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Salute the Seniors

Normally, I’d preview the day’s opponent.  And if I get a chance to do it, maybe I will in the morning.

But more important than the game, at least to me, is the acknowledgment of three seniors who worked extremely hard these past several years to bring their best effort in representing our program.

Tony Meier, Kaylon Williams, and Ryan Allen are some of the most deserving seniors we’ve had in nearly a decade.  The three of them combined to make up important pieces in the first Horizon League Champion in Milwaukee in five years, the 2011 Regular Season Championship.

They set records and milestones.  Kaylon Williams already owns the D-I school assists record. Ryan Allen is a handful of blocks away from the single season blocks record. And Tony Meier has a legitimate shot at scoring his 1,000th point as a Milwaukee Panther, a plateau only a select few have achieved.

So keep that in mind today.

Prudently planning personnel

Saturday afternoon, the Milwaukee Panthers will trot out a lineup very similar to those of the recent past.  Kaylon Williams, Paris Gulley, Ryan Allen, James Haarsma and Tony Meier will likely be the starting five.

We can only hope those won’t be the final five.

The Milwaukee Panthers take a break from their busy Horizon League schedule to take a shot at the Fairfield Stags of the MAAC.  It is the MAAC, right (double check…yup)?  They’ll try to improve to 17-12 overall and head to Chicago on a nice note.

The Stags are on a roll, and you’ll find out more about them later tonight, but they aren’t the issue right now.

The issue is Milwaukee’s injury report.  Unlike the NFL, head coaches aren’t required to disclose injuries to the press.  Coach Jeter doesn’t have to say Kaylon Williams is probable or Evan Richard is questionable.

If he did have to disclose the list, you’d find about eight players on there.  Ryan Allen (ankle), Kaylon Williams (knee), Kyle Kelm (shoulder, foot), Evan Richard (back), Ryan Haggerty (elbow), Ja’Rob McCallum (wrist), Lonnie Boga (shoulder), James Haarsma (head).  I included that last one because it’s painfully obvious that Haarsma is in a funk and he probably needs a few days off mentally to refocus and get himself ready to roll.

This is what we know. Of the top five teams, Milwaukee has beaten all but one of them – that would be Youngstown State, who escaped at the Beeghly Center when Kaylon Williams’ three to win it rimmed out.  So you know the talent is there to make the run needed to win the Horizon League Tournament.

We know Williams and others need rest – badly – and that sitting through the weekend would cure a lot of ills.  We know that the Fairfield game means nothing – it would have no effect on seeding, and only serves as another game for Jeter to try and get to 20 wins, a dubious milestone now that teams routinely play 31 games per season.  We also know that UIC and Loyola are not going to be easy outs, and the Panthers have an outside shot at the three seed (technically we have a shot at the two seed, but I’m not holding my breath).

Certain players will need more rest than others, while some of them (Tony Meier) should play the same amount of minutes as they have been to keep them consistent.

As it is Senior Day, I think Kaylon and Ryan Allen should start the game.  But that doesn’t mean they need to play a lot. Ten minutes should be enough to keep them loose for the following Thursday at UIC – there’s no need to push that knee tendinitis further than it has to be pushed.

There’s also the truth in that you can allow guys like Shaq Boga, Demetrius Harris, Evan Richard and Christian Wolf minutes for them to get better on the court against a legitimate opponent.  I’ll go so far as to say that these four should play more minutes than most of the team, especially Boga, Harris and Richard.

So please, by all means come out with the usual starting five.  Just make sure that they aren’t too ragged to go on a six-game winning streak starting next Thursday.

@MKEPanthers poor practice situation, from a rival’s perspective

Grit, determination, and a record

Not too long into the second half, Kaylon Williams was fouled as he dribbled out near the three-point line. The collision, uintentional, sent he and his defender to the deck.

Williams immediately grabbed for his bad knee, the tendonitis flaring up from the contact.  He rolled down the sleeve, clutched the area in pain, and stood up, putting the sleeve back on.

He winced, he grimaced, but he gutted it out. Williams went to the line and calmly sank two free throws.  And that was the final difference, with Milwaukee triumphing over Cleveland State, 86-84.

It was Milwaukee’s first victory since dispatching Green Bay on the road more than a week before Tuesday.

Tuesday night, the Panthers won the battle of two tough, battered teams with a a lot to lose. Milwaukee was playing to keep itself in position to host in the conference tournament. Cleveland State was trying to keep the pace with Valpo, who won over UIC after being down much of the night.

Sometimes it just doesn’t matter what you do, you’re going to win or lose.  Milwaukee committed most of its 14 turnovers in the final six minutes of the game, a 16-point lead dwindling down to just two.  But with one second remaining, Tony Meier took an inbound pass and a foul from his Viking defender, sinking two free throws and knocking a third off the back of the rim to give Cleveland State a difficult full-court heave to win it.

The foul on Meier was peculiar, but only because of timing.  By the book, it was a foul, but very few officials would make the call that Kipp Kissinger (or was it Bill Jacobsen? Pete Juzenas? It was the bald one) made, a foul on the shot by Marlin Mason with only a second remaining.

Gary Waters didn’t like the call.  Come to think of it, he didn’t like many calls.  When Kaylon Williams was fouled under the Milwaukee basket at the end of the first half, Waters waited until Williams was putting up a free throw to yell “You got the wrong shooter!” at the referee.  That’s a technical in every level of basketball, but Kipp Kissinger let it slide.  They also shrugged it off when Waters, throwing one of his patented tantrums, crossed the center court line to get an official’s attention.

The Vikings got impassioned play from Trey Harmon, who led all scorers with 27 points.  At the end of the game with Meier focusing on free throws, Harmon ripped out his mouth guard and chucked it into Milwaukee’s student section, where it was fumbled and dropped into the entrance way for CSU.

Playing up for the hometown crowd was Charles Lee, who played very well in driving to the basket.  Lee scored 14 points, third on the Vikings behind Harmon and Jeremy Montgomery.

Milwaukee was led in scoring by James Haarsma, who gladly took seven three-point attempts, making five of them.  It wasn’t until late in the second half when Cleveland State started pressuring Haarsma on the perimeter.  When it was all said and done, Haarsma was one of five Panthers in double figures.  Paris Gulley, Tony Meier, Kaylon Williams and Kyle Kelm each scored over ten.

In a game where the Panthers had to fight through a battering defense, they came out on top.

Speaking of coming out on top, Kaylon Williams finally bested Marc Mitchell’s post-1990 career assists record.  His seventh assist, an alley-oop bomb to Kyle Kelm, was the exclamation point on a wonderful career.  It gave hope to the Panthers as they try to turn this momentum into a Horizon League Championship.

Discussing the potential of a HLT home game

Panthers would host first round at Klotsche Center

The Horizon League granted permission for the Milwaukee Panthers to play their first round home game at the Klotsche Center, should the Black and Gold host in the first round.

This is due to the well-publicized scheduling conflict with Disney on Ice, which needs the U.S. Cellular Arena on Tuesday to begin laying down the ice.

Milwaukee is currently the six seed, up one game in the standings over Wright State.  Three games are remaining on the schedule that will determine tiebreakers, so it’s not worth discussing those at this juncture.

It would be the first time Milwaukee has ever hosted a conference tournament game in the historic Klotsche Center.  Before Milwaukee played at the U.S. Cellular Arena, the conference tournament was hosted at a rotating conference venue each season.