Baseball Team Honored By "College Sports Madness"

The "College Sports Madness" website named its 2013 Horizon League All-Conference Teams today and, as anyone associated with the Panthers this year would have guessed, it was UWM-heavy to say the least, especially with its specialty award winners.

(And, some of the positions for players are a bit questionable...)

The lists are below:

Field Player of the Year: Michael Porcaro, Milwaukee

Pitcher of the Year: Jake Long, Milwaukee

Freshman of the Year: Mitch Ghelfi, Milwaukee

Coach of the Year: Scott Dffek, Milwaukee

First Team

P Jake Long, Milwaukee
P Tomas Michelson, Illinois-Chicago
P Karch Kowalczyk, Valparaiso
IF Ryan Boise, Illinois-Chicago
IF Michael Porcaro, Milwaukee
IF Drew Dosch, Youngstown State
IF Garrett Gray, Wright State
IF Tanner Vavra, Valparaiso
OF Chris Manning, Valparaiso
OF Mark Fowler, Wright State
OF Derek Peake, Milwaukee
UTIL Andrew Bain, Valparaiso

Second Team

P Mike Schneider, Milwaukee
P Casey Henn, Wright State
P Ian Lewandowski, Illinois-Chicago
IF Josh White, Youngstown State
IF John Loeffler, Valparaiso
IF Will Fadness, Milwaukee
IF Nick Dinello, Youngstown State
IF Mitch Ghelfi, Milwaukee
OF Tyler Detmer, Illinois-Chicago
OF Jonathan Capasso, Milwaukee
OF Kieston Greene, Wright State
UTIL Ryan Solberg, Milwaukee

FOX6′s Brandon Cruz went “Beyond the Game” with the UWM baseball team.

Brandon Cruz from FOX6 stopped by "the Hank" last week and put together a great piece on the Milwaukee baseball team.

He talked to head coach Scott Doffek and a handful of seniors, going through all of the adversity that the Panthers faced this spring with scheduling and the weather to claim their first Horizon League regular-season title since 2001.

Here is the LINK to the story.

And here is the embedded video:

Weekend Pitchers Featured on Time Warner SportsChannel

JP Cadorin from Time Warner Cable SportsChannel stopped by Milwaukee baseball practice last week to interview the weekend pitching rotation that has carried the Panthers to an 8-4 start in the Horizon League, currently good for first place by two games.

Cadorin interviewed senior Jake Long (4-0, 0.79 ERA in league play), senior Cale Tassi (2-2, 4.43 ERA) and junior Mike Schneider (2-1, 3,27 ERA). The trio have combined to start all 12 conference games, with each making four starts.

Air times of the feature are listed below:

Thursday, April 18th: 4 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Saturday, April 20th: 6 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 6 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Sunday, April 21st: 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Panthers Again In Running For McCafferty Trophy

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is once again the hunt for the Horizon League's McCafferty Trophy.

Entering the spring championships, Milwaukee sits just four points behind Loyola for the award. The Panthers were bolstered by winning the league title in women's swimming and diving while finishing second in men's swimming and diving, men's track and field and women's track and field.

The Ramblers have 36 total points while the Panthers have 32. Cleveland State is currently third with 26 points while UIC sits fourth at 24.5.

Milwaukee and Loyola are tied for the women's all-sports award with 19 points apiece, while the Panthers are behind the Ramblers, Cleveland State and Detroit in the chase for the men's all-sports award.

UWM is the defending McCafferty Trophy winner and has actually won the award six times. Milwaukee has also won the award 10 times.

Named in honor of James J. McCafferty, who served as the conference’s first commissioner from 1979-80, the McCafferty Trophy is awarded annually by the Horizon League to a member institution compiling the greatest number of performance points, based on its finish in the League’s 19 championship sports.

For the sports of men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, softball and baseball, points are awarded based on combined regular-season (60 percent) and championship (40 percent) finishes. For all other sports, points are based on performance in the League championships.

Is Demetrius Harris Headed To The NFL?

Demetrius Harris made great strides on the basketball court during the 2012-13 season.

Now he is back to making strides on the gridiron.

Harris, who was a standout high school football player in Arkansas and originally signed to play football at Arkansas State, is busy lining up workouts for NFL teams in the hopes of a professional football career.

Those efforts have taken off in a hurry after Harris posted some stellar workout measureables. As CBS Sports' Jason LaCanfora details here, Harris is getting in position to be another college basketball turned pro football player.

Harris does have a handful of other NFL workouts scheduled and there are tentative plans for a Pro Day at UWM next weekend. Meanwhile, Harris' stock is rising quickly from unknown to likely draft candidate.

Final Women’s Basketball Numbers

A day after the men’s basketball season was recapped, it’s time to turn your attention to the women after Connecticut claimed the national title with an impressive victory over Louisville Tuesday night.

Let’s jump right into the national numbers. The Panthers finished fourth in the country in three-pointers made per game at 8.8, with leader FGCU finishing at 9.4. The team also ended up 22nd with its 35.1 percent three-point field-goal shooting.

Individually, Emily Decorah was fifth in the country with 3.28 three’s made per game (leader was at 3.50) and placed 17th in shooting with her 40.8 percent clip from long distance, which also led the conference.

Speaking of Decorah, she broke the league and school record for three-pointers made in a season, finishing with 95 to top the former mark of 93 (Jess Wilhite, 2000-01). Her 233 attempts from beyond the arc were the second-most in school history, while her 67 made 3’s in league-only games topped the former mark of 52 as well.

A look at the Horizon League leaders shows three players in the top 16 in scoring, with Angela Rodriguez 11th at 13.2 points per game, Sami Tucker 15th (11.8 ppg) and Ashley Green 16th (11.6 ppg). Tucker (seventh with 8.0 rebounds per game) and Green (11th with 6.2 rpg) also ranked among the rebounding leaders.

Rodriguez was listed in a few categories. She placed sixth in the league in assists with 3.9 per game. Her 114 assists on the season was good for ninth place on the all-time single-season list. She was fourth in three-pointers made per game (2.1), 14th in 3FG percentage (32.4) and 12th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.0). In addition, her 84.8 percent free-throw shooting would have led the conference (leader was 84.5), but she did not end up with enough attempts to qualify.

Tucker also ended up third in the league with her 37.8 percent three-point shooting.

Final Men's Basketball Numbers

With the men's college basketball season officially coming to a close Monday night with Louisville's championship victory, now is as good of a time as any to review some final individual stats and numbers for the 2012-13 Milwaukee Panthers.

UWM actually landed a pair of players in the top 10 in the Horizon League for scoring, with Paris Gulley finishing sixth in the league (14.7 ppg) and Jordan Aaron finishing eighth (14.4). Aaron also finished seventh in assists (4.0), sixth in three-pointers made (2.1) and 10th in steals (1.3). Meanwhile, Gulley was also seventh in three-pointers made (2.0). The duo was also at the top in minutes played, with Gulley leading the league (37.0) and Aaron third (35.6).

Aaron's 34 points against Ohio Dominican wound up tied for the second-most in a single game by a league player, while Aaron had two of the seven 10-plus assist performances in the league.

Demetrius Harris also appeared in the final overall rankings, sitting ninth in field goal percentage (46.9), second in offensive rebounds (2.2) and sixth in blocks (1.0). J.J. Panoske finished tied for third in blocks (1.4).

A few season performances also made the Panther record book. Panoske's 41 total blocks set a new single-season school record, besting the 40 Ryan Allen had a season ago. Aaron played 1,140 minutes, the second-most in a single season in UWM's Division I history. Plus, Aaron's 128 assists wound up just outside of the top five, with Ricky Franklin's 132 in 2009-10 ranking fifth.