Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
On the road with the UWM swim team...
The Panthers are in sunny Fort Lauderdale, training at Pinecrest School, both short and long course. The team hotel is right on A1A on the beach for the third-straight season. They will be on the trip through the 16th of January before resuming the regular season schedule second semester against the University of Chicago on Jan. 23.
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The first blog entry comes from sophomore Sky Boggio:
The second day of training trip was a reminder of what training trip is all about. Four hours in the pool and another hour of dryland are an intense start to a tough trip. The morning practice started at 8:00 am, which isn’t early for a morning practice (usually morning workouts will start between 6 am or 7 am). But, it seemed earlier with the clouds covering the sun most of the time.
The temperature was in the high 40’s at the beginning, but once in the heated water the complaining seemed to decrease. Many of the guys put on swim caps to retain body heat, which helped but didn’t make it feel too warm.
After the morning practice was over I went straight to my room to take a nap. Some went to the beach, but others didn’t have the energy, plus it was only in the 60’s. My day was nothing special to talk about because I just stayed in my room basically the whole time in between practices.
After a long day of travel yesterday and a couple of practices sleep seemed to be the best option, tomorrow will be a better day to hang out on the beach.
Finally, the afternoon practice consisted of a stand up set known as “Melvins”, named after the gold medal-winning 200 butterflyer, Melvin Stewart. Stewart decided that if he was going to break the world record in the 200 butterfly he needed to even split it (make the first 100 the same speed as the second one).
He made up a set where one does a 100 off the block at a very fast pace, a 200 easy swim, followed by a 100 all out sprint from a push which is supposed to beat the time of the beginning swim. It was a tough way to finish the day.
I hope anyone reading this doesn’t think that I am a complainer because I understand working hard is the purpose of the trip and this team is going to be great because of it. I honestly wouldn’t want it to be any other way.
I think our trainer Dave Lake described it really well today when he said, “Anyone can do this training when they feel great. It’s how you perform when you feel like crap that makes a good Division 1 athlete.”
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
MBB: Decade of the 2000's - Heartbreakers
So we set more down the path of putting together a list of 10 things, topics, even players and moments to look back on the decade. We also talked about tying it in - at least sometimes - to the game(s) going on at the present time for the Panthers. As Conway noted in his first entry Saturday morning, he started by writing about Traci Edwards because some of her notable accomplishments came against Youngstown State, whom the women beat Saturday.
For this first entry, I was going to write about all of the great battles between UWM and Butler in the last decade. There was a little bit about that in my game notes for Saturday's contest. But I've decided to hold that until we play Butler the second time around, because Thursday's loss at Valpo got me to thinking about another subject from the decade ... the most heartbreaking losses. So, I took a little extra time to recollect along those lines.
Now, I don't mean to go negative on the first list. But, let's face it, you can't have heartbreak unless it means something to begin with, and this list certainly reminds me how many really, really important games the Panthers played in over the last 10 years. You can't win them all, sometimes you get absolutely steamrolled (another list for another time, maybe?), but many other times you are right there and it just slips away.
So, how about the most heartbreaking losses of the decade ..?
A few are obvious ...
Heading into Hinkle Fieldhouse, as we did Saturday, you can't help but be reminded of Avery Sheets burying a three at the horn to give the 2003 Horizon League regular season title to the Bulldogs instead of the Panthers. Justin Lettenberger had hit two free throws to put Milwaukee ahead before BU rushed down the floor and won the game. At that moment - OK, for a lot of long moments after that - it felt like the dream season of 2002-03 had been crushed. But, only 10 days later, UWM rolled past Butler at the Cell to win the league tournament (remember, UWM had hosting rights even after finishing second as the tourney format was in transition). Did that make up for not also winning the regular season title? I'd say probably not, but it sure made it easier to take.
Read my original account of the game here.
Just a week earlier, there was another heartbreak. Do you remember the name Stetson Hairston? His tip-in gave Southern Illinois a two-point win over UWM in the first-ever BracketBusters. It was the first-ever national TV appearance for the Panthers, and it was an amazing game in front of a full house in Carbondale. UWM was down 16, took the lead late, but was done in by a tip in.
The account of that game is here.
That season included another game that would fight for the top spot on the all-heartbreaker list ... the 70-69 loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers overcame a slow start, led late, and then missed a layup at the horn that would have won the game. From where I was sitting alongside Chuck Lang behind the Panther bench at the RCA Dome, you could see those final seconds develop in a "this is too good to be true, we're gonna win!" kinda way. And then the ball rolled off.
The AP story from that game is here. I guess was too heartbroken to write my own story!
Those all come from the same 2002-03 season, I guess a sign the Panthers could have won a few more games than the 24 they did that year. But how about from some other seasons?
Remember the return of Bo Ryan to the Klotsche Center in December of 2001? UWM had the ball in a tie game, but Devin Harris made a steal and layin to win it for the Badgers.
In that same year, the Panthers blew a big late lead and lost, 73-71, at UIC on a 35-footer by Martell Bailey. As you just might recall (of course you recall), there was quite a feud between BP and Jimmy Collins, and that was one of Jimmy's highlights in the battle. My bigger memory is of then-official Sam Lickliter getting absolutely flattened by a UIC male cheerleader that rushed on the court when the game-winner went in. I note I did not mention that in my original recap.
Go back one year before at UIC, and the Panthers and Flames played in the longest league game ever - a 4 OT contest that UIC won, 112-106.
A few other "honorable mention" additions to the list ... how about the 72-71 loss at Valpo in December of 2004? That Panther team was unbeaten going in, and Valpo was winless. UWM bounced back to go to the Sweet 16 - something that seemed miles away that night. And I was being kind when I called the referee's judgement "controversial" at the end of that game. I even remember which of the three referees listed in the box score made the call, though I'll leave that aside today in the spirit of forgiveness. But maybe I could come up with a "worst calls ever" list at some point, too.
Certainly the league tournament title-game loss to UIC in 2004 was a tough one to take, but there was also the quarterfinal loss at Wright State in 2001. It turned out to be Bo Ryan's final game at UWM. And, there's a great freshman-year picture of Ronnie Jones in the recap.
Finally, one more honorable mention takes us back to Hinkle Fieldhouse for the February 2006 loss to the Bulldogs. It also takes me to another game that could land on the "worst calls ever" list, now that I think about it. Check out the measured quote from Rob in the recap. I get angry just thinking about it again now!
Anyway, UWM looked like it was ready to put another league title on ice, but BU's last-second heroics struck again to force OT. Butler went on to win in OT and nearly stole the league title from UWM. Alas, Butler suffered its own heartbreak a month later, losing at the buzzer to Detroit and falling from the top seed to the second seed in the league tournament. The Panthers went on to win the league tourney title and then beat Oklahoma in the NCAA Tournament, turning heartbreak into happiness.
WBB Top Moments of the 2000s - Part 1
The reason I chose to do these top 10 moments in no specific order was that the timing of this first one just seemed perfect. We are in Youngstown, Ohio, to take on YSU Saturday and it was on this road trip last year that Traci Edwards became the first player in school (man or woman), league or state history with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career. She did in the same game, no less.
When you have a player break the all-time school scoring record, for men or women, then follow that up with cracking the 2,000-point plateau, followed by the league scoring record and then, in the waning days of her collegiate career, the Division I state scoring record (men or women), it seems as though one season could make up four to five moments in its own.
With that in mind, the 2008-09 season of Traci Edwards milestones is wrapped up all into one.
To be honest, I started counting down to the 2,000 and 1,000 milestones since Traci was a freshman. It’s not every day that a freshman scores 500 points and pulls down 311 rebounds in a season. In fact, it was just the second 500-point or 300-rebound season in the program’s Division I history. She was a strong league player of the year candidate, finishing second (I think after four years I can publicly confirm that) and snared newcomer of the year honors.
Her next two years were nothing short of spectacular. Sure, the rebounds weren’t there in nearly as high of quantities, but she averaged better than 20 points per game over a two-year stretch. First as 20.5 as a sophomore, she broke the school’s single-season scoring record, then 20.6 as a junior, she broke her junior season record.
The rebounds did come, as she averaged nearly a double-double in each of those seasons and led the league both years—well, her all four years, to be exact, but more on that later.
So, as I mentioned, I anticipated the 2,000/1,000 club for a while. I wasn’t alone. I mean, she was dominant at times and the numbers kept piling up.
Obviously the school scoring record was the first to fall. Jaci Clark had held the school scoring record since 1983 before Maria Viall broke it in 2004. The next dominant post player in school history, Edwards was poised to break it and did in a memorable game at Wisconsin Dec. 2, 2008.
The game itself saw Milwaukee overcome a 16-point deficit in the second half to take the lead in regulation. The Badgers came away the victors in double overtime, but Traci had 30 points and 10 rebounds to surpass Viall (1,867).
That set the stage for Jan. 8, 2009, when Edwards had 21 points and eight rebounds to push her up to 2,000 points and 1,003 rebounds. To get the both milestones is an impressive feat in and of itself. But, she reached both in the same game, making the accomplishment all the more rare.
Milwaukee led wire-to-wire in the game, so there was little drama in that category. Her 2000th point came on the second of two free throws to make it 70-56 with 1:12 remaining in the game. Rebound No. 1,000 came with 16:53 to play in the second half.
Traci was the only woman in state history to 2,000/1,000 for all of a month and four days. Interestingly, Megan Scheele of Division III Edgewood College joined the club on Feb. 12… also in one night. Just the eighth Division III player to the milestone, their SID was able to track down that she was the first player at that level to reach both milestones on the same night. Which, given its rarity, should lock the two in history for some time to come.
Now, as to whether Traci was the first Division I player to do so, it gets a bit dicey as she was the 116th Division I player to 2,000/1,000.
The story does not end here… well, with the 2,000/1,000 it does, but she was not done. On the second leg of this road trip at Cleveland State, Traci had 23 more points to break Julie VonDielingen’s (Butler) league record of 2,018 career points.
Lastly, to make her scoring record list complete, she surpassed Jolene Anderson’s (Wisconsin) Division I state scoring record for men and women (2,312) on March 13 in the league semifinals against Cleveland State. While Anderson’s mark covered all men and women at the Division I level, it was also an all-divisions mark for women (including NAIA). Traci finished her career with 2,340 points.
There you have it, the first of the top 10 moments of the 2000s for Milwaukee Women’s Basketball. The next moment will be posted here at the Verizon Wireless Panther Blogzone next week, probably on Thursday before UWM hosts Detroit.
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to vote for the Milwaukee Panthers All-Decade Team at uwmpanthers.com. The early voting numbers are good, but we’d like to get as many to vote as possible. You will also have the opportunity to do so in person at the Klotsche Center on game days throughout the month of January.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year