Your Milwaukee Panthers did not prevail in Monday night's HLT Championship against Oakland. And so they will go to the Big Dance to represent the Horizon League.... and our season ends. But we battled as hard as we could hope for and traded the lead throughout- we were just on the "under" side of that trade when it matters most- the final buzzer.
And that really was the final buzzer on the '23-'24 season. We had so many ups and downs. So many questions and problems that needed to be addresses (armchair PGs always know best don't @ me /s). And we wound up with 20 wins. 20-15 (12-8) and we reached the HLT Final. One step up from last season.
It has been mentioned the last time we had 20 wins in back-to-back seasons was '04-'05 and '05-'06, inarguably this program's best seasons ever. We reached the Sweet 16 under Bruce Pearl in '04-'05 and the second round in '05-'06 in Rob Jeter's first season as head coach.
What happens now? In the new age of the Transfer Portal I think it is anybody's guess. We will lose some players and gain some new ones. I think we could be fairly sure that Lundy isn't going anywhere unless it is a huge jump up to a P5 school. BJ Freeman might be gone. He is an NBA talent and I'm not sure we give him enough exposure.
After a season like this though, I'd like to think we can get some good recruits to rebuild. If we lose BJ and Pratt... that'll be a huge problem. Time will tell.
But all in all, this season was a success and something we can build on for next season, when... maybe we move up to that highest level (NCAAs)- and dance all the way to the Sweet 16 again. And further.
go panthers.
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