UWM 2006-07

[Womack]

I was lucky enough to be let in a closed practice the other day with a good friend of mine that does business with UWM...We watched the practice and a few things came to mind and I thought I should enlighten all those fans who may not have been so lucky and are dealing mostly with speculation for formulate their judgement......So without further babble here are my thoughts

Ricky Franklin is going to be something special...He is excellent!!! He is very quiet in practice but you can tell that the coaches really believe in this guy and the other players really look up to him...Rob came over and said hello to us during one of their break and was saying just how good Ricky is going to be...Look for him to be newcomer of the year and possibly all conference honors at some level

Marcus Skinner is extremely athletic BUT is out of control....He plays out of control and will often find himself in foul trouble if he can not tame his incredible athleticism

Sam Mauldin will be a good player for us but also has potential to be a pretty big bust. He often looked confused in practice and required alot of redirection...He also played really really soft and had to continually be prompted to post up hard and be physical down low

Avery Smith looked solid in practice but coach Bidlingmeyer and him got into a little verbal spat and the coaches were all over him for dribbling to much and not following the disciplined swing offense...Overall though he looked real solid

Kevin Massiah looked horrible....Nothing more to say about that

Nick Hansen is a hell of a hustler, but showed little else that was real eye opening...He will be this years Mark Pancratz and will earn himself playing time because of his hustle

Paige Paulson looked EXCELLENT.....This guy is gonna be good..He really looked comfortable in the offense and showed ability to step out and hit a shot...He was a stellar passer and really looked good...This is my sleeper on this years team who will really surprise alot of people with his skills

Roman Gentry looked pretty awful in practice as well....His defensive skills were poor and could not grasp the concept of boxing out in rebounding drills

Beyond a shadow of doubt Allan Hansen is the leader of this team....It was clear as day from the very beginning of practice that eveyrone looked to him....He was EXTREMELY vocal with everyone and was not afraid to get in anyones face...He looked real good and real comfortable running the offense

The starting 5 for this year (At least the beginning) are as follows:

PG- 6-0 Jr. Allan Hanson
SG- 6-1 So. Ricky Franklin
SF- 6-3 Jr. Avery Smith
PF- 6-6 Jr. Marcus Skinner
C- 6-7 Jr. Paige Paulson

Top 4 bench guys who will get good minutes

Michael Bendall
Charlie Swiggett
Nick Hansen
Kevin Massiah

[coldwind]

If Avo is the 3,they're mailing the season in

[Womack]

Hey Coldwind------

Remember they run a swing offense so there really is no traditional 1,2,3 etc.....They all move around and they are all posting up....Yes indeed they will be running with a small lineup this season but I think that also can play to their advantage in some areas....Remember Avo is not much of a shooter but he is an excellent slasher which certainly makes him worthy of starting time (Although Avo was lighting up the gym with 3's that practice)

Anyway, they will not be mailing in the season. I am quite disappointed reading this message board and looking at what the expectations are for this season for most people. Remember we are stilll the league champs and no one has proven otherwise. I am not sure if it is because we have a lot of younger posters on here that have not been around here for a big turnaround in players or what but it makes me sick reading peopel say that a 500 season is acceptable...

Remember several years back we lost Clay, Ronnie, Freds, Lettenberger, Winston, Weisse etc......Everyone said the next year was gonna be terrible and that UWM was going to be a one year wonder.....We did not know hardly anyone and there were all new players that next year...We thought we were in big trouble with a guy named Chris Hill taking over the point (Yeah big mistake right???---sarcasm......Adrian was a pudgy sophomore coming off of knee surgery from his freshman year and people had minimal expectations....NO ONE else had even smelled a minute of playing time...So what happened--Joah Tucker & Ed McCants showed up and really filled the void...My whole point is......SOMEONE WILL STEP UP THIS YEAR...Personally I think it will be Ricky Franklin and Paige Paulson (Who is alot like Blake Schilb of Loyola).....

I think it would be a disappointing season if UWM did not at least contend for the title in the regular season for most of the year and they need to finish top 3 in my eyes...This is very attainable especially with the conference we are playing in...We will get better as the year goes on and I think we need to be in the championship game at least in our conference tourney and get more public exposure. I am hoping for an 18-20 win season....You all are probably thinking, Womack your nuts, but history is on our side and we have a hell of a general on the bench leading this team....Remember this post and dont be surprised when UWM is winning games this year

[milwsport]

I agree with you Womack. There are some people who say we won't be good enough to contend because we have so many new players and we don't know what they will do. But not knowing what will happen doesn't necessarily mean what happens will be bad.

I have faith in Jeter and in Bud. Jeter seems very pleased with this team and from what we've seen it's more athletic than the teams we've had in the past. If they can get the swing down, there's going to be a lot of disappointed Loyola, UIC and UW-GB fans.

[pantherdon]

The year you are referring to, '04 we still had Seniors Page (averaging 20 ppg), Mielke, Kadima, Juniors McCants (averaging 17 ppg), Wright, Sanders, and Sophmores Tigert, Hill, Pancratz, and Tucker among others. I hardly think that this is the same situation.

[Womack]

I totally agree that there could be alot of disappointed opposing fans in our league but I would not go as far as to say they are more athletic than in years past...Playing a three guard lineup does not exactly mean more athletic...In fact Jeter was harping on them in practice about being the slowest team in America...Obviously thats an exaggeration and he was trying to motivate them but I am not sure they are going to run teams off the floor this year...Nonetheless, this team will contend for a title for a good portion of the season...This is a team with pride and is starting to build a winning tradition year in and year out...Lets keep the 20 win season streak in tact this year....GO PANTHERS

[PantherLou]

Womack - I love your optimism, and frankly, you may very well be correct. I think we can contend, but I do realize that we are a young team, and it will take some time to the new faces to learn to play together as a cohesive unit. That being said, as long as we are playing well in February and March, there is no reason why this team cannot at least make a serious run at getting a top 3 seed in the HL tourney. And any team playing well can win that tournament.


As for your view of practice, here's my take:

1. Remember that it is only one practice. Guys can look very good or very bad on any given day. It's not enough of an observation to make any season long predictions.

2. It's also still VERY early in the season. I know Rob is still evaluating, trying to see who and what works best for this particular group. Honestly, I expect that this may continue well into the NC portion of our schedule. I hope everyone realizes this.

3. I really think AVO needs to learn to play in this offense in order to be a starter. I like Avo, and I love the enthusiasm and hustle he brings, but if he cannot lead by example, he will not start, IMO.

4. I think Sam is still learning to trust his knee. Until he does, I think he will look hesitant. Again, it may take some time.

5. I think Skinner will be fine. I have seen a few practices, and personally, I don't think he looks to be in better control than AVO.

6. Nick Hanson has one HUGE advantage over Pancratz: He can flat out shoot. The big downside with Mark was that if he was left open, he rarely made opposing teams pay by hitting the 3. Nick can and will make that shot. Plus - Nick is considerably bigger than Mark.

7. Roman Gentry is a true freshman. he's going to take some time to develop, but from what I have seen - he's going to be very good.


Anyway, that's my analysis, FWIW. I will check out at least one practice this week and will let you all know what my opinions are then.

[Pantherholic]

coldwind said:

If Avo is the 3,they're mailing the season in

i would say if Bendall is one of the top guys off the bench, we've mailed in the season. the only way he plays more than Mauldin is if Mauldin's hurt or we're losing by 50+.

[BBFran]

I'm pretty sure that there are no player scenarios that mean we are mailing in the season. Everyone learns over the course of the season, players and coaches both. From what I have seen we have a lot of talent at guard, and a lot of interesting pieces to shuffle on the front line. Rob and the staff have their work cut out for them but it will be very interesting to watch it happen. And anyone looking past this team in the HL will regret it.

[Womack]

Keeping in mind that at that time we HAD NO CLUE those guys would do what they did...Chris Hill was anything but consisten and at times his freshman year looked flat out BAD...James Wright was back on the team after he quit and after a real bad broken leg so he was certainly a question mark....Nate Mielke rarely ever contributed anything to this program....Kadima was a hell of a defender but did little else the season before that....We had NO CLUE how good McCants would be, we had NO CLUE how good Joah Tucker would be (It was all speculation and hype--which they certainly lived up to)...Rob Sanders was horrible his whole career at UWM and had never played a minute for UWM....Tigert was coming off of a serious knee injury and had only played one year with UWM...Pancratz had not even touched the floor at that point....YES we had Dylan Page who was outstanding BUT remember his senior year was when he really shined...He had a great junior year too but his senior year was when he really shined

Obviously hindsight is always 20/20 so looking back and looking at what they did by taking us to the dance is good and great but going into that season we had very little we could rely on and little promise OTHER than speculation and hype put on the players....We are in a very very very similar situation right now...Bruce was only in his second year (I believe) which is the situation Rob is in now...I guess only time will tell but you can hardly say it is totally different...Who is to say we dont have two more studs step up in the way that McCants and Joah did? It can happen and I think if anyone believes otherwise, they are ignorant

pantherdon said:

The year you are referring to, '04 we still had Seniors Page (averaging 20 ppg), Mielke, Kadima, Juniors McCants (averaging 17 ppg), Wright, Sanders, and Sophmores Tigert, Hill, Pancratz, and Tucker among others. I hardly think that this is the same situation.

[pantherdon]

But, we didn't make it to the dance that year, and we had something that year that this year we have little of.
Experience as a team.

[milwsport]

No, we didn't make it to the dance, but we did win the regular season league title and then got badly jobbed in the tourney title game against UIC.

[uwm97]

pantherholic said:

coldwind said:

If Avo is the 3,they're mailing the season in

i would say if Bendall is one of the top guys off the bench, we've mailed in the season. the only way he plays more than Mauldin is if Mauldin's hurt or we're losing by 50+.

As I've posted before, I have it on good authority that Bendall will not be in the regular rotation this year.

Thank God.

[uwm97]

milwsport said:

No, we didn't make it to the dance, but we did win the regular season league title and then got badly jobbed in the tourney title game against UIC.

Come on sport, we didn't get jobbed at all that game. As I recall our guys couldn't hit a damn free throw to save their lives. That's why we lost.

[Womack]

Bendall will be in the rotation when they need physical play and tough rebounding...He is a physical player who proved that towards the end of last season