UWM in USATODAY
Feb 18, 2005 19:44:01 GMT -5
Post by Big D on Feb 18, 2005 19:44:01 GMT -5
Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Hot off the press
By Malcolm Moran, USA TODAY
MILWAUKEE — Along the way to a second consecutive Horizon League regular-season championship, the men's basketball players from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had something important to do one recent night.
Immediately after a victory, the Panthers went from the court to the lobby of U.S. Cellular Arena, thanking fans for coming before they headed into the chilly night. "And make sure they knew they were part of it," head coach Bruce Pearl says.
In the renovated 55-year-old building once known as the Milwaukee Arena, where Marquette's Al McGuire perfected the art of coaching entrepreneurship, the Panthers are inspiring a growing sense of gratitude. They will take a record of 20-5 into the Bracket Buster game Saturday at Hawaii (ESPN2, 8 p.m. ET), the third consecutive year with that many victories, an unprecedented achievement in 109 seasons.
A team that did not join Division I until 1990-91 will host the conference tournament with a chance for its second NCAA bid in three seasons. For a school with an enrollment of 25,059, with alumni that include Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber and former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, the pressing Panthers are headed back toward the rarefied-air postseason.
"We've got lots of alums that just never did this when they were in college," Pearl says. "But they're still proud of their degree and their university, and now we're giving them something to cheer about."
In a city that celebrates Marquette and a state dominated by Wisconsin's Badgers, the Panthers have seven players on this season's roster whose college careers began elsewhere. That group includes leading scorers Ed McCants, Joah Tucker and Boo Davis.
McCants, a 6-3 senior guard who played a season at Northwestern, averages 17.2 points and is eighth in the nation with 3.3 three-point baskets a game. Tucker, a 6-5 junior forward who played at Bradley, averages 14.9 points and 6.0 rebounds. Davis, a 6-3 junior guard from Olney Central Community College, averages 10.0 points.
The Panthers have developed a sense of cohesiveness with players arriving from different programs. Joah Tucker said this generation's mind-set was established by Clay Tucker, whose 1,788 points from 1999-2003 made him the school's career leader.
"He was kind of the superstar," Tucker says. "Being a superstar, you don't have to help a guy who's coming back home. He helped me with anything I needed. You want to play basketball? You want to get some shots? You want to look at the offense? You want to look at some tapes? Everything.
"We're past being friends. It's like passing it to your brother."
Senior forward James Wright, who missed the 2002-03 season with a broken leg, said the value of the relationships has extended to the court: "It carried over to the last seconds of games, when you have that trust that your left-hand or your right-hand man is going to be there."
Nine players average at least 10 minutes, imperative for a team that presses relentlessly.
"This is Bruce's fastest and quickest team of the four teams that I've played," says Youngstown State coach John Robic, who's been on Final Four staffs at Kansas and Massachusetts. "It catches up to you. If you relax just a little bit, they can put a six-, eight-point run on you."
It is no coincidence that the Panthers appear to be a more athletic version of the Boston College teams of the early 1980s. "Without the bounce passes," Pearl said.
Those were the days when Pearl, Boston-bred and a BC undergraduate, was an administrative assistant for head coach Tom Davis. For 14 seasons, with the Eagles and at Stanford and Iowa, Pearl was at Davis' side. He became head coach at Division II Southern Indiana and had 231 wins and the 1995 national title in nine seasons.
"If you see Tom Davis written all over my basketball team, that makes me proud," he says.
Pearl, whose UWM teams are 80-37 in four seasons, has applied his own salesmanship style to Davis' methods of establishing a program. He has stood on chairs in dormitories, distributing T-shirts. Wisconsin-Milwaukee might lead the nation in rubber chickens propelled during a timeout from one foul line toward the other, where competing fans attempt to catch them with plastic laundry baskets. The Panthers drew a school-record 4,291 a game this season.
The selling never ends. After a victory last week, one grateful alum respectfully approached Pearl with a cell phone and a request: Could the coach say hello to his wife?
Pearl nodded, took the phone and placed a hand over it.
"What's her name?"
"Alice," the fan said.
"Alice," Pearl shouted into the phone. "What are you doing letting this maniac out and not coming to the game with him?"
Much laughter later, the coach elicited a bridal vow that she would make it to the league tournament, when the Panthers will need her most. They will work toward a stop in the NCAA tournament and a chance to make things right. Two years ago, what could have been a threshold-reaching first-round victory against Notre Dame ended with a missed last-second layup and a painful one-point defeat.
"The way we lost," Pearl started to say, then paused. "We got a lot out of that loss. Because we're always searching for credibility at this level."
Wednesday night, when the Panthers defeated Butler to clinch first place, joyful fans came to them. As the conference tournament host, the Panthers have positioned themselves for another rush-the-court celebration, another NCAA bid and something even greater: the chance to be remembered as their school's finest team.
"It's going to take the ball going in at the end," Pearl said. "It's going to take that ball going in."
www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/2005-02-18-wisconsin-milwaukee_x.htm
By Malcolm Moran, USA TODAY
MILWAUKEE — Along the way to a second consecutive Horizon League regular-season championship, the men's basketball players from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had something important to do one recent night.
Immediately after a victory, the Panthers went from the court to the lobby of U.S. Cellular Arena, thanking fans for coming before they headed into the chilly night. "And make sure they knew they were part of it," head coach Bruce Pearl says.
In the renovated 55-year-old building once known as the Milwaukee Arena, where Marquette's Al McGuire perfected the art of coaching entrepreneurship, the Panthers are inspiring a growing sense of gratitude. They will take a record of 20-5 into the Bracket Buster game Saturday at Hawaii (ESPN2, 8 p.m. ET), the third consecutive year with that many victories, an unprecedented achievement in 109 seasons.
A team that did not join Division I until 1990-91 will host the conference tournament with a chance for its second NCAA bid in three seasons. For a school with an enrollment of 25,059, with alumni that include Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber and former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, the pressing Panthers are headed back toward the rarefied-air postseason.
"We've got lots of alums that just never did this when they were in college," Pearl says. "But they're still proud of their degree and their university, and now we're giving them something to cheer about."
In a city that celebrates Marquette and a state dominated by Wisconsin's Badgers, the Panthers have seven players on this season's roster whose college careers began elsewhere. That group includes leading scorers Ed McCants, Joah Tucker and Boo Davis.
McCants, a 6-3 senior guard who played a season at Northwestern, averages 17.2 points and is eighth in the nation with 3.3 three-point baskets a game. Tucker, a 6-5 junior forward who played at Bradley, averages 14.9 points and 6.0 rebounds. Davis, a 6-3 junior guard from Olney Central Community College, averages 10.0 points.
The Panthers have developed a sense of cohesiveness with players arriving from different programs. Joah Tucker said this generation's mind-set was established by Clay Tucker, whose 1,788 points from 1999-2003 made him the school's career leader.
"He was kind of the superstar," Tucker says. "Being a superstar, you don't have to help a guy who's coming back home. He helped me with anything I needed. You want to play basketball? You want to get some shots? You want to look at the offense? You want to look at some tapes? Everything.
"We're past being friends. It's like passing it to your brother."
Senior forward James Wright, who missed the 2002-03 season with a broken leg, said the value of the relationships has extended to the court: "It carried over to the last seconds of games, when you have that trust that your left-hand or your right-hand man is going to be there."
Nine players average at least 10 minutes, imperative for a team that presses relentlessly.
"This is Bruce's fastest and quickest team of the four teams that I've played," says Youngstown State coach John Robic, who's been on Final Four staffs at Kansas and Massachusetts. "It catches up to you. If you relax just a little bit, they can put a six-, eight-point run on you."
It is no coincidence that the Panthers appear to be a more athletic version of the Boston College teams of the early 1980s. "Without the bounce passes," Pearl said.
Those were the days when Pearl, Boston-bred and a BC undergraduate, was an administrative assistant for head coach Tom Davis. For 14 seasons, with the Eagles and at Stanford and Iowa, Pearl was at Davis' side. He became head coach at Division II Southern Indiana and had 231 wins and the 1995 national title in nine seasons.
"If you see Tom Davis written all over my basketball team, that makes me proud," he says.
Pearl, whose UWM teams are 80-37 in four seasons, has applied his own salesmanship style to Davis' methods of establishing a program. He has stood on chairs in dormitories, distributing T-shirts. Wisconsin-Milwaukee might lead the nation in rubber chickens propelled during a timeout from one foul line toward the other, where competing fans attempt to catch them with plastic laundry baskets. The Panthers drew a school-record 4,291 a game this season.
The selling never ends. After a victory last week, one grateful alum respectfully approached Pearl with a cell phone and a request: Could the coach say hello to his wife?
Pearl nodded, took the phone and placed a hand over it.
"What's her name?"
"Alice," the fan said.
"Alice," Pearl shouted into the phone. "What are you doing letting this maniac out and not coming to the game with him?"
Much laughter later, the coach elicited a bridal vow that she would make it to the league tournament, when the Panthers will need her most. They will work toward a stop in the NCAA tournament and a chance to make things right. Two years ago, what could have been a threshold-reaching first-round victory against Notre Dame ended with a missed last-second layup and a painful one-point defeat.
"The way we lost," Pearl started to say, then paused. "We got a lot out of that loss. Because we're always searching for credibility at this level."
Wednesday night, when the Panthers defeated Butler to clinch first place, joyful fans came to them. As the conference tournament host, the Panthers have positioned themselves for another rush-the-court celebration, another NCAA bid and something even greater: the chance to be remembered as their school's finest team.
"It's going to take the ball going in at the end," Pearl said. "It's going to take that ball going in."
www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/2005-02-18-wisconsin-milwaukee_x.htm