Post by mikeb on Mar 24, 2005 10:37:45 GMT -6
im just sitting at work getting fired up for tonite. i keep coming across good articles ;D
chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-050323downey,1,171561.column?coll=cs-home-utility&ctrack=2&cset=true
or text :
These 'dogs can bite
Schaumburg's Pancratz believes the Panthers can knock out Illini
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 23, 2005
So, which one's the "home" team here?
Illinois, 148½ miles from Champaign up to Allstate Arena's front gate?
Or Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 81.4 miles door to door?
"We're going to have the whole stadium against us. We're going to have the whole state against us," Schaumburg native son Mark Pancratz said—a smile a mile wide across his face—in UWM's dressing room Wednesday on the eve of his school's biggest basketball game of all time.
"And we like it like that."
A few stalls away, Chris Hill kept a Cubs baseball cap on the top shelf of his cubicle. Hill is 5 feet 10 inches of genuine Chicagoan, head to toe. And same goes for his Panthers partner in the backcourt, 6-3 Boo Davis.
"Boo was a Sox fan and I'm a Cubs man," Hill said.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee starts a couple of Chicago Public League offshoots, and a star senior (Ed McCants) started his collegiate career at Northwestern just a few miles northeast. Off the bench comes Pancratz, who grew up a stone's throw from Rosemont and was a hero of the Illinois state tournament.
Therefore, aren't these "our" guys, every bit as much as the Illini are?
They know what it means to be from here … to be a permanent underdog … to be a sentimental favorite … to not be taken as seriously as they should be.
A gate-crasher at this dance? No doubt about it.
Or, to put it Hill's way: "I think that's why we have that Cinderella stipulation."
A little neglected. A little slighted. As if everybody at this Sweet 16 party knows for a fact Wisconsin-Milwaukee belongs here, definitely is deserving of its invitation to be here, but doesn't quite have the pedigree as some of the others here. Or the "A-list" stature. Or the razzle-dazzle. Second-Hand Rose comes to Rosemont.
On the outside, looking in? Pancratz can tell you what that feels like.
His parents—including dad Andy, who played for DePaul—made Mark take a summer job after he got out of high school.
"I'm delivering water for Ice Mountain," he remembered Wednesday, "and one of the customers on my route is the Berto Center, where the Bulls practice. So there I am, making $12.50 an hour, bringing water to Eddy Curry, who has a big contract with the Bulls and is making millions."
The iniquity being that it was Pancratz who had led the Schaumburg Saxons to a stunning upset of Curry and the Thornwood Thunderbirds in the Illinois state tourney, not to mention the Class AA championship.
So, don't try to tell him Illinois is invincible in this collegiate fight Thursday night.
"There are 20 of us or so here who think we can beat them," Pancratz said.
"I think we're the only ones in America who think so, but we believe it."
Are the Panthers underdogs?
Without a doubt. So much so, they took the floor for practice Thursday and the first song that boomed from Allstate's sound system to greet them was, of all things: "Who Let the Dogs Out?"
There were 50 fans in the stands, tops. Wisconsin-Milwaukee reportedly received an allotment of around 1,200 tickets for the game. Illinois was given no more, yet most of the Panthers still expect their followers to be drowned out, still expect to feel like the "visiting" team.
Then you have a family feud between these schools.
You have the coaches, The Two Bruces. On one side, Weber, a UWM alumnus who now must side against it. On the other side, Pearl, a coach who once blew a whistle on an alleged Illini NCAA violation.
"Even without that stuff," Panthers forward Joah Tucker said, "I don't think any Illinois people would be cheering for us."
There isn't much of a rivalry to speak of here.
Up north, the Wisconsin State Normal School became the Milwaukee State Teachers College, which begat Wisconsin State College-Milwaukee, which in 1956 evolved into its current designation. Its teams were the Normals, the Green Gulls, the Cardinals, then the Panthers.
No game under any name at UWM has been as big as this.
And what's it going to be?
A wild one, like the first time they met?
(Illinois 120, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 116, in double overtime, Dec. 3, 1990 … the Panthers took 97 shots!)
Or a lame one, like the next time they met?
(Illinois 85, UWM 44, Dec. 6, 2000 … the Panthers took 60 shots and missed 47 of them!)
"Maybe it ends here," Pancratz said. "Or maybe we'll shock the world."
Which would then make it our "home" team in this tournament—or would it?
Copyright © 2005, The Chicago Tribune
chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-050323downey,1,171561.column?coll=cs-home-utility&ctrack=2&cset=true
or text :
These 'dogs can bite
Schaumburg's Pancratz believes the Panthers can knock out Illini
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 23, 2005
So, which one's the "home" team here?
Illinois, 148½ miles from Champaign up to Allstate Arena's front gate?
Or Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 81.4 miles door to door?
"We're going to have the whole stadium against us. We're going to have the whole state against us," Schaumburg native son Mark Pancratz said—a smile a mile wide across his face—in UWM's dressing room Wednesday on the eve of his school's biggest basketball game of all time.
"And we like it like that."
A few stalls away, Chris Hill kept a Cubs baseball cap on the top shelf of his cubicle. Hill is 5 feet 10 inches of genuine Chicagoan, head to toe. And same goes for his Panthers partner in the backcourt, 6-3 Boo Davis.
"Boo was a Sox fan and I'm a Cubs man," Hill said.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee starts a couple of Chicago Public League offshoots, and a star senior (Ed McCants) started his collegiate career at Northwestern just a few miles northeast. Off the bench comes Pancratz, who grew up a stone's throw from Rosemont and was a hero of the Illinois state tournament.
Therefore, aren't these "our" guys, every bit as much as the Illini are?
They know what it means to be from here … to be a permanent underdog … to be a sentimental favorite … to not be taken as seriously as they should be.
A gate-crasher at this dance? No doubt about it.
Or, to put it Hill's way: "I think that's why we have that Cinderella stipulation."
A little neglected. A little slighted. As if everybody at this Sweet 16 party knows for a fact Wisconsin-Milwaukee belongs here, definitely is deserving of its invitation to be here, but doesn't quite have the pedigree as some of the others here. Or the "A-list" stature. Or the razzle-dazzle. Second-Hand Rose comes to Rosemont.
On the outside, looking in? Pancratz can tell you what that feels like.
His parents—including dad Andy, who played for DePaul—made Mark take a summer job after he got out of high school.
"I'm delivering water for Ice Mountain," he remembered Wednesday, "and one of the customers on my route is the Berto Center, where the Bulls practice. So there I am, making $12.50 an hour, bringing water to Eddy Curry, who has a big contract with the Bulls and is making millions."
The iniquity being that it was Pancratz who had led the Schaumburg Saxons to a stunning upset of Curry and the Thornwood Thunderbirds in the Illinois state tourney, not to mention the Class AA championship.
So, don't try to tell him Illinois is invincible in this collegiate fight Thursday night.
"There are 20 of us or so here who think we can beat them," Pancratz said.
"I think we're the only ones in America who think so, but we believe it."
Are the Panthers underdogs?
Without a doubt. So much so, they took the floor for practice Thursday and the first song that boomed from Allstate's sound system to greet them was, of all things: "Who Let the Dogs Out?"
There were 50 fans in the stands, tops. Wisconsin-Milwaukee reportedly received an allotment of around 1,200 tickets for the game. Illinois was given no more, yet most of the Panthers still expect their followers to be drowned out, still expect to feel like the "visiting" team.
Then you have a family feud between these schools.
You have the coaches, The Two Bruces. On one side, Weber, a UWM alumnus who now must side against it. On the other side, Pearl, a coach who once blew a whistle on an alleged Illini NCAA violation.
"Even without that stuff," Panthers forward Joah Tucker said, "I don't think any Illinois people would be cheering for us."
There isn't much of a rivalry to speak of here.
Up north, the Wisconsin State Normal School became the Milwaukee State Teachers College, which begat Wisconsin State College-Milwaukee, which in 1956 evolved into its current designation. Its teams were the Normals, the Green Gulls, the Cardinals, then the Panthers.
No game under any name at UWM has been as big as this.
And what's it going to be?
A wild one, like the first time they met?
(Illinois 120, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 116, in double overtime, Dec. 3, 1990 … the Panthers took 97 shots!)
Or a lame one, like the next time they met?
(Illinois 85, UWM 44, Dec. 6, 2000 … the Panthers took 60 shots and missed 47 of them!)
"Maybe it ends here," Pancratz said. "Or maybe we'll shock the world."
Which would then make it our "home" team in this tournament—or would it?
Copyright © 2005, The Chicago Tribune