Ahoy from Milwaukee!

Our Milwaukee Panthers are coming out to Portland for this fun little tournament this weekend.

Thought I'd share some stuff:

PantherU.com is the unofficial fan website (I run it).

Freak Forum is where you'll find our talk.

So what are you guys looking to get out of the weekend?

This is kind of new for us; I'm not sure we know what to expect. Must be honest, I was not familiar with UWM. I see you won 20 games last year. What's the team rundown on returning starters, etc.?

Welcome to PilotNation!

This weekend will open our schedule. We had or first exhibition yesterday against Concordia Irvine.
They are NAIA, but reputedly very good, and we managed to be just sloppy enough to avoid losing that game.

We graduated some key players, and are still sorting out where the minutes will go and who will run the team. Inexperience at the point is our big issue. I expect the team will be better, but we have a much harder schedule this year, so I don't know how that will translate into wins. I guess what we want out of the weekend is how to manage the ball without a big number of turnovers. Isn't that what every team wants?

We think we have scorers, and play pretty good D so if we can do that, the team should be fine.


I looked at your board, and I see you and a few fans are coming out for the weekend. I hope you have a great time. Portland is a great town.

If any of you are Soccer fans as well, we expect to host for the start of the NCAA women's championships this weekend. Best atmosphere for soccer on the country. Bring rain gear just is case and you'll be treated to some good Soccer.

Your Sarah Hagen was out here this summer wi the u23 National team and some of us got to see her play several games. Great Player! I hope you've gone out to see her play.

We don't know a lot about your team. Who should we be looking at?

I looked at your board, and I see you and a few fans are coming out for the weekend. I hope you have a great time. Portland is a great town.

Some of our forum members indicate it is possible to find a quality glass of beer in Portland. Don't know if that will be of any interest to the UWM visitors (I hear your brethren in Madison like a taste now and then).

up7587 wrote:

I looked at your board, and I see you and a few fans are coming out for the weekend. I hope you have a great time. Portland is a great town.

Some of our forum members indicate it is possible to find a quality glass of beer in Portland. Don't know if that will be of any interest to the UWM visitors (I hear your brethren in Madison like a taste now and then).

Umm.. Milwaukee became the original beervana with the invention of the railroads and refrigerator cars.

Actually the style of beer out here is quite a bit different from Oregon. More Lager style beers and a much less linberal use of hops. Though there are a few brewers from the Madison area that have comparable IPAs and specialty brews. There are a lot of breweries out here, but I think most of them model their beers after the macro brewers of this country.

Enough about beer. Already looking ahead to next year...does anyone know if there will be a return trip to Milwaukee for the Pilots next year?

up7587 wrote:This is kind of new for us; I'm not sure we know what to expect. Must be honest, I was not familiar with UWM. I see you won 20 games last year. What's the team rundown on returning starters, etc.?

You must be a little familiar with UWM...

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/7243321

The current team essentially returns four major starters from last season, although the lineup fluctuated so much that at any time as few as two of them were on the court to start the game. WG Jerard Ajami and PF Anthony Hill were our major long-tenured starters, but SG Ja'Rob McCallum (The Sporting News freshman of the year in the Horizon League and cousin to big-time Detroit recruit Ray McCallum, Jr.), PF Tony Meier, SF Ryan Haggerty, and WG Lonnie Boga all logged starting minutes at some point last year. In addition, we return SG Tone Boyle, who missed last year with a back injury but led the team in points and minutes and was named a second-team all-conference player in the 2008-2009 season.

Our best newcomers include a point guard (Kaylon Williams) who led the Missouri Valley Conference in assists as a Freshman, first-team all-state PF Kyle Kelm, and Ryan Allen, brother of NBA wayfarer Tony Allen, a lean, tall, strong WG who defends like a pro and finishes at the rim.

Only 2 of 5 starters are projected to be underclassmen, but the bench is incredibly deep and incredibly young. Seven eligible players are listed at 6'7" or taller, including four who push 6'9" and up. One of our top recruits, Evan Richard, a player who twice in high school scored 47 points or more, is being forced to redshirt this year due to our sheer depth alone. Our bench legitimately goes 11-deep.

Last year we can best be remembered as a team that led Butler at the half on two separate occasions, including in the Horizon League tournament. Two years ago we upset Butler on our home court. Our 20-win mark was the result of a furious stretch run that saw us win seven conference games in a row before bowing out by nine points to Butler, who went on to obliterate Wright State, an NIT team, by 25.

If Butler's name seems like it comes up a lot, there's a reason. In the last 10 years, it's either been Butler or Milwaukee as the face of the Horizon League. While Butler has continually kept pumping out renowned coaches like Thad Matta and Brad Stevens, Milwaukee has matched them almost step-for-step with the likes of Bo Ryan and Bruce Pearl. And the only year since 2003 that a Horizon League school hasn't won at least one game in the NCAA Tournament -- 2004 -- was the only year in that stretch that neither Butler nor UWM were in the field of 64. The Butler/UWM rivalry is incredibly fierce, and more times than any other head-to-head matchup in the nation since the year 2000 has a UWM/Butler game resulted in students rushing the court.

Looking foward to the tourney, are you not the school that somewhat controversial Tennessee Coach Bruce Pearl cut his teeth at, or is a another high profile coach that got their start there??? I may be mistaken though...we were fairley decent, ranked in the top 25 last year, beat UCLA by 20's +, beat Minn.who beat Butler pretty easily to play # 9 ranked team West Virginia in Anaheim classic champ. Game...but we lost 5 letterwinners and 3 starters from that team and have 6 brand new guys along with the returnees....good luck in our tourney!!!

Actually, UWM was the only team that jumped out at me when I saw the schedule for this tournament. I don't know much about FAU since Doherty left and didn't UC-Davis beat Stanford but lose to UC-Santa Cruz last season...Horizon league is tough and the Panthers are definitely the class of the field.

As for the Concordia game I think it is important to note that NAIA teams have been practicing for two months...may be a reason that we looked so sloppy in comparison.

The Pilots (1-0) also got a big boost off the bench from freshman guard Tanner Riley, who finished with 14 points, five assists and no turnovers in 23 minutes of action. Junior Nemanja Mitrovic added 11 points and five rebounds.

I knew he played well, but...holey cow.

This was definitely a game with a lot of bright spots. 2 questions that I come away with are:

* What kind of road team will we be?
* Can Sikma average a double double for the season?

If Sikma could consistently increase his rebounding average from 7.5 to 10 for the season with the increased minutes he receives, I think there are a lot of things to be optimistic about this year.

Luke looked like a man playing with boys the first few minutes out there. I was actually a bit stunning.

Luke told me he was gonna be a double-double machine this year. But honestly, I think he can do it.

Geezaldinho wrote:Luke looked like a man playing with boys the first few minutes out there. I was actually a bit stunning.

Hey Geez,, or anybody else local,, how did Jasonn or Kramer look....???

MESAPILOT1

MesaPilot1 wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:Luke looked like a man playing with boys the first few minutes out there. I was actually a bit stunning.

Hey Geez,, or anybody else local,, how did Jasonn or Kramer look....???

MESAPILOT1

Jasonn got six minutes, so not much to say.

Kramer was his usual soft self, didn't bang, didn't play defense, and couldn't get up and down the floor. The three blocked shots were freak accidents

MesaPilot1 wrote:

Geezaldinho wrote:Luke looked like a man playing with boys the first few minutes out there. I was actually a bit stunning.

Hey Geez,, or anybody else local,, how did Jasonn or Kramer look....???

MESAPILOT1

Kramer had some really good defensive stretches. Lots of hustle plays. Jasonn didn't get a lot of minutes, and never looked comfortable. I hope he settles in and shows some upgrading from last year.

Is it just me or does Kramer have new and improved hops?

He no longer has bands on his knees and it looked to me like he was jumping out of the gym yesterday. I just don't think I've seen him in the air as much as I did during the UW-M game.

Has anyone else noticed this?

ShipstadPilot11 wrote:Is it just me or does Kramer have new and improved hops?

He no longer has bands on his knees and it looked to me like he was jumping out of the gym yesterday. I just don't think I've seen him in the air as much as I did during the UW-M game.

Has anyone else noticed this?

All those guys looked in a lot better shape. A couple years with Brad scott has payed off big.