UWM head coach Lundy accepts blame for taking his foot off the gas in overtime loss to Wright State
Todd Rosiak
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
That UW-Milwaukee saw its four-game winning streak snapped by Wright State on Saturday night wasn't necessarily troubling.
It was more the why.
"I didn’t think that we were ourselves," said UWM coach Bart Lundy, whose team had a chance to improve to 7-1 in Horizon League play for the first time since the 2008-09 season only to fall, 78-74, in overtime at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and drop into a tie for first place in the standings with Youngstown State.
"We weren’t us for 30 minutes," he continued. "We weren’t tough. We weren’t defending with the intensity that got us to wherever we are, for whatever reason. Whether we’re feeling ourselves a little bit. We weren’t sharing the ball and just weren’t playing good basketball."
Sporting almost a completely turned-over roster and a new coaching staff, the Panthers (12-6, 6-2) are nevertheless 18 games into the season.
So, where does the responsibility fall in such a letdown?
"It’s completely me. It’s completely me," Lundy said. "I always tell myself as we get into January and February never to take your foot off the gas. We were all tired on Friday. I was tired, and I took my foot off the gas. We went through the motions and we guarded their stuff, but I didn’t think I got us to that elite level that we had been getting to.
"So, that’s on me. I tried to rev them up at shootaround (earlier Saturday), but I felt like we weren’t as focused as we’d been."
UWM got 20 points and nine rebounds from emerging star BJ Freeman and career highs of 19 points and 42 minutes from Markeith Browning II, but it wasn't enough to overcome a season-worst 34.2% shooting performance from the floor as a unit or an offense that finished with a season-low six assists.
The Panthers and Raiders (11-8, 4-4) were tied at 32 at halftime after a bowling-shoe ugly first half before seven straight points out of the locker room by Elijah Jamison gave UWM a 39-36 lead.
Things quickly went south from there, however, as Wright State rattled off 20 of the next 21 points to open a 56-40 lead before a three-pointer by Freeman halted the run.
From there, the Panthers slowly chipped away at the deficit and after a three from Kentrell Pullian with 2 minutes 18 seconds remaining had pulled to within 67-66.
A three-point play by Browning left it 69-all with 1:08 left.
"Credit to Wright State. They packed it in, they were tough on the ball, they raked the gaps," Lundy said. "I thought when we started pressing them we got a little better and loosened up and went on a big run, so I was happy about the heart that we showed.
"But we’ve got to play more together. We’ve got to play more intensely coming out of the gate."
After getting stops on each of Wright State's final two possessions UWM was in position to win the game in regulation only to not be able to finish a couple shots the first time and turn the ball over in the final seconds the second.
"We had some really good looks at the end," Lundy said. "I thought a couple of those were going in to win it."
Browning opened the scoring in overtime with a driving layup, but Wright State guard Trey Calvin wouldn't be denied as he answered with a layup and then drilled jumpers on three consecutive possessions to give the Raiders a three-point lead.
He finished with a game-high 23 points.
Tim Finke split a pair of free throws with 17.2 seconds left to put the game on ice.
"Give Calvin credit – maybe we should have trapped him earlier, but he made tough shot after tough shot," Lundy said. "They were highly contested and he made four of them."
UWM also didn't help itself by hitting 4 of 7 free throws over the final 4:32 of regulation and then overtime.
The Panthers' defense forced 19 turnovers but UWM also committed 18 itself one game after giving it away 22 times against Northern Kentucky as a season-long problem has begun to re-emerge.
One bright spot was the continued strong play off the bench of Moses Bol, who tied his career high with seven points and set a new career high with seven rebounds with a pair of blocks and a pair of steals in 21 minutes -- seven more than he'd ever played before.
"Moses, he’s kind of waited his turn," Lundy said. "Doesn’t ever complain, just comes to work and does his job and goes to school and works hard. To have him come in and really make a huge impact on this game when we really needed him I thought was awesome to see, and I was proud of him for that.
"He was a big part of protecting that rim especially."
Hoping to stave off the fatigue Lundy mentioned, the Panthers will have the day off Sunday before beginning preparations Monday for home games against Robert Morris on Thursday and Youngstown State on Saturday -- a game that could be a battle for sole possession of first place.
"We have shown that resiliency throughout the season," said Lundy. "We’ve got guys in there crying in the locker room, so they care. They want to win.
"We’ll see if we can handle some adversity. I told them nobody’s going to feel sorry for you. Nobody around the league is going to cry for us. We’ve got two tough teams coming in next week, so can we right the ship?
"We’ve handled success OK; can we handle adversity?"
>>>>Having my morning coffee and reading this and two things come to my mind : one you never take your foot off the gas even in practice and two NEVER tell the public what goes on in the locker room <<<<<
Last year after 18 games we were 6 and 12 this year we are 12 and 6. Good job so far coach , keep building on chemistry though.
, I told Mrs. Cactus that is probably the Ty guy from the message board. Sure enough.
, I told Mrs. Cactus that is probably the Ty guy from the message board. Sure enough.
