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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on Mar 19, 2024 10:06:27 GMT -6
By: Cody Bohl Story LinksMILWAUKEE, Wis. – Milwaukee Athletics has named the 'Panther Future Fund' as its official collective of Milwaukee men's basketball to support name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals for student-athletes. Panther Future Fund (PFF) is an NIL collective that launched in 2023 and is led by Joah Tucker, a Milwaukee men's basketball alum. Tucker is one of the most accomplished players in Milwaukee men's basketball history despite only playing three seasons and was inducted into the Milwaukee Bud K. Haidet Hall of Fame in 2014. The PFF was founded to help community charities and raise awareness for them using student-athletes of the Milwaukee men's basketball program as brand ambassadors. "We're excited to announce this collaboration with the Panther Future Fund," said Director of Athletics Amanda Braun. "Name, image, and likeness continues to evolve and be a large part of the current landscape of college athletics. It was important for us to collaborate with a collective that aligns with the larger mission of our University and Athletics Department to help provide the best opportunities for our student-athletes." Donations to the PFF will directly support Milwaukee men's basketball student-athletes as they work with the community charities. "We are thrilled to partner with the Panther Future Fund as the official NIL collective of Milwaukee men's basketball," head coach Bart Lundy commented. "NIL is an integral part of building the program and recruiting future champions." Since playing for the Panthers, Tucker has continued involvement with UWM and men's basketball. As a graduate of Nicolet High School and product of Milwaukee Public Schools, his MKE roots run deep. "As a former student-athlete, I know firsthand the heights we can reach and how great Milwaukee Athletics is," Tucker said. "Also, how much our student-athletes can have a positive effect on and off the court at our university and in our community. The PFF is a great tool in accomplishing those goals." Fans can support the PFF by visiting the website at PantherFutureFund.com or by contacting Joah Tucker at pantherfuturefund@gmail.com.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Mar 19, 2024 11:12:58 GMT -6
Just like the schedule, there are so many questions.
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Post by Cactus Panther on Mar 19, 2024 12:37:04 GMT -6
So if I understand the press release correctly, the PFF is designed to raise funds to pay men's basketball players for their service time dedicated to local charities. Perhaps the program will include pursuit of tying the Milwaukee Panther brand to the charities that are part of the program???
As GoD alluded, it is not totally clear. I am not sure anyone here on the message board has a clear understanding of the HL NIL affiliation that the program was already involved in, let alone the PFF. If anyone has any confirmed knowledge of these NIL initiatives or any others within the program, I would appreciate it being shared in this thread.
Kudos to Joah for his further involvement in the program. We need more like him. Perhaps this is the best rationale for recruiting local - to increase the likelihood of having a future Panther celebrity pay back to the program in the future.
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Post by PantherU on Mar 19, 2024 16:06:37 GMT -6
Just like the schedule, there are so many questions. Joah is working to collect money to keep us relevant in the NIL Era. This is not new, he created it a year ago.
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Post by Cactus Panther on Mar 19, 2024 17:50:43 GMT -6
Just like the schedule, there are so many questions. Joah is working to collect money to keep us relevant in the NIL Era. This is not new, he created it a year ago. That explains the deja vu I experienced when I read the press release today. So can anyone share any examples of how the program performed in it's first year? Any success stories?
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Post by PantherU on Mar 20, 2024 6:52:51 GMT -6
Joah is working to collect money to keep us relevant in the NIL Era. This is not new, he created it a year ago. That explains the deja vu I experienced when I read the press release today. So can anyone share any examples of how the program performed in it's first year? Any success stories? BJ Freeman didn't play for DePaul, LSU or Florida.
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Post by Cactus Panther on Mar 20, 2024 7:32:57 GMT -6
Any details PantherU? What public service work was performed to keep BJ in the fold? Was any Milwaukee Panther or institutional branding tied in with it? Who decides on allocation of funds to players and how is it administered? I recall someone within the department was promoted last year to an oversight position, but have not heard anything further about it.
With initiatives like this allegedly having impact on the success of the mens' basketball program, inquiring minds would like to know!
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Post by PantherU on Mar 20, 2024 8:49:24 GMT -6
Any details PantherU? What public service work was performed to keep BJ in the fold? Was any Milwaukee Panther or institutional branding tied in with it? Who decides on allocation of funds to players and how is it administered? I recall someone within the department was promoted last year to an oversight position, but have not heard anything further about it. With initiatives like this allegedly having impact on the success of the mens' basketball program, inquiring minds would like to know! These questions would be better directed to Joah, if you'd like you can DM me and I can put you in touch with him. He's the captain of this ship.
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Post by Cactus Panther on Mar 20, 2024 9:02:44 GMT -6
Sure, I'll look for your DM and go from there. But I'm guessing the questions would be more appropriate for the person I referenced in the last post. He is the full time employee presumably involved with this, whereas Joah appears to be more of the recognizable figurehead.
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Post by PantherU on Mar 20, 2024 15:16:30 GMT -6
Sure, I'll look for your DM and go from there. But I'm guessing the questions would be more appropriate for the person I referenced in the last post. He is the full time employee presumably involved with this, whereas Joah appears to be more of the recognizable figurehead. Joah's not a figurehead. We'll get someone to answer questions on here so anyone else who has these questions will have the answers as well.
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Post by joahtucker13 on Mar 20, 2024 17:15:06 GMT -6
What's up Panther Fans!! This is Joah Tucker, hall of famer, loyal panther fan, commentator, season ticket holder, and founder of the Panther Future Fund. I appreciate your interest in the PFF and the future of Panther Basketball. I'll try to answer all the questions that I have information for without getting too long winded. This whole NIL space is obviously fairly new (I believe July will make 2 years that the NCAA has allowed student-athletes to be paid for their Name, Image and Likeness) for all parties involved and everybody is welcomed to do their own research beyond my response.
I formed the Fund about a year ago, the initial name of the fund was the NIL Panther Collective but it sounded kinda boring so I changed it to the Panther Future Fund. With it being such a new space the process was pretty rigorous. I never had any ambition to be in the fund raising space or do deal with NCAA compliance again but before Lundy was hired let's just say I wasn't thrilled with the trajectory of the program. I wanted to be involved and I wanted to make a positive impact opposed to just sitting around complaining. The PFF provided me with an opportunity to not only help the university but the student-athletes and the community all at the same time. 3 things that I'm extremely passionate about.
Nil Collectives can't be organized or run by the university and have to be in exchange for some type of service. I would be willing to guess a least 75 percent of schools have collectives. I looked at our program in a foundational building stage and I know that after the year some of our guys had it would be really tough for Lundy to build this program if his best players ended up getting poached by bigger schools every year after excelling in his system and our program. I actually feel like Lundy's system is a perfect breeding ground for talent to be poached because he lets the players showcase their full skillsets. The fund needed somebody that was recognizable, loved the program and had some strong relationships no only within the infrastructure of the school but in the community as well. I knew it needed to be done and I fully understood the consequences of not getting it done before our returning players essentially went into the first summer of free agency in NCAA history. Student athlete can transfer and play right away without sitting out a year as I did and they can now be paid, a recipe for disaster when it comes to building a program. So I stepped up to the plate.
One of the success stories of the PFF in its 1st year of existence was retaining our core players. I believe we didn't lose any top rotation guys to the portal. That's a rare feat these days. We were able to help retain our leading scorer from last season BJ Freeman. That was a pretty big deal I would say for the program! Bj led our team to the championship game this year and averaged 25/6/3 in the horizon tourney, finished the year 14th best in the country in scoring and was named to the horizon league 2nd team. And in my personal opinion would have been named 1st team barring injury but that's another story for another day.
I think this fund also lets our coaching staff know that our fan base is serious about winning and competing. I don't think coaching staffs can compete out there on the recruiting trail without having a fund set up. I think questions about a collective and NIL opportunities are 2 of the top 5 questions coaches are getting these days from players and parents.
I am much more than a figure head of the collective. While I have received some support, I've done 95 percent of the work. I can tell you it's been a grind. I founded it, organized it. fund raised, take countless meeting and phone calls, garnered support, educated myself on an ever changing landscape and all the things necessary to run this fund efficiently and effectively.
The collective is set up to pool money from loyal panther fans, people who want to see the program excel and compete, care about the student-athletes on and off the court and understand the importance of the Nil space to all of college sports. Once the money and support are raised I then had to figure out a way to get our student athletes into deals and ways to pay them for there services and their name, image and likeness. I looked at the city of Milwaukee and wanted to focus on 2 of the biggest areas I thought needed the most attention or where I felt like our student-athletes could have the biggest impact.
What I came up with was the kids and community. That has been the focus of our efforts in our community work so far. The inaugural student athlete we did a deal with was Bj Freeman. The way we structured his deal was public speaking engagements. This effort is not only to help the community and kids but also to give BJ and future student-athlete transferable skills that will help once the ball stops bouncing. Something else is a major part of this fund, students learning real life skills. I have formed partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club and Sharp Literacy and we look forward to figuring out how can work together in the future to focus on our goal of making an impact with the kid and the community.
That is the short of it, or the long of it. I hope this answers some questions for people that are looking for get involved and help our program reach the height I got accustomed during my time as a student-athlete at the University of Milwaukee. Or curious Panther fans out there who want to know more about this new space.
This is still an evolving plan but our initial efforts have to been to get our student athletes in front of young kids in the city of Milwaukee and surround areas to tell their stories of how they got to the University of Milwaukee on scholarship to be a student-athlete and what that life is like. After our young men get some public speaking practice and hopefully inspire the kids to dream big I typically moderate some questions I feel that are important for the audiences. For example, how many credits it takes to graduate? What are some possible majors? What types of grades and scores it takes to get into college? Other professions within sports outside of being a professional athlete there are. The goal is to inspire and education the next generation as much as possible.
Hopefully this information is helpful. The Panther Future Fund looks forward to you support, whatever that looks like. Whether it's continuing to be die hard panther fan, spreading the word about the fund, suggestions for community services efforts or monetary support. It is all appreciated.
Go Panthers!!!
excuse any typos, its dinner time
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Post by runninpanthers on Mar 20, 2024 17:27:21 GMT -6
What's up Panther Fans!! This is Joah Tucker, hall of famer, loyal panther fan, commentator, season ticket holder, and founder of the Panther Future Fund. I appreciate your interest in the PFF and the future of Panther Basketball. I'll try to answer all the questions that I have information for without getting too long winded. This whole NIL space is obviously fairly new (I believe July will make 2 years that the NCAA has allowed student-athletes to be paid for their Name, Image and Likeness) for all parties involved and everybody is welcomed to do their own research beyond my response. I formed the Fund about a year ago, the initial name of the fund was the NIL Panther Collective but it sounded kinda boring so I changed it to the Panther Future Fund. With it being such a new space the process was pretty rigorous. I never had any ambition to be in the fund raising space or do deal with NCAA compliance again but before Lundy was hired let's just say I wasn't thrilled with the trajectory of the program. I wanted to be involved and I wanted to make a positive impact opposed to just sitting around complaining. The PFF provided me with an opportunity to not only help the university but the student-athletes and the community all at the same time. 3 things that I'm extremely passionate about. Nil Collectives can't be organized or run by the university and have to be in exchange for some type of service. I would be willing to guess a least 75 percent of schools have collectives. I looked at our program in a foundational building stage and I know that after the year some of our guys had it would be really tough for Lundy to build this program if his best players ended up getting poached by bigger schools every year after excelling in his system and our program. I actually feel like Lundy's system is a perfect breeding ground for talent to be poached because he lets the players showcase their full skillsets. The fund needed somebody that was recognizable, loved the program and had some strong relationships no only within the infrastructure of the school but in the community as well. I knew it needed to be done and I fully understood the consequences of not getting it done before our returning players essentially went into the first summer of free agency in NCAA history. Student athlete can transfer and play right away without sitting out a year as I did and they can now be paid, a recipe for disaster when it comes to building a program. So I stepped up to the plate. One of the success stories of the PFF in its 1st year of existence was retaining our core players. I believe we didn't lose any top rotation guys to the portal. That's a rare feat these days. We were able to help retain our leading scorer from last season BJ Freeman. That was a pretty big deal I would say for the program! Bj led our team to the championship game this year and averaged 25/6/3 in the horizon tourney, finished the year 14th best in the country in scoring and was named to the horizon league 2nd team. And in my personal opinion would have been named 1st team barring injury but that's another story for another day. I think this fund also lets our coaching staff know that our fan base is serious about winning and competing. I don't think coaching staffs can compete out there on the recruiting trail without having a fund set up. I think questions about a collective and NIL opportunities are 2 of the top 5 questions coaches are getting these days from players and parents. I am much more than a figure head of the collective. While I have received some support, I've done 95 percent of the work. I can tell you it's been a grind. I founded it, organized it. fund raised, take countless meeting and phone calls, garnered support, educated myself on an ever changing landscape and all the things necessary to run this fund efficiently and effectively. The collective is set up to pool money from loyal panther fans, people who want to see the program excel and compete, care about the student-athletes on and off the court and understand the importance of the Nil space to all of college sports. Once the money and support are raised I then had to figure out a way to get our student athletes into deals and ways to pay them for there services and their name, image and likeness. I looked at the city of Milwaukee and wanted to focus on 2 of the biggest areas I thought needed the most attention or where I felt like our student-athletes could have the biggest impact. What I came up with was the kids and community. That has been the focus of our efforts in our community work so far. The inaugural student athlete we did a deal with was Bj Freeman. The way we structured his deal was public speaking engagements. This effort is not only to help the community and kids but also to give BJ and future student-athlete transferable skills that will help once the ball stops bouncing. Something else is a major part of this fund, students learning real life skills. I have formed partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club and Sharp Literacy and we look forward to figuring out how can work together in the future to focus on our goal of making an impact with the kid and the community. That is the short of it, or the long of it. I hope this answers some questions for people that are looking for get involved and help our program reach the height I got accustomed during my time as a student-athlete at the University of Milwaukee. Or curious Panther fans out there who want to know more about this new space. This is still an evolving plan but our initial efforts have to been to get our student athletes in front of young kids in the city of Milwaukee and surround areas to tell their stories of how they got to the University of Milwaukee on scholarship to be a student-athlete and what that life is like. After our young men get some public speaking practice and hopefully inspire the kids to dream big I typically moderate some questions I feel that are important for the audiences. For example, how many credits it takes to graduate? What are some possible majors? What types of grades and scores it takes to get into college? Other professions within sports outside of being a professional athlete there are. The goal is to inspire and education the next generation as much as possible. Hopefully this information is helpful. The Panther Future Fund looks forward to you support, whatever that looks like. Whether it's continuing to be die hard panther fan, spreading the word about the fund, suggestions for community services efforts or monetary support. It is all appreciated. Go Panthers!!! excuse any typos, its dinner time Nobody better in the world to run this than Joah. We love you Joah!!!! Thanks for all you do for us fans and the program itself.
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Post by ghostofdylan on Mar 20, 2024 17:43:57 GMT -6
One of the all-time Milwaukee greats ... on and off the court!!!
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Post by Cactus Panther on Mar 20, 2024 18:20:44 GMT -6
What's up Panther Fans!! This is Joah Tucker, hall of famer, loyal panther fan, commentator, season ticket holder, and founder of the Panther Future Fund. I appreciate your interest in the PFF and the future of Panther Basketball. I'll try to answer all the questions that I have information for without getting too long winded. This whole NIL space is obviously fairly new (I believe July will make 2 years that the NCAA has allowed student-athletes to be paid for their Name, Image and Likeness) for all parties involved and everybody is welcomed to do their own research beyond my response. I formed the Fund about a year ago, the initial name of the fund was the NIL Panther Collective but it sounded kinda boring so I changed it to the Panther Future Fund. With it being such a new space the process was pretty rigorous. I never had any ambition to be in the fund raising space or do deal with NCAA compliance again but before Lundy was hired let's just say I wasn't thrilled with the trajectory of the program. I wanted to be involved and I wanted to make a positive impact opposed to just sitting around complaining. The PFF provided me with an opportunity to not only help the university but the student-athletes and the community all at the same time. 3 things that I'm extremely passionate about. Nil Collectives can't be organized or run by the university and have to be in exchange for some type of service. I would be willing to guess a least 75 percent of schools have collectives. I looked at our program in a foundational building stage and I know that after the year some of our guys had it would be really tough for Lundy to build this program if his best players ended up getting poached by bigger schools every year after excelling in his system and our program. I actually feel like Lundy's system is a perfect breeding ground for talent to be poached because he lets the players showcase their full skillsets. The fund needed somebody that was recognizable, loved the program and had some strong relationships no only within the infrastructure of the school but in the community as well. I knew it needed to be done and I fully understood the consequences of not getting it done before our returning players essentially went into the first summer of free agency in NCAA history. Student athlete can transfer and play right away without sitting out a year as I did and they can now be paid, a recipe for disaster when it comes to building a program. So I stepped up to the plate. One of the success stories of the PFF in its 1st year of existence was retaining our core players. I believe we didn't lose any top rotation guys to the portal. That's a rare feat these days. We were able to help retain our leading scorer from last season BJ Freeman. That was a pretty big deal I would say for the program! Bj led our team to the championship game this year and averaged 25/6/3 in the horizon tourney, finished the year 14th best in the country in scoring and was named to the horizon league 2nd team. And in my personal opinion would have been named 1st team barring injury but that's another story for another day. I think this fund also lets our coaching staff know that our fan base is serious about winning and competing. I don't think coaching staffs can compete out there on the recruiting trail without having a fund set up. I think questions about a collective and NIL opportunities are 2 of the top 5 questions coaches are getting these days from players and parents. I am much more than a figure head of the collective. While I have received some support, I've done 95 percent of the work. I can tell you it's been a grind. I founded it, organized it. fund raised, take countless meeting and phone calls, garnered support, educated myself on an ever changing landscape and all the things necessary to run this fund efficiently and effectively. The collective is set up to pool money from loyal panther fans, people who want to see the program excel and compete, care about the student-athletes on and off the court and understand the importance of the Nil space to all of college sports. Once the money and support are raised I then had to figure out a way to get our student athletes into deals and ways to pay them for there services and their name, image and likeness. I looked at the city of Milwaukee and wanted to focus on 2 of the biggest areas I thought needed the most attention or where I felt like our student-athletes could have the biggest impact. What I came up with was the kids and community. That has been the focus of our efforts in our community work so far. The inaugural student athlete we did a deal with was Bj Freeman. The way we structured his deal was public speaking engagements. This effort is not only to help the community and kids but also to give BJ and future student-athlete transferable skills that will help once the ball stops bouncing. Something else is a major part of this fund, students learning real life skills. I have formed partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club and Sharp Literacy and we look forward to figuring out how can work together in the future to focus on our goal of making an impact with the kid and the community. That is the short of it, or the long of it. I hope this answers some questions for people that are looking for get involved and help our program reach the height I got accustomed during my time as a student-athlete at the University of Milwaukee. Or curious Panther fans out there who want to know more about this new space. This is still an evolving plan but our initial efforts have to been to get our student athletes in front of young kids in the city of Milwaukee and surround areas to tell their stories of how they got to the University of Milwaukee on scholarship to be a student-athlete and what that life is like. After our young men get some public speaking practice and hopefully inspire the kids to dream big I typically moderate some questions I feel that are important for the audiences. For example, how many credits it takes to graduate? What are some possible majors? What types of grades and scores it takes to get into college? Other professions within sports outside of being a professional athlete there are. The goal is to inspire and education the next generation as much as possible. Hopefully this information is helpful. The Panther Future Fund looks forward to you support, whatever that looks like. Whether it's continuing to be die hard panther fan, spreading the word about the fund, suggestions for community services efforts or monetary support. It is all appreciated. Go Panthers!!! excuse any typos, its dinner time Joah, you are the epitome of what this institution and program needs! You were always one of my favorite Panther players and your continued efforts to serve the university and community easily makes you my favorite former player/alumni! Thank you for the additional details. Hopefully you will have plenty of opportunities beyond this message board to share the story. Your explanation goes beyond the initial press release posted at the start of this thread and helps to understand what the PFF is about. Just developing the plan for the PFF and getting it started is a success story in and of itself. One suggestion would be to boast about every speaking engagement and other volunteer opportunity that comes up. Some of it would likely get some free PR. Thanks again, and enjoy dinner!
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Post by Cactus Panther on Mar 20, 2024 18:22:43 GMT -6
Sure, I'll look for your DM and go from there. But I'm guessing the questions would be more appropriate for the person I referenced in the last post. He is the full time employee presumably involved with this, whereas Joah appears to be more of the recognizable figurehead. Joah's not a figurehead. We'll get someone to answer questions on here so anyone else who has these questions will have the answers as well. And thanks to PantherU for getting Joah to explain the PFF.
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