Fun In The Sun: Part II - Men's Team

With the UWM swimming team down in Florida on their annual training trip, we thought it would be fun to have a member of the team share their thoughts each day on the UWM Blog.

The Panthers are in sunny Fort Lauderdale, training at Pine Crest Academy, both short and long course.They will be on the trip through the 16th of January before resuming the regular season schedule second semester against IUPUI on Jan. 17.

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The men's second entry comes from sophomore Joe Chokran:

1/9/2014

Today the Panther swim team started out the day with a practice that included small groups at stations with different intense workouts at each one. The weather still wasn't cooperating with us, but we made the most of it after practice. A large group of us went out into the ocean around noon even in the extreme wind and raininess. The waves had to be 10-15 feet and more than half the team was out there playing in them and body surfing for the entire afternoon. By the time we were done with the waves, we were all too exhausted to do anything before our second practice so we relaxed until then. At night practice we did a standard Panther swimming test set; goal 50s. It's a set that challenges you to beat your average time from the last time you did it on every single 50 that you swim. Needless to say, it was easy to fall asleep at the end of the day.

Postgame Report: Milwaukee at Green Bay

Game #14 – Milwaukee 75, Green Bay 64

Full Recap and Stats

Player Of The Game: Angela Rodriguez was everywhere for the Panthers Saturday. The steady senior scored a team-high 23 points and seemed to come up with the big shot or big pass (8 assists) when needed. Most importantly, she had just three turnovers on the day - NONE in the second half.

Rodriguez was the pick on the radio and joined Scott Warras following the contest as his "Star of the Game", hear that interview HERE.

Kyle Rechlicz also joined Warras on the postgame show. What did she have to say after Milwaukee finally broke that 17-game streak against the Phoenix? You'll have to listen HERE.

Play of the Game: Two things stand out dramatically for me. The first was the 11-0 run to start the second half. Here was a team that was down 9, playing in Green Bay and could have folded up shop. No chance. They blitzed back into the lead and did it in less then 3 minutes. You could sense right then and there that the game was UWM's.

The other was Emily Decorah. Green Bay's defensive plan really took her out of the contest. In fact, she did not even have a field goal attempt in the game until there were less than 7 minutes to play. But, with about 2:30 to go, just when Green Bay had cut the deficit back under 10, just when it was time to sink or swim, Decorah nailed a big 3 from the corner and the game was OVER.

Key Stats: The Panthers have now won 3 of their last 4 and have done it with defense that was not part of the game earlier this season. Today they held GB to 27 second-half points and 38.3 percent shooting. More importantly, the Phoenix went just 4-for-32 on three-pointers.

News and Notes: The win was the first for Milwaukee in the series since February of 2006, a span of 17 games. If you look at the most recent matchups, not many of them have even been that close on the final scores. Green Bay had won (in reverse order), by margins of victory for the Phoenix have been 24, 25, 46, 35, 18, 48, 24, 11, 21, 24, 10 and 11 before finally playing a close one in 2008 - a 66-65 loss. For perspective, the seniors on the UWM roster currently did not even have their drivers licenses the last time UWM beat Green Bay.

Up Next: It's off to Ohio to continue the hot streak, starting with Cleveland State Thursday.

Fun In The Sun: Part II - Women's Team

With the UWM swimming team down in Florida on their annual training trip, we thought it would be fun to have a member of the team share their thoughts each day on the UWM Blog.

The Panthers are in sunny Fort Lauderdale, training at Pine Crest Academy, both short and long course.They will be on the trip through the 16th of January before resuming the regular season schedule second semester against IUPUI on Jan. 17.

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This entry comes from senior Diana Diel:

January 8,

Finally, everyone has arrived and we’re already to tackle our first day of TT(training trip) as a whole team. With our AM practice, Coach Kyle decided to do something a little different with our workout. But oops, it didn’t go over too well, it was a little chaotic and everyone was on a different page. So you can imagine Kyle was frustrated. He made it clear, “no more of this frilly, cutesie crap tonight”. So there we had it, “don’t eat any more donuts” according to Coach Dave and take care of your body.

So with the 8-hour day that was a head of us, there were plenty of clouds to go around and lots of rain. But that didn’t stop our little Panthers. They headed to the beach to take on the waves and fight the rip tides. Sophomore JJ got stung by a jellyfish, and didn’t even skip a beat to fling it off him and continue riding the waves. With that we headed back to the pool for PM practice. We knew it was going be a hard one with Coach Kyle’s reaction from morning practice, but these are the workouts that make us better. The Mid Distance group had some guest appearances from some of our sprinters and everyone had a awesome practice that went down with some great memories.

Fun In The Sun: Part I - Men's Team

With the UWM swimming team down in Florida on their annual training trip, we thought it would be fun to have a member of the team share their thoughts each day on the UWM Blog.

The Panthers are in sunny Fort Lauderdale, training at Pine Crest Academy, both short and long course.They will be on the trip through the 16th of January before resuming the regular season schedule second semester against IUPUI on Jan. 17.

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The men's first entry comes from senior Jeff Maxwell:

Day one in Florida started out with a beach dryland session. After the late flight the night/morning before, morning practice was not an option. In general, you could see the team was excited to be in Florida and on the beach, while also coming to the realization that the coaching staff was not fooling around and this trip was business. After dryland, the team headed to the grocery store to stock up for the week. Many team members also took a nap, but for some, the ocean was on their mind. After the team reached its full numbers with the arrival of the women's team, we began our swimming part of the trip with Kyle’s spin on a well known test set - 5 threes, 3 ones. After long travel days and minimal sleep it was off to bed for most of the team shortly upon arrival back to the hotel.

Fun In The Sun: Part I - Women's Team

With the UWM swimming team down in Florida on their annual training trip, we thought it would be fun to have a member of the team share their thoughts each day on the UWM Blog.

The Panthers are in sunny Fort Lauderdale, training at Pine Crest Academy, both short and long course.They will be on the trip through the 16th of January before resuming the regular season schedule second semester against IUPUI on Jan. 17.

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The first two entries come from junior Anna Yontz:

Monday January 7th

Our Journey Begins
The Lady Panthers began their long journey to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida by heading to the Milwaukee General Airport in the late afternoon. After what seemed like several hours of checking in and security, the girls, headed by Coach Dave Joyce, finally found their seats amongst the many passengers to Georgia. Rumor had it, via SnapChat, that the men’s team was still stuck in their airplane with maintenance problems, just a few gates away. Once both teams hit the air in a race to GA, some Panthers caught up on some sleep and some pretzels, of course. Freshman Kristin Zablocki ate more homemade cookies than I could hand her. In Atlanta, we said a quick goodbye to the men’s team as they waited for their delayed flight to Florida. Envious while standing in the 11 degree weather, we grabbed some shuttles and headed to our luxurious hotel to order pizza and eat ice cream for the night. Loud noises were heard from the freshman room as they anxiously awaited their order of two large pizzas. Some would say they heard cries of pain. Then the Lady Panthers fell quickly asleep.


Tuesday January 8th

Almost There
After a good night’s slumber, a great breakfast in the hotel and some complimentary Starbucks coffee enjoyed by seniors Chloe, Brianna, and Mary, the Lady Panthers grabbed a few shuttles to head back to the Atlanta Airport. Since no bags had to be checked, we had too much time on our hands before the flight. Many Panthers headed to the gate to relax (sophomores Nicole, Kaela, and Hannah), while others had some fun riding the trains between concourses, obviously Hilary, Emily and me. An extra half hour delay at the gate caused a hair braiding session and a snack binge right before our final descent. After a rough plane ride with crying babies, claims Natalie, we finally touched down in Ft. Lauderdale. Upon the sight of our bags to our eager arms, we headed to wait for our vehicles. Finally! Coach Clements appears in our sight. Relieved and excited, we headed to the hotel to prepare for the night. At 8pm, filling 5 vans of swimmers, we headed to Pine Crest on the short but dreaded journey of our first training trip practice…

What A Bounceback

You had to figure the Panthers were due to bounce back when they took the court Wednesday night at Oakland. But the long list of ways in which they flipped the stat sheet in just one game is impressive.

- After letting Cleveland State shoot 58 percent Saturday night, the Panthers allowed Oakland to shoot just 32.4 percent. That's the third time this season a Milwaukee opponent has shot less than 33 percent.

- Cleveland State made 8-of-15 from three-point range Saturday but Oakland made just 3-of-25 from beyond the arc Wednesday. The Golden Grizzlies entered the game ranked sixth in the nation in three-pointers.

- Offensively, Milwaukee shot an even 50 percent after shooting less than 28 percent Saturday. It's the third time UWM has shot 50 percent or better from the field.

- The Panthers had just two assists in Saturday's loss but had 22 in the win Wednesday.

- Milwaukee failed to make a three-pointer Saturday but knocked down nine Wednesday. The Panthers have made eight or more three-pointers in a game eight times this season.

- UWM was outrebounded by 11 on Saturday but claimed a +8 rebounding edge Wednesday. The Panthers have outrebounded their opponent in three of the last four games after doing it just five times in their first 13 games of the year.

Postgame Report: Milwaukee at Omaha

Game #13 – Milwaukee 68, Omaha 48

Full Recap and Stats

Player Of The Game: Three players accounted for HUGE games, each in their own way. Angela Rodriguez netted 19 points and had 6 assists (to 1 turnover), making 5-of-8 shots from the floor and all 6 of her free throws. Avyanna Young was at it again with another double-double and Ashley Green stuffed the statsheet with 15 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 steals.

Green was the pick on the radio and joined Scott Warras following the contest as his "Star of the Game", hear that interview HERE.

Play of the Game: For me it actually happened early. Bre Warren's 3-pointer at the 1:00 mark of the first gave UWM its first lead of the day and helped them overcome that 11-point deficit in the first half. It seemed to give the team the positive energy it needed and the "know" of being able to pull the game out.

Key Stats: The Panthers won despite missing 15 shots in a row in the first half. They went 1-for-19 in a 10:20 stretch in the first when they fell behind 21-10. UWM came into the game averaging just 3.6 steals but had a season-best 13 today, previous season-high was just six.

News and Notes: Ashley Green became the first UWM player to have at least 5 steals in 52 games (Green vs. Seattle 2/1/12). The last UWM player with three-straight double-doubles was Sami Tucker in November of 2011. Young will go for 4 in a row next week at Green Bay. This was the first 20-point win since beating Chicago State in the season opener last year.

Up Next: It's the first Horizon League game of the year, at Green Bay next week Saturday. Tip is 1 p.m.