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March 4, 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 134-87 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 112-83 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.

Handicapping The Field While the 2003 Horizon League women's basketball tournament is technically a nine-team race, anyone who follows the league understands there is definitely a frontrunner through which all teams must go. That team, the No. 1 seed and 21st ranked University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Not only does UWGB enter play with a gaudy 24-3 overall mark and 15-1 league record, but it also gets to play the tournament at home, on the Phoenix Sports Center floor. The UWM road to the championship will begin on Thursday versus No. 6 seed Cleveland State. The Panthers defeated CSU in their two regular season-meetings, and averaged 88.5 points per game in doing so. In the second round, UWM would more than likely face No. 2 seed University of Illinois-Chicago. Milwaukee tied with UIC for second-place in the league as the two teams split the regular season series, with each team winning at home. UIC will face No. 7 Detroit in its quarterfinal game. The Titans defeated UWM earlier in the season in Milwaukee before the Panthers exacted revenge in Detroit.

UWM Tournament And Sports Center History Thursday will mark UWM's eighth appearance in the Horizon League (formerly Midwestern Collegiate Conference) Tournament and seventh straight since 1997. The Panthers own a 4-6 all-time record in the tournament, with a quarterfinal win in 1999 to go with the 2001 tourney championship. The Panthers have never been a No. 3 seed in the tournament and are just 3-3 when entering the game as the favored team. UWM has faced Cleveland State three times in the tournament with the Vikings winning two of those contests. Ironically, UWM's only win over CSU in the postseason came at the Phoenix Sports Center in 1997. Over the years, Milwaukee has played 30 games at the Sports Center and owns a 9-21 mark in those contests.

Regular Season Recap Playing the 23rd toughest schedule in the country was no easy task for a young UWM Panther squad, and the early season record proved it. Milwaukee opened the season 3-8, with two of the losses coming to Top Ten teams in No. 8 Purdue and at No. 9 Vanderbilt. The Panthers struggled to begin Horizon League play as well, dropping their first two games to sit at 4-9 on Jan. 2. Then, after splitting its next four Horizon League games to go 2-4, Milwaukee ended up winning nine of its last 11 overall and nine of ten league games to finish the regular season 15-12 overall and 11-5 in loop action. With that mark, UWM is guaranteed a winning record for the fourth straight season.

And The Young Shall Lead Them With just two seniors on the roster and three upperclassmen total, a youth movement has definitely been served at UWM in 2002-03. Not including senior Jessica Wilhite and junior Maria Viall, the other nine players on the Panther roster had started a combined two collegiate contests heading into the season. UWM's other senior, Antoinette Gregory, had not started a game in her previous three years while sophomores Kimberly Becker and Teri Huff each received one starting nod last year. The Panther roster is comprised of two seniors (Wilhite and Gregory), one junior (Viall), four sophomores (Becker, Huff, Feilbach, and St. Aubin), and four freshmen (Drummond, Hoppenrath, O'Brien, and Witte). Furthermore, the current roster includes just eight scholarship players with Robbi Hoppenrath, Julayne Feilbach and UWM soccer player Kerri St. Aubin serving as walk-ons.

Wilhite Bombs Away In Record Fashion Thanks to her trifecta in the second half versus Butler, the Horizon League Three-Point Triple Crown now belongs exclusively to UWM senior Jessica Wilhite. With her last three-point shot, Wilhite now has 275 in her career, good for the top spot in Horizon League history, breaking the old mark of 274 set by Wright State's Chanda Hollingsworth. Furthermore, with 93 triples in 2000-01 and 10 threeball's versus UW-Green Bay on 1/20/01, Wilhite can lay claim to the career, single season, and single game records in the Horizon League. With her 275 career triples, Wilhite currently sits 25th all-time in NCAA Division I history.

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 17.9 points, 10.3 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 Even with the constant double and triple teams, No. 24 still has posted 11 "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. Viall currently sits 19th nationally in rebounding and 21st in field goal percentage. Panthers Streak Into The Postseason There is no better time to peak than at the end of the season and the 2002-03 UWM Panthers are doing just that. After starting the season 8-11, UWM has won head into the Horizon League Tournament a two game winning streak while winning seven of its last eight games. During the stretch, Milwaukee has shot 47.3% from the field, 73.4% from the line, and 35.0% from the three-point line. In addition, the UWM offense has increased its prodcution to 71.0 ppg during the stretch while holding the opposition to 63.2 points per contest. The Panthers have outrebounded the opposition an average of 42.8 to 29.4 per game while making 105 free throws to the opponents 86.

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 +9.2 rebound margin on the year, Milwaukee is currently fifth 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 +13.5 rebound margin in league-only games and have outrebounded the opposition in all 16 games. UWM set a school-record with a +33 rebound margin at Youngstown State before 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.

No Sophomore Slump For Becker 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 10.1 ppg norm while adding 5.7 rebounds per contest. No. 5 has really excelled in Horizon League play, with 10.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game to go with a remarkalbe 62.6% field goal percentage. Becker scored a career-high 28 points versus Cleveland State Feb. 8 before exploding for 27 more markers versus Wright State on Thursday.

Rookies Make Their Mark If its not Nichole Drummond its Anne Witte. If its not Witte its Molly O'Brien. Some nights, its all three. Such is the life of the UWM freshmen class. On a team with just three upperclassmen, the trio of newcomers have all contributed in a big way this season. Drummond,a 5-10 forward, leads all Panther rookies in scoring (6.7) and rebounding (3.8) while Witte, who has started 19 times, is tied for the team lead in steals (16), while sitting second in three's made (25), and third with 69 assists, all while shooting 91.1% from the line. O'Brien, who has really burst on the scene of late, scored a career-high 16 points at Cleveland State and has seen significant playing time of late. On the year the 5-10 forward is averaging 3.8 points and 3.2 rebounds.

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.

Panther Record Chasers Jessica Wilhite's 67 three-pointers are good for 2nd best on UWM's single season chart ... Maria Viall's current 10.3 rebound average and 279 rebounds total are both single-season school records ... Viall is UWM's all-time leader in field goal percentage while Wilhite holds the free throw percentage record ... Viall has scored 484 points on the season, good for second on the single-season list.