or watch basketball. And this was supposed to be a thriller of a season. A "Revenge Tour" of sorts to get back at Green Bay, Wright State, Cleveland State, etc. and get invited to March Madness again for the first time since 2014.
Instead it is turning into a "Regression Tour". That should be maddening; and the accompanying anger of it needs be transmuted into an indomitable spirit and will to win from here on out- else, just stick a fork in us now and call it.
I know every member of this roster and staff probably hates the loud fans like me who are pulling every single fire alarm in sight but you cannot sleepwalk through any parts of a college basketball season. And we are mosdef sleepwalking this looks ridiculous- ask any outsider. And I'll guarantee former Milwaukee players and other Panther fans with much more restraints on voicing disappointment are thinking of the same things and feeling this ship sinking.
3-5 could become 4-8 could become 6-14 real quick if we keep playing this kind of basketball
You do not go 8 games, losing every single rebound battle, except to the two DIII schools on the schedule. You do not call yourself an up-tempo run-and-gun style team when in actuality your tempo is completely average in DI NCAA. You do not say "bigs are overrated" and then deploy a shockingly ineffective sieve of a defense that lacks any kind of paint presence and implements a half-hearted zone or the more usual man-to-man that gets picked and rolled, picked and rolled.
Opponents have no problem breaking our press or slashing directly to the hoop. This was not the case when Ahmad Rand was patrolling down low in the surprising and promising times of last season.
If we keep maniacally subbing people (as punishment?), never letting them get into what is known as "flow" state (which is necessary and very common in any mental challenge, sport or activity that takes great concentration and precise, fine movement), and if we keep throwing out a group of 5 guys who give lip service to the offense that has probably (I hope!) been practiced 1000s of times already, only to consistently (the only consistency we have) revert to Summer League 5-on-5 (aka, "To hell with passing, defense and playing All-for-1 as a 5-headed dragon; I'm getting mine that's all I know or care about")- this will continue to devolve into something it never should have been.
We are projected to go 12-19 (7-13) now, by the way.
...."you do not have a KenPom Scouting Report that looks like a Herpes outbreak"
Our season is not over by a long shot but it is teetering on the brink. Before we know it we will be rolling the dice on another 4-in-a-row miracle that won't happen if we don't know how to win.
Here's hoping for better games ahead!
Freeman injured, out for several weeks
In news that only further sours our collective sick stomach, it was announced (after suffering some bad back spasms in the loss to Southern Miss) BJ Freeman is out for at least a month with an injured back. We will need other players to step up and replace not just his points but his presence as a Panther that other team's still kinda fear.
We need to figure this out. We need to hate losing. We need to start winning basketball games and put this horrendous start to the season in the rear view- immediately.
go panthers
stack good days.
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