go here to vent

[admin]

Yep, this loss set us back. This article really puts our school to shame. Jerk move by Hunt, but I expect that from him.

www.jsonline.com/badger/bkb/dec04/284556.asp

[bball30]

It amazes me how quickly you guys all jump to "bailing" on this series. Yet because marquette WON'T play us, you all complain. I am confused. Until UWM proves they can beat a decent team, (top 30) I wouldn't go requesting to play/or cancel any series with anyone. If anything, beat Wisconsin, and then talk. No one cares that UWM whooped up on Prarie View.

[tuckfinn42]

2 people saying something doesn't count as "you all." I, for one, am glad that we play Madison every year and I still think it'd be great if we had a 4 team tournament early on every year. Never will happen but it's nice to think about. As for tonight, is Madison a better team than us? Yes. Did we play like we could've? No. I think this loss was handed to us in such an asswhoopin fashion that people believe our season is over. Not true. However, as a huge fan of UWM, playing at Madison gives us a good comparison of where we are stacked against their program. Tonight, unfortunately, we looked probably as good as we did back when we were D3.

[mcdadenets50]

Relax Panther "fans." From the sounds of it you'd think we lost by 29 to YSU in the first round of the HL tourney. Give up the series? Come on, get real.

Lay off of D Ford. He's our edge in the HL.

Quote of the night (when the game was still somewhat in balance): GET THE BALL TO NICK HANSEN! Who would have thought that would have ever been said?
Hansen looks like this year's Lettenberger.

Hang in there Panthers and support your team in good and bad.

[pnthr97]

bball30, I'm right there with you. And for those "fans" that have been "venting", you should be ashamed of yourselves. Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm all about telling it how it is, we absolutely sucked last night. But, if you really don't think the UW/UWM game is of value, you don't know much about mid-major sports. UWM gets a pretty nice paycheck for that game. And, when UW does come to the Cell, it'll be sold out, giving UWM plenty of income that year. You have to chalk that game up as a loss every year. If you win, it's a huge win and upset. Something to hang your hat on. If you lose, you weren't supposed to win anyways. Why do you think we're playing Kansas - to prove ourselves as a national contender? No. We're playing them first to see how we rate against one of the best teams in the country; and second, for a nice pay day. I don't know any of this officially, but I'm guessing we'll be getting a nice check for that game.

Seriously, if you're going to give up on the team, then do just that. If you're a real fan, you'll understand things more and continue to show your support.

To be honest, what upset me most about the game last night was how sloppy our guys got at the end. I don't know if we scored more than 4 points in the last 10 minutes. Turnover after turnover. That shows a lack of concentration and really, a sense of failure. That's not good.

I think quite a few of our guys showed a lot of heart. Chris, James, Nick and Adrian. Hats off to them. Ed played poorly and lost his cool. The frustration is definitely setting in with him. Ford is showing that he's not ready for this level yet. McCoy seems overmatched against bigger teams, but he can still cause a lot of problems in the HL.

Is this team of upper-level Big Ten caliber? No, and it never was. But, after watching Northwestern after our game, I'd like to think we could be competitive with them. Hopefully, we can be competetive with Purdue.

I vote for throwing this game out the window and just moving on. But, in no way would I want the series with UW to end. It's a benchmark game for us.

[PeterPanThers]

I agree with the rest of you, throwing away the series would be the worst thing that UWM could do. Essentially we would be giving up and saying that Wisconsin is just too good of a team for us. Most of us knew, going into that game, that UWM were heavy underdogs and a win would be surprise. But then, all of us thought that we would actually compete with them. As a benchmark game to rate how we stack up against the big boys...its not too looking good.

I think for one thing, all of this ranting and venting does show something about our program...the level of interest about UWM basketball has been rising the last three years, this message board is really active!...no one would of cared if this loss happened 4-5 years ago.

pnthr97 - I don't think that we should just forget about the game and move on. personally i hope we use this as a jump-start to begin playing better. if we ever want to compete, we have to take these games, see what went wrong, and work on them. we have a lot to work on. Hopefully, looking back at the end of the season, i hope this is where we start to get it together.

[pnthr30]

As many of you know, I generally refrain from publicly posting negative comments about the team as a whole, or particular players - but man.........This loss was embarrassing for UWM, as well as the league. I am definitely not throwing in the towel, but I hope this serves as a wakeup call and the guys can pull things back together. As much as I want to say throw this out the window and move along, I think you have to use this as motivation......especially seeing as how we have a week till the next game - against a much better team.

It is one thing to lose to a). a decent team by a few points knowing that you didn't play your best but were in the game in the final seconds (i.e. Valpo); b). a top 10 team on the road (one of the most difficult arenas in the country to play in) knowing that you played with them for a half, but at the end of the day they were just bigger, more athletic, and all around better than you are (i.e. UIC and Duke); but it is not alright to get completely embarrassed like what happened last night. The closest we were was at the opening tip....we never threatened after that. I still don't think/know that Wisconsin is a better team - they may be, but you couldn't tell from the game last night. They played poorly, but we just played worse, and literally "gave" them the game by not hustling, not rebounding, not getting to lose balls, obviously not shooting well, and not playing hard (especially at the end). It is one thing to not shoot well, but to completley implode like that - hope they can use this to light a fire under themselves.

As far as the players ......... there were a few who I think played decent/hard, but on the flip side...some guys looked scared, some guys looked like they might be trying to hard, some looked like they just flat out lacked heard, and some might as well not have even bothered to check themselves in - their production is simply obserd - when you play more than 10 minutes a game, you should do SOMETHING to help your team........in that amount of time you would hope that the ball would just fall in your hands a few times.

What's up with the article by Hunt? What a dumbass!

[Panther 106]

17-0 run to close out the game, very sad. Many of those turnovers toward the end looked like we just passed the ball into the Badgers laps. Badgers will lose a couple of times at home this year, Illinois for sure and maybe a team like Purdue or Iowa. It will be hard for me to stick up for this team after we lost by 29 to an obviously struggling UW team.

I can't wait until the Detroit game, so I can start to feel good about this team again.

[PANTHERfan]

alright, let's all relax for a moment and take a deep breath. yes the loss was embarassing but wisconsin is just that much better. face it, there's no question about that one. and anyone who thinks we should stop the series after this ONE really bad game needs a reality check... seriously, get a grip. this is great for the school. and to put things in perspective, i actually went to that game last night thinking we had a chance to compete. in years past that really wasn't even on the radar screen. you have to look at how far we've come to even be able to formulate the thought of, "yeah, we might be able to go in there and give them a game."
bottom line is we couldn't shoot the ball to save our lives. joah missed point blank shots, ed missed everything, and when you're top two guys aren't getting it done you aren't going to beat Wisconsin at home... just go ask the 32 teams that came before us. i understand we all need to vent about this game and i'll give everyone a free pass on saying a couple REALLY STUPID things, but stop it already.
when you look at the how the season has played out so far i find it hard to believe it's that much different than what anyone would have thought. we're 6-2 with a couple quality wins. i had the valpo and st louis results reversed in my pre-season predictions. this team will be fine assuming our top guys find their games... and they will.

[pnthr30]

PANTHERfan said:

alright, let's all relax for a moment and take a deep breath. yes the loss was embarassing but wisconsin is just that much better. face it, there's no question about that one.

I honestly think there is a question about that.........but from the game last night there is no way to tell if UW is that much of better team... UW played poorly last night, no question about it, but UWM played so bad that you couldn't even get a gauge on how good/bad they (UWM) is compared to UW.

I knew it would be an uphill battle, but I honestly thought we could give them a game - we didn't give them anything. I am all for keeping the series alive (as well as the paychecks flowing in), but this was embarrassing in the sense that we all thought we could compete/play with them - and we didn't. Heck, it was no big deal to go to UW and lost by 30 5+ years ago, but today it is a big deal - UWM has made great strides in the past 5 years.......thereby making a showing like that even more embarrassing.

[admin]

State Journal Article:
www.madison.com/wsj/home/sports/index.php?ntid=21382&ntpid=2

In a game that might have set an NCAA record for airballs, UW made UWM, which could be the best college basketball team in Milwaukee, look helpless by playing methodically and relentlessly if not artistically.

I am willing to admit that we're not nearly the best college basketball team in Milwaukee. What game was this guy watching last night? I think our talk about playing MU should hit the backburner until we can prove ourselves again...which we will.

Our comeback starts with Manhattan. Its a must win game to get our spirits back before the Regular Season begins.

Later,
-UWMfreak
ps. I still think this series needs to end. We can get money by playing other schools. Its only getting worse (2pts-29pts). The press has been embarassing, only hurting the image that ALL of us had worked hard to develop. We just need to cut our losses and try a new angle of approach to becoming an elite mid major program.

[PANTHERfan]

i'd agree it was tough to gauge what the gap is between the two teams based on the performances last night... but being there in person and just seeing the teams side by side, it seemed apparent to me that wisconsin is better any day of the week. they're much larger, play incredible defense, have some pure shooters, and most importantly have way more depth. uwm's really poor game compared to madison's poor game resulted in an almost 30 point loss. had the two teams played their A games it probably would have been closer to a 10 point loss. it's a guess but at the same time a testament to how far uwm has come. i really like the panther team this year, but it's just not built to beat wisconsin. they're in another league in every sense of the saying.

[kaygee]

Pnther30...it looked to me like UWM's jockstraps were a little tight last night...maybe the loss was the manager's fault for shrinking the jocks before the big game...

To be serious though, UWM just didn't come out and perform in a big game for whatever reason...I agree that I am most disappointed by the fact that they completely gave up in the last 5 minutes to let the Badgers score 17 unanswered points. This shouldn't have been a 30 point loss!

If Ed is going to be the man, he needs to stop getting to ANXIOUS to shoot and just take good shots like we know he can. As far as the newcomers (ie. Davis, Ford, McCoy), I believe each of them will play important roles this season and next. They don't look comfortable now that the gimme games are behind them. It takes a little while for newcomers, especially transfers, to forget what they learned at their previous destination, and get into the flow of a new system.

This team will be alright, everyone knew December was going to be rough...as Pnthr30 knows, a team can really bond and grow together during a stretch like this when they are on the road together a lot and during the semester break...or they can really divide and everyone can go their seperate ways. We will have to wait see how this team reacts in Jan., Feb. and hopefully March.

Personally, I am ready for some home games again!!! And hopefully they get some jock straps that fit by next Wed., or we could see a 60 point loss!

[pnthr30]

haha Kaygee, you are too kind, some may have had jocks that were to tight .......others may have just skipped the jocks and went straight to the panties...... lol j/k I couldn't resist ...

I don't doubt that the team will bounce back, I just hope it is sooner rather than later. And I whole heartedly agree, a lot can happen on the "road" - both on the court and off. Hopefully this month away will bring them all together so that they can find out what each other are really about and become a closer knit group....only time will tell.

[admin]

I guess this isnt a technical. Poor sportsmanship. I would not want to be Nixon and have to deal with Bo tearing into him today. Ryan doesnt put up with that crap.

Later,
UWMfreak