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Feb. 28, 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 133-87 career mark, good for a .606 winning percentage. The second-winningest coach in school history and the all-time leader in Division I victories, Botham is 111-83 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 Bulldogs After showing improvement in the early part of the year, Butler University has struggled down the stretch and will head into today's game on a three-game losing streak while dropping 13 of its last 15 games. The Bulldogs are currently 5-21 on the year and tied for last place in the Horizon League wiht a 3-12 record. However, BU does boast some talent in the lineup as center Cortney Urquhart leads the way with 11.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Lighting-quick point guard Nancy Bowden averages 10.3 ppg while leading the league in assists (173) and steals (81). Butler struggles with consistency on the offensive end of the court, shooting just 36.7% from the floor on the year, to go with 28.0% from three-point land and 63.0% from the free throw line. The Bulldogs are coached by first-year mentor Beth Couture, who came to Indianapolis following a solid career at Division II Presbyterian College.

Bench Play Leads The Way Kimberly Becker and Nichole Drummond may not have started Thursday's game versus Wright State, but they sure did finish it. The two forwards combined for 44 points of the bench in leading UWM to an 83-75 victory over the Raiders. WSU shot the ball very well in the first half, hitting 56.7% of its shots in the first 20 minutes, to take a 42-35 lead into the break. Milwaukee turned up the defensive pressure in the second half and quickly tied the game at 42 all with seven straight points. The two teams traded leads throughout most of the first half until the Panther full-court pressure took control. UWM was able to capitalize on numerous WSU turnovers, leading to Panther layups. Becker scored 27 points and Drummond added 17 while WSU's Tiffany Webb, the league's leading scorer, finished with 31.

.500 Record Assured For the fourth consecutive season, and sixth in seven seasons under Sandy Botham, UWM is assured of at least a .500 regular season finish thanks to Thursday's victory over Wright State. A win here today would then assure the Panthers of finishing above .500 for the fourth straight year. Furthermore, with the 83-75 victory, Milwaukee assured themselves of no worse than a third place finish in the Horizon League. This marks the fourth consecutive year UWM finished third or higher in the league race. With a win over Butler, UWM would finish in at least a second-place tie.

Defending The Horizon League If defense wins championships, UWM head coach Sandy Botham certainly has to like the direction her women's basketball team is heading. After struggling through the non-conference portion of the season with a 4-7 record in which the Panthers major turnaround in conference play can be directly attributed to an increased focus on the defensive end. In non-league games, UWM gave up an average of 70.8 ppg while allowing the opposition to shoot 45.2% from the floor and 39.4% from three-point land. However, during the 10-5 run through the Horizon League, Milwaukee's defensive numbers stand at 65.8 ppg allowed to go with 40.0% shooting and just 31.9% marksmanship from downtown.

A Look At The Horizon League Tournament With one day of games left to play in the Horizon League regular season, there is really just one major question left to decide in preparing for the postseason tournament. That question is, who will finish 6th and play the No. 3 seed and who finishes 7th to play the No. 2 seed. Here is where things stand as of now: UW-Green Bay has assured itself of a league championship and the No. 1 seed in the postseason tourney with a 14-1 record. UWM and UIC, currently tied for second place at 10-5, will finish in the two and three slots, with UIC holding the tiebreaker edge. At 8-7, Wright State will earn the No. 4 seed regardless of its outcome at UWGB. 8-8 Loyola will finish 5th, and will face WSU in the first round. Cleveland State and Detroit are tied for sixth with identical 6-9 records. However, the two teams play on Saturday so the winner finishes 6th, the loser 7th. And rounding out the field with 3-12 marks are Butler and Youngstown State, who will play in the league "play-in" game.

Offense Turns Up The Dial You may have to excuse them, but the Milwaukee Panthers have been a bit offensive since Horizon League play began the last week of December. In the 15 conference games, UWM has increased its scoring output to 70.7 ppg while shooting nearly 45.0% from the floor. The scoring total is up nine points per game over UWM's production in its eleven non-league games while the shooting percentage is up from 42.5%.

Dominating The Boards UConn. Tennessee. Louisiana Tech. Stanford. Duke. What do the perennial national powers listed have in common with UWM in 2002-03? Rebounding. That's right. With a +9.1 rebound margin on the year, Milwaukee is currently sixth nationally in that category, trailing the likes of UConn, Tennessee and Louisiana Tech while standing just in front of Stanford and Duke. The 2002-03 Panthers are on pace to shatter the school-record of +2.9 rebound margin set by last year's 20-8 squad.

More On The Rebounding Front As noted earlier, the UWM dominance on the boards have reached a national level. UWM has been outrebounded just four times all season, but never in Horizon League play. The Panthers own a remarkable +13.7 rebound margin in league-only games and have outrebounded the opposition in all 15 games. In addition to Thursday's +17 rebound edge, UWM set a school-record with a +33 margin at Youngstown State before while posting +28 and +26 margin's versus Cleveland State and Wright State respectively. The +28 is tied for second best all-time while the +26 is good for fifth in school annals.

Becker Explodes In Sophomore Campaign If you look under the term "breakout year" in the dictionary, you may very well find a picture of UWM sophomore Kimberly Becker. After averaging a modest 2.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game as a freshman, the 6-2 power forward has burst on the scene in 2002-03. The athletic Becker has quadrupled her scoring average of a year ago to its current 10.4 ppg norm while adding 5.8 rebounds per contest. No. 5 has really excelled in Horizon League play, with 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per game to go with a remarkalbe 65.5% field goal percentage.

Career Night For All Involved Records and personal-bests fell at an alarming rate in Thursday's 83-75 victory over Wright State. First and foremost, UWM set a school, single-game record for field goal shooting, connecting on 32-of-52 shots, good for 61.5%. Sophomore forward Kimberly Becker played a large role, as she set an individual single-game FG% mark, hitting 10-of-12 shots for 83.3% while scoring 27 points, one off her career-high. The career-high milestone wasn't nearly as elusive for freshman Nichole Drummond, who scored 17 points in the victory, eclipsing her previous best of 16 points which came Jan. 4 versus Cleveland State.

Looking For A Second-Term Is a campaign really necessary to promote UWM junior Maria Viall for her second-term as Horizon League Player of the Year? Here are the facts. Viall won the award as a sophomore last year for a second place team. Now a junior, Viall still plays for a second place team. Her current numbers of 17.5 points, 10.1 boards, 57.0% field goal shooting and 1.8 blocks not only lead the team but are good for fourth, second, first and first respectively on the current Horizon League charts while all bettering her marks of a year ago. And the 6-3 center does all of this while facing continual double and triple teams every game out. No one player in the league gets game-planned for more than VIall. Even with the constant attention, No. 24 still has posted 10 "double-double's" on the year, including two 20-point, 20-rebound games In Horizon League play. If Viall repeats as Horizon League POY she will join Notre Dame's Karen Robinson (1989-92) as the only players to repeat as league Most Valuable Player and would enter her senior season looking for an unprecedented third straight award.

Panther Record Chasers Jessica Wilhite's 62 three-pointers are good for 4th best on UWM's single season chart ... Maria Viall's current 10.1 rebound average is tied for the best mark in school history while her 262 boards are good for second highest in a season ... Viall set a single season school-record with her 48th block shot of the season at UW-Green Bay on Saturday.

Wilhite's Trophy Case Grows Larger With a free throw in the last minute at Cleveland State on Feb. 8, senior guard Jessica Wilhite became UWM's all-time leading scorer on the Division I level. Wilhite, who now has 1,440 points, surpassing 1997 MCC Player of the Year and current Director of Operations Jen Greger as the school's all-time Division I scoring leader. Wilhite currently sits in fourth place on the school's all-time scoring list, just 87 points away from third place all-time. Wilhite, who alreadys owns the UWM career mark for three-pointers made with 269 (and counting), needs just five more trifectas to break the Horizon League career record of 273 career three's made, set by Wright State's Chanda Hollingsworth.

Botham Inks Four In The Fall While losing just two seniors in Jessica Wilhite and Antoinette Gregory, next season should be bright for the UWM women's hoops program. And in November head coach Sandy Botham bolstered the future of the program with the signing of four players to National Letters of Intent. UWM added two players from Wisconsin in 6-4 Nicole Almberg of Oshkosh, Wis. and Oshkosh West High School and 5-9 Beth Reckelberg of Luxemburg-Casco High School. Botham's last two recruits, 5-9 Jessica Altieri and 5-6 Aubrey Hampton, both come from the Land of Lincoln. Altieri preps at Stevenson High School in suburban Lincolnshire while Hampton plays for Oak Park-River Forest High School in Oak Park.