Your Milwaukee Panthers got back in the winning lane today, but it wasn't pretty.
Milwaukee (11-5 (4-1)) did not do a lot of things the right way in Detroit today but we won our fourth Horizon League game and that is the headline.
First the biggest warning light: our three point shooting has been heading downhill fast and that doesn't bode well for our HLT and Big Dance fortunes. We shot an astonishingly dismal 3-24 (12.5%) from the perimeter today. KP was responsible for all 3 makes. Pratt was 0-6. That won't cut it in DI, II or III. We did shoot well from the charity stripe (21-27 (77.8%)) so that at least was a sort of consolation for our ongoing shooting woes.
Some good commentary from the UWMFreak board:
"Milwaukee is 18/90 from three point land since halftime of that Akron game. That’s 20%, averaging 20 shots per game. That is a problem." -@Duct_Tape_Pounce
We may have won the turnover/rebound battle, but we need to talk about our rebounding averages by player. Stillwell is obviously a beast and an anomaly. His 10+ rebounds are huge but he isn't always on the floor. Darius Duffy and Danilo Jovanovich (left game with a head injury after a nasty fall under the hoop) need to average greater than 3 rebounds a game. That KP averages 5.6 rebounds as a guard is an indictment of our front line after Big #3. 😕
Several missed layups and a bevy of turnovers including an errant Fulks pass to one of the officials (I like the Cream "alternate?" unis but maybe if we had our traditional black and gold road unis the mistaken identity could have been avoided 🤷)- signaled early on that this was not going to be an easy win or a well-played basketball game.
Detroit tried to play a zone but that "zone" consistently, after ~5 seconds, leaked into all Titans collapsing to the hoop for a rebound or the 2 backcourt Titan defenders following Panther ball handlers man-to-man from sideline to sideline, halfcourt to baseline. This was not the Oakland Zone, that much was obvious and a relief. Bullyball found the ways to the hoop unshut and that would prove enough for the "W" today.
We crunched and punched. We hustled individually and Panthers created enough of their own shots to hold Detroit at bay most of the game. Make no mistake though, while Bullyball can overpower some weaker foes it is no way to win championships.
This team will have to rely on more than speed, conditioning and brute strength alone to get to the mountaintop. Our shooting will need to improve enough to be a consistently average-to-good shooting team not in danger of putting up 30% FG or 55% FT or 15% 3PT in any given game. Our passing and shot selection (directly related) will be the key drivers of that improvement, should it happen before it is too late.
It is right around the half-way point of this season. We've successfully pivoted from the Oakland beat-down despite today's ugly showing. And we have a chance to start a new winning streak this coming Wednesday in Fort Wayne, Indiana. If certain things can just come together with some consistency (shooting, shooting, shooting, and frontline reinforcements)- this team could begin to fly.
As of now we are still metamorphosizing in the cocoon.
go panthers.
tilt the floor. 🏆🏀
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