Just calling the school's athletics programs "Milwaukee" is good - although the follow through needs work.
You ain't just whistling dixie.
To the relief of everyone here, I'm going to spare you my extensive monologue on the branding of the Panthers and let others carry the load there. If you are interested in reading what I wrote on the subject and have several months of free time ahead of you, I invite you to go through my post history on here or read up at PantherU.com. I warn you, "brief" isn't really a word that I would use to describe my writings on the subject. I could self-publish a book that would make Samuel Richardson blush, but it doesn't really seem worth the effort since no one would buy it.
To quote Forrest Gump - and that's all I've got to say about that.
Look, when it comes to IUPUI, we're all just beaten down by time. Age and experience have been good teachers to all of us, and pretty much everyone I know on this board saw IUPUI coming from a mile away the second Butler announced it was leaving for the Atlantic 10.
Most of us here were present for battles with Butler. No team in this conference was as strong against the Bulldogs as Milwaukee. In our last 27 games with Butler, Milwaukee took 12 of them.
During a period in which Butler Basketball made four of their six Sweet 16 appearances, went to two national title games and came within a couple inches of doing the unthinkable, they played in the Horizon League - not the A-10, not the Big East. Before they could get to those incredible heights in the NCAA Tournament, they had to navigate a conference that was a lot tougher than anyone outside gave it credit for.
Butler's situation wasn't like Belmont's time in the Atlantic Sun, Davidson's time in the SoCon or Murray State's days in the OVC. Outside of one year - 2009-10 - they never went undefeated. At different times Wright State, Cleveland State and Valparaiso all gave them a run for their money. Valpo took their last four games with Butler. Wright State owned them in the mid-2000's. CSU trumped them just before their Final Four runs.
But again - no one played them for as hard and as long as Milwaukee did since the turn of the century. From Todd Lickliter to Brad Stevens and Bruce Pearl to Rob Jeter, the Bulldogs and Panthers enjoyed an incredibly tough rivalry for over a decade.
Buzzer beaters. Court Rushes. Championships. These were common overarching themes during the games between Butler and Milwaukee. When Butler was having a couple down years in the mid-2000's and Milwaukee was running the Horizon League, they still fought hard and took a few games. When Milwaukee was in the throes of transition in the late aughts and Butler was putting together the roster that would take them to the summit of college basketball, Milwaukee was still nipping at their heels and pushing them to the brink. In 2010, Ricky Franklin's game-tying three clanked out late, and Butler made free throws to put the game away. A few nights later, they trounced Wright State on their way to Lucas Oil Stadium and Hayward's Heave.
No two schools have seen more court rushes in a rivalry than between Butler and Milwaukee. I was there in 2009 when we knocked them out of the Top 25. Rushing the court that night was too much fun. Later, my ironclad respect for Brad Stevens was only strengthened when he waved off Butler students from rushing the court in the last great game of the rivalry. First class coach.
That season, 2010-11, I took a couple friends of mine to the home game against Butler. Kaylon Williams recorded a triple-double and the Panthers thrashed Butler by 24. One friend, Tommy, looks at the scoreboard near the end of the game, looks at me and says, "Well, it ain't national runner-up Butler." It's funny how that works. A couple weeks later we bopped them in overtime, sweeping the season series. You know, until they took us out in the title game. It was a perfect game plan - at Milwaukee, we always knew Brad was destined for bigger and better things. None of us would be surprised to see him retire as one of the greatest coaches of all time. It was a privilege being a part of this rivalry during Brad's time.
Expectations here are astronomically high for the program. The close rivalry with Butler is one of the cornerstones in the foundation of those expectations. "Beat Butler" was a rallying cry. The "Butler Flop" is probably the closest thing to a hit single SRT4Driver and I will ever write. We made annual pilgrimages to Hinkle Fieldhouse.
Hell, our long-time coach got fired after winning almost 60 games in his last three years, two years removed from his last NCAA Tournament appearance and fresh off an undefeated Big Ten season - all because he didn't win
enough. Had he not had to contend with the
greatest mid-major basketball team of all time in 2009-10 and 2010-11, it's likely that he'd have had four NCAA Tournament appearances - and if '10-11 Butler was national runner-up, how many games could the Panthers have won that year in the NCAA Tournament? After 11 years, the coach had a resume that most closely resembles the first 11 years of Jim Larranaga and Bob McKillop. That guy got
fired.
For our long-standing forum members, I don't bring that up to get us back into the Civil War of the last two years. I bring that up to explain to Tom22 just
how high expectations are for our basketball program.
So put yourself in our shoes for one moment. We spent most of our time as Panther fans getting up every day, looking at the calendar and searching for our next opportunity to Beat Butler - the greatest mid-major of all time. We planned for trips to Hinkle Fieldhouse. We got excited for conference championship battles with the Bulldogs in our own arena in front of 10,000+ fans.
Now, we're supposed to be excited...about IUPUI? Really? But don't worry, guys, they left the Jungle that seats something like 50 people. Now they're in a nice, renovated arena that seats 500 people and 7500 ghosts.
Hell, we have to see Loyola topping the standings in the Missouri Valley Conference. Frickin' Loyola. The Ramblers were our
b**** for
years. And not just us - Green Bay, Wright State, Cleveland State, Detroit, Valpo, everyone took a turn playing Jesuit Trivia and answering the question "Who is going to kick the bejesus out of us today?" by pointing two big thumbs up right at our own chest.
Now, we have to go to IUPUI. The fact that we lost doesn't bother me. The fact that we're going to spend the next several years losing because of the astronomically enormous incompetence of one sh*tty athletic director makes my Black and Gold blood boil. And in an absolutely awful conference that is a
shadow of its strength from 1998-2012.
I hope IUPUI proves us wrong. I hope they do well. I want them to be a better program, just like I want all 10 Horizon League programs to be as great as they can be.
I just don't see it.