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Jan. 31, 2003

The Sandy Botham File A 1988 Notre Dame graduate, Sandy Botham is in her seventh season at the helm of the UWM women's hoops program. The two-time MCC/Horizon League Coach of the Year owns a 127-86 career mark, good for a .601 winning percentage. The second- winningest coach in school history and the all-time leader in Division I victories, Botham is 105-82 in her six-plus seasons in Milwaukee. Last season, Botham led UWM to its first 20-win season in the school's ten-year Division I history. Botham's teams have posted a 60-28 record in Horizon League play over the years, including regular season and tournament titles in 2000-01. Assisting Botham on the sidelines are first year assistants Joe Conroy, Lea Robinson, and Nicole Luchsinger with 1997 Midwestern Collegiate Conference Player of the Year Jen Greger serving as Director of Basketball Operations.

Scouting The Ramblers The Ramblers of Loyola University have been a team of streaks in 2002-03, and are currently 7-12 overall and tied with UWM at 4-4 in the Horizon League. Loyola started the year with three straight losses, then, following a win over Eastern Illinois, dropped five more contests to go to 1-8. LUC then ran off six straight wins, including a 66-57 win over Milwaukee, before dropping its last four games. A perimeter oriented team, Loyola is led by sophomore guard Ciara Henderson's 13.3 ppg while senior center Sarah Hamilton averages 12.7 points and 6.1 boards per contest. The Ramblers have hit 103 three-pointers on the year and have given up just 65 from downtown. Head coach Mary Helen Walker is in her sixth-season at the Chicago-based school and owns a 36-67 career record.

So We Meet Again These two teams opened up Horizon League play against each other on December 30th and the Ramblers spoiled the UWM party, posting a 66-57 win at the Gentile Center in Chicago. Loyola ran out to a 35-28 halftime lead and held off a late UWM rally for the victory. Maria Viall led all players with 22 points and 12 rebounds in the game while Meskhenet Lands led three Loyola players in double figures with 17 points.

From One End To The Spectrum To The Other In the last week, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball team has ran the gamut of postgame emotions. The Panthers were riding high after a two-game road trip to Wright State and Butler which resulted in a 2-0 record. The weekend marked the first back-to-back wins on the season for UWM as well as a three-game road winning streak. However, the Panthers were brought back down to earth just as quickly following Wednesday's 66-60 loss to Chicago State. The young Panthers will look for consistency during the last month of the regular season before the 2002-03 Horizon League Tournament in Green Bay in March.

"Second City" Not Kind To Northerly Neighbors While the rivalry between the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee is legendary, the Windy City has not been particularly kind to the UWM women's basketball team in 2002-03. Following Wednesday's loss to Chicago State, UWM is now 0-3 versus teams from the city of Chicago. In fact, the Panthers have lost four straight to teams that call Chicago home, including the previous loss to Loyola and two consecutive defeats to Illinois-Chicago.

Cold-Shooting Hampers UWM Wednesday's game marked the fourth-worst shooting output of the season for UWM, and as a result, the Panthers dropped a 66-60 decision to Chicago State. Milwaukee has now shot under 40% six times on the season and are 0-6 in those games. Versus CSU the Panthers shot just 33.3% in the first half while allowing the visitors to connect on 54.5% of its shots. Milwaukee's worst shooting output of the season came on Jan. 2, when it made just 21-of-63 shots, 33.3%, in a 66-57 overtime loss to Detroit.

Spreading The Wealth Proving to be more than just the Maria Viall and Jessica Wilhite show, the UWM offense placed four players in double-figures in scoring versus Chicago State on Wednesday. While Viall and Wilhite led the way with 17 and 12 points respectively, Kimberly Becker and Anne Witte each added 11 points to give Milwaukee four double-digit scorers. Ironically, UWM is just 1-3 in games in which four players score 10 or more points with the win coming over Oklahoma State with losses coming to Chicago State, Illinois-Chicago, and New Hampshire.

R E B...R E B O U N D....REBOUND It comes as no surprise that the UWM offensive turnaround has come in large part to the Panthers total domination on the backboards. Milwaukee has outrebounded the opposition in 14 of 18 games this season, including all eight Horizon League games. The Panthers, who set a school-record with a +33 rebound margin at Youngstown State, outrebounded Cleveland State by 28 and Wright State by 26 last Thursday. UWM currently leads the league with a +7.2 rebound margin, which has increased to +13.6 in Horizon League action.

Maria Viall---Player Of The Week How good was Maria Viall last week? Try 28 points per game. 17 rebounds per game. A 69.7% field goal percentage. And most importantly, back-to-back wins for her team. For her efforts the 6-3 junior center was named the Horizon League Player of the Week on Monday (Jan. 27). Viall led UWM to a 76-65 victory on Wright State on Thursday thanks to 28 points, 12-18 shooting, two blocks, and a school-record tying 21 rebounds. The Waukesha-native followed that up with a 28-point, 13-rebound, 73.3% shooting performance in a 70-62 win at Butler on Saturday. The POY honor was the first this season for Viall.

A Quick Glance--The Horizon League Race Halfway through the 2002-03 Horizon League season and this much we know: UW- Green Bay is solid at No.1 with a 7-1 record. Butler and Youngstown State are clearly at the bottom at 2-6 and 1-6 respectively. However, slots 2-7 get tricky as all six teams in those spots are either .500 or one game above or below the break even point. UIC and Detroit are tied for second place at 5-3, Wright State sits fourth at 4-3, Milwaukee and Loyola stand at 4-4, while Cleveland State sits at 3-5. With so many teams so close together, head-to-head games will loom large in determing seeding for the Horizon League Tournament in Green Bay, March 6-9, 2003.

Home Has Not Been Kind Part of the UWM troubles this season can be attributed to struggles at home. After dominating at the Klotsche Center the last two-plus seasons, the Panthers have struggled to defend the home turf this year. Milwaukee is currently 3-5 overall at the Klotsche Center in 2002-03, and just 1-2 in home conference games. This comes after the last three seasons in which UWM posted a 21-1 home league record and an 18-5 overall mark at home over the last two years. The Panthers have struggled to score at home this season and are scoring just 65.1 ppg while shooting 41.6% on the friendly rims.

Freshmen Duo Provide Light For The Future On a team with just three upperclassmen, the recent play of freshmen Nichole Drummond and Anne Witte have given UWM head coach Sandy Botham a glimpse of the future. Over the last seven games, Drummond is fourth on the team with a 9.1 scoring average and third on the squad with 5.0 rebounds per contest. Meanwhile, Witte is scoring at an 8.3 ppg clip over the same time frame, with a team-leading 23 assists to go with 84.6% shooting from the free throw line. Combined the duo has averaged 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 5.3 assists while shooting 81% from the charity stripe.