Panthers Face Key Road Test In Cleveland
Feb. 18, 2008
#25: Milwaukee (13-11, 8-6) @ Cleveland St. (17-11, 10-6)
Tipoff The Panthers snapped a three-game losing streak with a 66-56 win over Green Bay Saturday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Milwaukee scored 18-straight points during the second half as it overcame a 12-point deficit in the final 14 minutes. Deonte Roberts scored 17 points to lead UWM. The Vikings saw their modest three-game winning streak snapped Saturday at Butler, but Cleveland State remains in third place in the league. CSU has just two league games remaining, leaving Wednesday's contest crucial for both teams. The game is set to tip off at 6 p.m. CST Wednesday and will be televised live on Time Warner Sports, ESPN Full Court and ESPN360. • Game #25 The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men's basketball team plays its final regular season league road game Wednesday night at Cleveland State. • Scouting The Vikings Cleveland State lost at Butler Saturday, snapping a three-game winning streak. But, CSU still enters play Wednesday holding down third place in the Horizon League. J'Nathan Bullock is averaging 14.5 points per game while Cedric Jackson adds 14.2 points per contest to lead the Vikings on offense. Cleveland State has played solid defense all season long, allowing opponents to shoot just 42.2 percent from the field while giving up just 63.8 points per contest. The Vikings have lost just one league home game, with Wright State knocking off CSU at the Wolstein Center two weeks ago.
• History Lesson UWM holds a 17-11 lead in the all-time series with Cleveland State thanks to a 11-game winning streak over the Vikings. Milwaukee has also won five-straight games over Cleveland State in Cleveland, with CSU's last win in the series coming in Cleveland in 2002. • First Time With The Vikings Ricky Franklin scored 18 points to lead five players in double figures as UWM claimed a 79-71 win over Cleveland State Jan. 26 at the U.S. Cellular Arena. Two players added double-doubles for the Panthers, with Marcus Skinner tallying 15 points and 10 rebounds while Paige Paulsen contributed 13 points and 11 rebounds. Plus, Deion James scored 13 points off the bench and Deonte Roberts added 10 points. CSU sent Milwaukee to the foul line 22 times in the final three minutes of the game as the Panthers shot 41 total free throws in the contest. • Sorting Out The League When the ball is thrown in the air Wednesday night, the Horizon League Tournament will be less than two weeks away. In that time frame, teams have between two and four regular-season league contests remaining, with a number of teams still jostling for position in the standings. Butler is close to clinching the regular season league title while Wright State, Cleveland State and UWM all remain in the fight for the key second spot. But, CSU and UWM are also part of a group of five teams with between six and eight losses, with one of those five teams destined for a road game in the first round of the league tournament. Milwaukee can still mathematically finish as high as second or as low as eighth in the final league standings. • On The Road Again After struggling away from home a year ago, the Panthers have found their stride away from Milwaukee a bit more this season. In fact, UWM is 5-6 on the road this season after going just 2-15 away from home last season. The Panthers have also won four of their last seven on the road. UWM has enjoyed plenty of success away from Milwaukee in recent years, going 41-41 on the road over the last five-plus seasons. • Busting That Bracket UWM will take on Bradley in an O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters game, ESPN officials announced earlier this month. The contest will be played Saturday at Carver Arena in Peoria, Ill., with the contest tipping off at 8 p.m. CST and airing on ESPN360. The Braves (15-12) have positioned themselves for a run at the postseason. In fact, after suffering through a six-game losing streak with top performer Daniel Ruffin injured, Bradley has bounced back to win seven of its last nine games. The BracketBusters agreement includes a return game by Bradley to the U.S. Cellular Arena next season, with that game date to be announced. • Winning And Losing UWM has experienced plenty of highs and lows in the first 24 games of the 2007-08 season. In fact, after enduring a six-game losing streak from late November to mid-December, the Panthers put together a six-game winning streak from late December until the loss at Butler Jan. 12. The winning streak marked UWM's first six-game win streak since Milwaukee won eight-straight from Dec. 17, 2005, to Jan. 11, 2006. Since that run, the Panthers have had a three-game winning streak and a three-game losing streak, with the overall tally finding UWM having won 10 of its last 14 games. With still two weeks to play, Milwaukee has also shown marked improvement from a season ago. In fact, the Panthers have already exceeded their overall win total and league win total. Plus, UWM has won five true road games this season. • Learning The Lessons Of A Challenge Perhaps one of the answers to UWM's much-improved play over the last two months comes from the idea the Panthers' non-league schedule truly got them ready for league play. In fact, the five non-league teams that have beaten UWM are a combined 96-28 entering play this week, and UWM's overall non-league schedule is ranked 57th nationally. In case you haven't paid attention, Wisconsin, Marquette and Drake are all nationally-ranked while Sam Houston State is 19-5 and Northern Iowa is 15-11. • Updating The Roster UWM's roster is officially down to 13 players, with 10 of them active for the rest of the season. Since the start of the year, the Panthers have lost five scholarship players. Those that have departed include Avery Smith (dismissed Nov. 7); Torre Johnson (dismissed Dec. 18); Roman Gentry (left team Dec. 18); Kevin Johnson (left team Dec. 20 - officially dropped from roster Jan. 18); and Tim Flowers (left team Dec. 20 - officially dropped from roster Jan. 23). Of the 13 on the roster, Joe Allen and Zach Holt are both sidelined for the season by injury while Brad Carroll is redshirting this season, though he does dress for games. Walk-ons Deion James and Jason Averkamp are also part of the active roster. • Quick Hits Milwaukee has now beaten its in-state rival from Green Bay 13 times in the last 18 meetings between the two schools. That streak includes wins in nine of the last 10 contests in Milwaukee, with UWM's average margin of victory nearly 17 points per game in those nine wins ... leading scorer Paige Paulsen saw a streak of 11-straight games in double figures snapped when he scored just eight points at Wright State Feb. 2. He also scored just eight points in Saturday's win and has made just 16 of his last 59 shots from the field ... when Deion James poured in 16 points Saturday, it was the first time in four games he reached double digits. But, it was the seventh double-figure outing in his last 12 contests ... Allan Hanson made five 3-pointers against Butler Tuesday night but has made just 11 three-pointers in the other 23 games this season ... Ricky Franklin has reached double figures offensively in five of his last seven games and has scored at least eight points in 12 of his last 13 contests ... Kaylan Anderson has averaged 6.7 ppg in the last three games in which he has appeared. He did not play against Wright State Feb. 2 ... UWM has already fielded five different starting lineups this season, though the Panthers have used the same starting five over the last 13 games. Seven different players have earned starts. Last season, the Panthers used seven different starting lineups with eight different players earning starts. • Last Time Out Deonte Roberts scored 17 points and Marcus Skinner added nine points and a collegiate-best 17 rebounds as UWM captured a 66-56 win over Green Bay Saturday at the U.S. Cellular Arena. UWM led by as many as 11 points early in the first half before Green Bay built a 12-point lead with just over 14 minutes to play. But, the Panthers dominated the game from there, using a 22-3 run to reclaim control and pull out the win. Milwaukee also got 16 points off the bench from Deion James and 10 points, six rebounds and five assists from Ricky Franklin. • Comeback Kids The Panthers did it again Saturday night, showing their penchant for the dramatic by falling down double digits before rallying for the win. This time, UWM trailed by 12 points with 14 minutes to play before coming back for a 10-point win. It marked the fourth time this season UWM has overcome a double-digit second-half deficit to capture the win. Milwaukee trailed by 17 points at Ball State Nov. 14 before rallying to win in overtime and then trailed by 10 points at halftime against South Dakota State before pulling out the win. Also, Jan. 3 against Detroit, UWM was down 14 with 6:30 to play before claiming the win on a Paige Paulsen three-pointer with just two seconds left. • A Game Of Runs Every game has its ebbs and flows, but Saturday's win over Green Bay seemed to break down into three distinct portions. First, UWM opened the game on an 18-7 run and then finished the game on a 29-8 burst. In between those two runs, Green Bay outscored Milwaukee, 41-19. Each team also had a scoreless streak of more than nine minutes in the game, with UWM going 9:38 without a basket before Green Bay went 9:16 without an offensive tally. • Crashing The Glass The Panthers have done a solid job this season of making up for less than stellar field goal shooting by crashing the glass. That was the case again Saturday night, as UWM collected 20 offensive rebounds in the win over Green Bay. It marked a season high in the category and the most by the Panthers since they tallied 23 in an overtime win against Detroit last season. Milwaukee also had 27 second-chance points, its high mark this season. Overall, UWM captured a 41-27 rebounding edge and is 9-3 this season when outrebounding its opponent. • The Skinny On Skinner It is getting harder to find the words to describe the individual emergence of senior Marcus Skinner during the 2007-08 season. Last week provided yet another example of how far he has come. First, he scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the overtime loss to Butler. Then, had added nine points and 17 rebounds in the win over Green Bay. The rebounding numbers will put his name in the UWM record books, as the 17 rebounds marked the second-most by a Panther in the school's Division I history. Plus, 10 of his 17 rebounds vs. Green Bay came on the offensive end, with 10 offensive rebound the most by a Panther since the 1995-96 season. And then there is the breakdown of just how much his numbers have changed as the season has moved along. After the loss to UIC Dec. 6, Skinner was averaging 2.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. Then, over the next seven games, Skinner averaged 6.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per contest. Since that time (a string of nine games), Skinner is averaging 12.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. • Youth Is Served Everyone has been getting involved on offense for the Panthers of late, but in the latest victory it was a group of youngsters that showed the way offensively. In fact, UWM's three leading scorers against Green Bay Saturday were all underclassmen. Freshman Deonte Roberts led the way with 17 points. • Getting Everyone Involved UWM's success in the last two months has found a number of people getting involved offensively. In fact, the Panthers have had five players reach double figures twice in the last five games. In league play, two players on the active roster are averaging in double figures, with Paige Paulsen (13.7 ppg) and Ricky Franklin (10.6 ppg) leading the way. Deion James, Deonte Roberts and Marcus Skinner all aren't far behind, with Skinner averaging 9.7 ppg, James 9.2 ppg, and Roberts averaging 8.4 ppg in Milwaukee's 14 league contests. • Those Last-Second Shots You don't often get multiple chances in a season to tie or win a game with a last-second shot, but Ricky Franklin has cashed in on both of his chances for a buzzer-beater this season. Franklin hit a three at the buzzer to force overtime at Ball State in November, with the Panthers pulling that game out in the extra five minutes. Then Tuesday, Franklin rushed the ball up the court and hit a three with 0.7 seconds remaining to force overtime against Butler. Franklin isn't the only one making key late shots, as a Paige Paulsen three with two seconds left led UWM past Detroit earlier this year. • Improving The Defense There is no question much-improved play on defense is a big reason for UWM's winning ways of late. After the Panthers fell to UIC Dec. 6, they had allowed 80 or more points in five-straight games and were allowing opponents 79 points per game and a 48.2 percent shooting clip. Since that time, opponents are shooting just 43.4 percent from the field and scoring just 64.6 points per game. The Panthers hadn't allowed more than 73 points in this span until Butler scored 83 in overtime Tuesday night. The pinnacle of the defensive performances may have come Jan. 7 in Youngstown, when UWM allowed just 39 points and 24.5 percent shooting. • Up Next UWM plays its final regular season road game Saturday at Bradley. |
