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Post by PantherNation on Dec 11, 2014 7:21:16 GMT -6
For anyone that made the trip to DePaul, you would be very grateful for the Panthers game day experience. Granted it was a Sunday afternoon, but there was no Packers/Bears game. The band sucked, the only students there were three obnoxious pricks, and the stands were empty. Not to mention the Allstate Arena is a dump. The only thing they had that was better than us was their team.
The point I'm trying to make in the limited amount of time I have before I leave for work is that we can't compare ourselves to Marquette (which spends the 2nd most amount of money on their basketball program) and Wisconsin (who is the state university that consistently makes a run in the NCAA tournament). Reality is, we are comparable to other Horizon League schools and even some of the lower power conference teams (i.e. DePaul). In that regard, I give our athletic department a lot of credit. The dance team is great, the band is always the loudest people in attendance, and the in-game promotions are entertaining (although the slinky thing was kind of a bust). If we could only get the fans to make some noise, we'd be set. The students will only come if we win. That part is out of our hands.
But take a few road trips over the next couple of years and you'll be much more appreciative of what we have in Milwaukee. Things could definitely be worse.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Dec 11, 2014 9:10:38 GMT -6
Assuming The Arena is saved, maybe the Badgers would sign a 3 for 1 and consent to play a couple of semi-home games here to placate the portion of their fan base that never gets to see them in person?
So they could play a Big Ten/ACC challenge game and, say, Davidson or VCU at The Arena and the rest of their 19 home games at the Kohl.
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Post by uwmfansince1997 on Dec 11, 2014 11:05:49 GMT -6
I would rather have a consistent program and direction for the kids in our program. Why play a non-conference schedule, if we're only playing to prepare us for our not so tough conference? That's why we are always looked as a one bid team during the tourney.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Dec 11, 2014 11:10:13 GMT -6
Well, I think the conference commissioner sees us as a one-bid league, so I don't see why the members would view themselves as anything else.
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Post by uwmfansince1997 on Dec 11, 2014 11:11:31 GMT -6
Well, I think the conference commissioner sees us as a one-bid league, so I don't see why the members would view themselves as anything else. Sad to hear but true.
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Post by nickpanther on Dec 11, 2014 11:58:48 GMT -6
even at the dizzying heights of the Pearl Years, we were never considered good enough nationally to get an at large spot. Butler was the only Horizon league team to get an at large NCAA spot, they went the year we made the Dance for the first time and barely lost to Notre Dame. At large spots are basically reserved for high major teams. Wisconsin is almost always an at large team, but for them that doesnt matter. They're a lock for the tourney, and will probably be the only team from WI in the dance this year.
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Post by FTA1982 on Dec 11, 2014 12:01:07 GMT -6
Which would you rather have? Definitely not an APR ban....
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Post by PantherNation on Dec 11, 2014 13:09:51 GMT -6
While an APR ban is obviously not ideal, especially from a PR standpoint, we aren't exactly UConn where the ban affects us on a regular basis. You never know what can happen in the HL tournament as you just need to get hot at the right time to win it. But I'd say the APR ban doesn't mean much to us this year based in the first 10 games of the season.
We are clearly missing Jay-O this year and need to replace his production before I worry myself too much over a one year ban.
And I strongly disagree that we should end our series with the Badgers. Way more pros than cons. Regardless of the outcome against the #5 team in the country, we just had national exposure on espn of the Panther Arena. How is that a bad thing?
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Post by FTA1982 on Dec 11, 2014 13:33:49 GMT -6
Coming off an NCAA tournament apprearence, the APR ban was one of the worst things that could have happened to this program. Any positive momentum gained after being an afterthought in the city was taken away with that ban. We didn't lose any current players, but I'm sure it played a role in Jordan Stevens recruitment. It also seems like the major reason Arians is redshirting.
I do agree that the odds of Milwaukee making the postseason again were pretty low, but you could have said the same thing last year.
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Post by Super King on Dec 11, 2014 14:18:55 GMT -6
Arians red hirting will be a blessing. Austin as a 5th-year senior will be unstoppable. Same with Stull.
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Post by Spirit of Bruce on Dec 11, 2014 18:15:04 GMT -6
I definitely have about a 60/40 love/hate relationship with Super King's posts. That's what I've learned on this thread.
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Post by Super King on Dec 11, 2014 21:24:20 GMT -6
>
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SRT4driver
Junior
We Are MILWAUKEE! And I'm all about accountability, unlike '5th Placer' Jeter apologists.
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Post by SRT4driver on Dec 11, 2014 21:28:14 GMT -6
Pretty embarrassing. Guard play is terrible, Springs keeps shooting 3s for no reason, and the building is 70% badger fans. The fact that there has been a regression in public interest after a championship is a signal that the entire athletic department should be torched from the ground up. Still, the frontcourt is playing well. Tiby looks like his old self. At first glance, our arena (not counting the 3,000 strong student section) did look about 2/3rds red. But after walking around the entire arena concourse at halftime, it was easy to see that was only because other than the students, LITERALLY every other Milwaukee fan was wearing black Milwaukee gear instead of Gold. So yes, red shirts outnumbered gold almost 2-1 outside of the awesome looking student section. But Panther fans outnumbered Vadger fans at least 60-40. My memory of the last game in Milwaukee three years ago was 70% Gold/30% red, so considering their #5 ranking, this was to be expected. The much greater number of our fans this time wearing black for a supposed Gold-Out/Gold Rush/whatever game, was unexpected. I know this is the least of our concerns right now, but I figured I'd mention it since it was brought up. And it's been becoming more prevalent the last couple years, for whatever reason. Consider the NCAA tournament game vs Villanova this past March... nine years earlier at the NCAA tournament in Cleveland, 90% of our cheering section wore gold, and looked fantastic on TV. This past March, less than 25% of those in Buffalo did, and therefore we looked MUCH smaller on TV than we actually were. And it wasn't all due to the black giveaway t-shirts at the pre-game, either, (although the color and timing of that shirt wasn't really well thought out).
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Post by ghostofdylan on Dec 11, 2014 23:07:12 GMT -6
Overheard last night at Goolsby's:
"My advice to you is to finish your meal, pay your check, leave here and never mention this to anyone again."
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Post by thepantherfan on Dec 12, 2014 8:18:58 GMT -6
For what its worth our sweet-sixteen team was blown out almost as badly by an unranked UW team. This game certainly does not make or break our season.
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