As forecast from the outset, it was a season to remember but, ultimately not for the reasons we all hoped. The Milwaukee Panthers basketball team did more than enough to prove themselves as one of the best teams in the Horizon League, but it takes a lot more than that to be part of March Madness and make a run within that madness (which inspires future generations of Panther fans).
We seemed to win all the games we were expected to and racked up an impressive 21-11 (14-6) record on the season (the third consecutive 20-win season for Coach Lundy, non D-I wins aside). But for whatever reason against Northern Iowa and Longwood we completely wilted. Again at Central Florida we had no answers and then dropped a very winnable road non-con game against Southern Miss.
Oakland still has our number though we were able to split the season series this time (more on that blossoming rivalry below).
On the road versus Robert Morris and Cleveland State when Milwaukee really had a chance for a statement victory or two, we dropped the ball and were blown out of the gym with no answers.
This blog is one of subjectivity and I'll just state what I think: in addition to our lack of an effective perimeter threat, poor free throw shooting and lack of offensive cohesion/coordination (we played fast, and maybe too fast to control the outcome of some games that required a higher degree of ball and spacing control)- I think it really boiled down to chemistry. 🧪
This team wasn't filled with drama or players outwardly hating each other or anything. But you just did not see the kind of comraderie and support for each other that a championship team always has. Maybe it was just that certain cliques got too "cliquey" and that playing time and stats became more important that the bottom line of getting to and winning the HLT Championship. We need a team who, to-a-man, truly enjoys playing together, talks strategy to help each other during timeouts and roots for each other from the bench throughout each game. Win or lose.
Chemistry is just as important as talent. If the pieces don't fit it doesn't matter how long you work on the puzzle.
We set ourselves up almost as well as we could. But after reaching the Semis and Championship in his first two seasons at the helm, Coach Lundy's Panthers drew a tough "rival" seed and were uncerimoniously bounced by none other than Greg Kampe's Oakland in the Quarterfinals of the 2025 Horizon League Championship (sponsored by Barbasol and hosted in Indianapolis in front of a crowd of tens of tens of people..).
And this Quarterfinals game versus our rival who we had just beaten downtown at the Arena was inexplicably played at the cramped, decrepit, on-campus Klotsche Center gymnasium at the insistence of the coaching staff who were at odds about this decision with just about everyone other than AD Braun. It is true than the "K" is a more intimate setting which is probably why a coach who coached with astronomical success in a similar D-II gym setting for over a decade would feel most comfortable there.
But this is the City of Milwaukee. We have MPS high school games with more fans and far better atmosphere than all but maybe the "Whiteout" game at the Klotsche Center against Wright State two long seasons ago.
And more importantly, when building a general/non-student fan base (and you gotta be honest, with a school like UWM you absolutely need a general fan base- UWM students are a fickle, shrinking and largely sports-apathetic minority part of our fan base), with fans who have paid their hard-earned money all season to get their much-needed dose of escapism and see the team play in their true and very majestic home- "Panther Arena"- downtown, right in the big-time, it is nothing less than vote of no-confidence and slap-in-the-face to say that they are too "quiet" and that they should hike up to the East Side to pack barely 2,000 into a high school gym with zero amenities outside of hot dogs, a couple of kegs of beer and zero majesty for the start of what was supposed to be our glorious crowning achievement of the Lundy era in an HLT Tourney run to a March Madness ticket.
I think the fears of a Panther Arena Quarterfinals crowd not being able to rise to the occasion were overblown. And it doesn't matter if that is why we lost. What matters is that fans who thought they saw a direction back to relevency within our own city and felt their voices matter were told that no, no, no- your voices most definately do not matter to us.
The HLT Tourney experiment being held in downtown Indianapolis in front of literally no rabid groups of fans is an abject failure and an abomination that should be changed back to the "highest seed hosts" format that worked for well over a decade if the Horizon wants to return to its roots as a top-tier mid-major conference and one of the best conference playoff envirnments in the country.
It boggles the mind (Barbasol ads cannot be put up on campus sites or...?) why this ghost town destination format continues to this day. It should have ended after "Motor Madness" in 2018 and reeks of Horizon League administrative laziness.
Think of the real stakeholders here- (the student-athletes, the students and the general paying public who give the team their raison d'être)- who should be rewarded with hosting rights (and who would be wayyyy more invested in each regular season Horizon League conference game if hosting rights were always on the line- trust me, this was always the case with the old format; it amplified everything) and think of the optics, not the "P5 destination tourney" format that will never work for a conference of this size.
The K has this strange spell over the current coaching staff and maybe that is how it always will be in this Lundy era, or maybe the fever has broken somewhat after the "Mistake at the K" as some Panther fans have dubbed it.
It seemed like upsetting the apple cart when the apple cart was rolling along very nicely.
I feel bad for Kentrell Pullian, one of the most dedicated, dynamic, effective and hard-working Panthers of all time, that his season and collegiate career had to end like this.
We had a monster big man who put our program on the national radar and averaged a double-double in Jamichael Stillwell but his loyalty is obviously with better short-term financial prospects in this, the age of NIL. Same with Themus Fulks who, was the best point guard we've had in a decade, but who for whatever reason seemed more attuned to berating teammates for not living up to his expectations instead of lifting up his teammates and being a positive leader who makes everyone around him better, enthusiastically following the same drum beat. But alas both Stillwell and Fulks have finished their cup o' coffee and are now back in the transfer portal Gyrotron. Welp.
Back to the "Mistake at the K". (fortunately, from all accounts we will still be calling Panther Arena our men's basketball home through at least the '28-'29 season unless something drastically changes).
It is just a very, very odd message to send longtime Milwaukee fans that, "thanks for watching us downtown all season and helping attendence and attention around this program continue to rise, but, we're gonna squeeze y'all out and not make this playoff game anything more than a noise barometer in hopes that it will rattle a coach who plays non-con games in P5 arenas as routinely as we play in a 1/4th full Panther Arena.
"Rattling" Oakland by playing at the Klotsche gym was never going to happen. We could have and should have won, but our shooting was off (a theme of this season) and the chemistry was very off, and you could say that was an unforced error. Nobody will know what would have happened had the game been played at Panther Arena in front of 3,500+ fans (advertising is a helluva thing...) and a 500-strong, focused cheering student section instead of 1,000 students scattered throughout the K gym crowd and along the baseline.
Eventually we will need to rise to a level (return of campus-site HLT Semis and Finals, or move to the MVC, A10) where we draw enough people to fill the Arena to the rafters again (the 2011 HLT Championship was 14 years ago 😬). Or build a right-sized (6,000 seat) arena on campus-owned land that has parking and some nearby amenities. Or both (one until the legendary Arena is demolished, and then the other).
Getting 4-for-1s with Wisconsin and Marquette (and maybe some games against regionally known teams like Iowa State, Northern Iowa, Drake, Valparaiso, Butler, Dayton, Bradley, Loyola, DePaul or Northwestern) would do wonders for UWM fan base activation but there seems to be no possibilities for that happening any time soon. I wish UW and MU would realize how much it would help the overall game in the state to play us, even if they lose every 4th game. It could turn out that the wins would actually help their resume when we rise to the level of being consistently sub-100 RPI. "Lift all boats...".
Despite the growing pains, this season surprised me, as there were not many games with less than 2,500 and several with well over 3,000. This was not the case during the futility and apathy of the Baldwin era. If we can bring in some big name programs and start reaching March Madness with some regularity, the tickets will sell themselves like hotcakes. Eventually, if we could get there, a Panther Arena averaging 4,000+ fans would put all questions about moving games to the K into the dustbin of history.
And it'd bring forth a big new generation of Panther fans and bring everyone who has lost interest or forgotten- back into the fold. Which is exactly what we need.
We can either grow into a mid-major powerhouse or hide in the Downer Woods during our biggest moments.
Program's call.
go panthers.
remember the little things. 🏆🏀
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