It has all come down to this... Milwaukee vs. Green Bay with the NCAA Tournament on the line.
The Panthers women will be playing their fifth game in nine days Sunday when they take the floor in the title game of the 2009 Speedway Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship. They fell to GB in the regular season finale last Saturday, then defeated No. 10 Youngstown State in the first round Monday, No. 2 Butler on the road Wednesday and No. 3 Cleveland State Friday in Green Bay. The Phoenix beat No. 8 Detroit in the quarters and No. 5 Wright State in the semis.
Tip-off is scheduled for noon.
I will be courtside with a Live Blog, just one in a handful of ways you can follow the game. And, this will be the best live blog I have ever done (maybe not content-wise, but I'll definitely be updating more regularly). Find the live blog here.
The game is on ESPNU with Maggie Gray and Meg Bulger bringing you the play-by-play.
• Live Stats - Here
• Live Audio - Here... or tune your radio to AM 920 WOKY (The Wolf). Scott Warras, as usual, will have the call.
• Milwaukee Game Notes - Here
• Green Bay Game Notes - Here
Should Milwaukee win, the team will be gathering to watch the NCAA Selection show at Harry's Bar & Grill just off campus. The pairings will be announced at 6 p.m. on ESPN. Then, there will be a special one-hour Sandy Botham show from 7-8 on AM 920 WOKY.
This is the second all-Wisconsin final in the league's women's basketball history. Milwaukee got the better of the 2001 championship game, defeating the Phoenix, 77-62, in Chicago. In the only other UWM/GB title game in MCC/Horizon League history, GB got the upperhand in the 2003 volleyball championship tilt.
Note: UWM is 15-17 entering today's game. Should it come away with a third league tournament title (See 2001, 2006), it would enter the NCAA Tournament below .500. The only other team in the nation with a possibility of sharing that distinction is Evansville (14-18), which is playing in the Missouri Valley championship game today (To follow that game with a morbid curiosity, click here). Special mention goes out to the 10-22 Lafayette Leopards, who fell in the Patriot League championship game to Lehigh, 64-56, yesterday.
