Your Milwaukee Panthers left no doubts that they can completely obliterate lesser D1 competition. Doug Gottleib's (son of former Panther coach Bob Gotleib) Green Bay team would learn that with a fine point tonight at the Resch Center.
BIG UPDATE: Erik Pratt, whom many including myself had assumed was no longer part of the program after missing 7 straight games, returned to the lineup tonight. No word on why he was out so long but we are all glad he is back and in good spirits.
Green Bay was hoping to serve as another big wakeup call to a Milwaukee Panthers program who had hoped to rack up 25 wins and a Horizon League Championship but they ended up wondering what hit them after the contest last night.
Milwaukee (7-4, 2-0 and up to 144th in Haslametrics.com) dominated the Phoenix from opening tip to final buzzer, with Jamichael Stilwell (24pts, 19reb) coming comically close to outrebounding GB's entire team (19 to GB's 22 overall rebounds (as a team we outrebounded GB, 46-22 😳)).
Pratt started the game with a hot hand, along with Stillwell, dropping multiple 3's to extend the lead early and often. Pratt then sat for an extended period of time (he still has to get conditioned to D1 games), and when he returned late in the second half, he was fed some incredible assists beneath the hoop and finished the easy bucket layups with style to add to our big lead. He then dribbled out the remaining 20 seconds as the Phoenix were left to ponder what had just taken place on their home floor.
Milwaukee has now won 8 of the last 10 games between these two in-state rivals.
Honestly, Green Bay looked scared.
And why shouldn't they have? Jamichael Stilwell plays like he expects a double-double each game; this is incredibly motivating and not something we have seen in a long, long time. He set a new Milwaukee single-game D1 rebounding record with his monstrous 19 board tally. Stilwell now "leads the nation in offensive boards with 47 and total rebounds with 127" (UWMfreak.com).
Kentrell Pullian (18pts, 8reb) and Pratt (12pts and 2-4 from 3pt) added significantly to this offensive cakewalk over our I-43 rival.
Themus Fulks (8pts, 8ast) and AJ McKee (10pts) were quietly effective in their own right; we didn't need them to score a bunch but they played great suffocating defense and Fulks served as a top-notch facilitator.
Free throws continue to plague the Panthers as we shot just 8-15 from the charity stripe (a grade-school level, 53.3%). But our 3pt shooting was on point in a way we haven't yet seen this season. Milwaukee shot 12-29 from long distance which was good for 41.4%.
The opening minutes quickly resulted in a big Panther lead and MKE cruised from there
Green Bay got a lot of offensive production out of Marcus Hall (18pts) and prolific scorer Anthony Roy (20pts) but not much else. The Phoenix had no answer for Milwaukee's uber-aggressive big men and backcourt. Gottlieb complained, "There is not a lot of technique to it. I’m not in any way being critical of Milwaukee because they just owned us, but it’s just guys grabbing you and throwing you out of the way. That’s what it is.”
That is, indeed, what it is.
Is this team back on track to win the Horizon League? Last night would suggest that yes, with Pratt back and the rest of the team starting to shoot better from outside and embrace their "tilt the floor" persona, the sky's the limit with this group.
Milwaukee prepares to host Akron in the first game of the MKE Tipoff downtown at Fiserv Forum this Sunday at 12:30pm. Be there to cheer this Panther team on to another victory and an extension of what could be a long winning streak.
go panthers.
tilt the floor. 🏆🏀
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