I am an optimist....you never know. James Wright was being recruited by big schools too........
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www.jsonline.com/sports/coll/oct02/87307.asp As frontcourt goes, so will Panthers
Another injury could derail promising team
By DAN MANOYAN
dmanoyan@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Oct. 12, 2002
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl believes that his Panthers can live up to the lofty expectations that surround them, but there is a huge proviso attached.
"We have enough personnel to get us there, but we can't afford much pain on the front line," Pearl said during "Midnight Madness" activities overnight Friday at the Klotsche Center.
More specifically, the most shallow area is at power forward, where last year's starters, James Wright and Adrian Tigert, both are out for the season with injuries from last season that haven't healed properly.
Wright, a 6-foot-6 junior who averaged 7.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, broke his leg early in the season against Wisconsin. Tigert, a 6-6 sophomore, replaced Wright in the lineup but suffered a knee injury late in the season against UW-Green Bay.
Tigert, who averaged 7.8 points and 4.9 rebounds, had knee surgery in April but there were complications when he developed an infection. He had a second surgery on the knee in August.
"The key there is Nate Mielke (6-11 junior) and Derek Huff (6-8 senior)," Pearl said. "Those two guys have to hold down the center position to enable me to play Dylan Page (6-8 junior) at power forward.
"I think Dylan is poised to have a breakout season. If we have to play him at center we get small again, like last year. Last year we had Justin Lettenberger and Kalombo Kadima in there.
"Kadima is only 6-2 and we had him in there playing power forward for us. That's just too small."
Great expectations
The pre-season magazines have been very kind to the Panthers, with publications Street and Smith and Athlon picking UWM to win the Horizon League.
Lindy's picks the Panthers to finish second in the nine-team conference behind Butler. The Panthers return 10 letter-winners from a team that won a school-record 11 league games last season and 16 games overall, the most by a UWM team since the 1992-'93 season.
Individually, Panthers senior guard Clay Tucker - who led the Panthers in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks last season - was named pre-season Horizon League player of the year by Lindy's. Tucker also was named pre-season first-team Horizon by Street and Smith and Athlon.
Athlon named Pearl one of its "Top 10 coaches on the rise."
"As a coach, you like it when expectations are for you to finish somewhere in the middle of the league because then if you finish higher, you're a genius," Pearl said. "But that's not going to be the case this year.
"We have got a lot of seniors, guys who have played a lot of basketball, so we are positioned to have potentially a great year this year.
"The magazines pick us to win the league and some of them have us in the top 50 teams in the country. Where did that come from? But we welcome the challenge."
Recruiting update
The Panthers' success on the court is already translating into success on the recruiting front.
One of UWM's primary targets is high-scoring guard Andre White from Zion-Benton High School in Illinois. The Panthers are also known to be making a strong push for highly touted Torre Johnson of Milwaukee Juneau.
The 6-6 Johnson was one of several prospects to attend UWM's "Midnight Madness" event overnight Friday, along with Milwaukee Riverside junior Draelon Burns and Wauwatosa East freshman Jerry Smith.
"I think we've positioned ourselves really well with some key prospects," Pearl said. "The early signing date is in November and we hope to get a commitment or two. We need backcourt help, so hopefully we'll get some."
It's madness
Pearl was especially pleased with the student turnout at the Panthers' "Midnight Madness" event for both the men's and women's basketball teams. The home-side bleachers at the Klotsche Center were almost entirely filled, and Pearl estimated the crowd at about 1,500.
"This is probably about double what we had last year," Pearl said. "There is a lot more campus life here than there was 10 years ago, and the students are taking advantage of it."
Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Oct. 13, 2002.
