UW-Milwaukee March Breakdown

The Panthers are back to the tournament, although they no longer inspire the fear they did among power conferences as they did ten years ago. Those squads not only did well--Milwaukee is 3-3 overall in the tourney--but impressed enough to make Bruce Pearl a hoops celebrity of sorts. What is amazing to me is that the 2005 Panthers that went to the sweet sixteen did so by beating Bama by 10 and BC by 8. In '06 under new and current coach Rob Jeter they beat OU by 10 in the first round. No buzzer beaters needed. This squad saved their surprises for the Horizon tournament when they not only became the first five seed to win it all but did so by beating big favorite Green Bay on their home court in the semis and Wright State on their home floor in the finals. I just cannot see them doing anything else unless they pull a real turkey high seed for the first game. Milwaukee is ranked 131 in the rpi and 149 in the bpi. They went 21-13 overall and only 7-9 in conference. Bronx native and lead guard Jordan Aaron (15 ppg, 18.4 ppg last 7, 39-36-81) is the guy to own as he is, well, a chucker. Make sure he is not suspended for the game however, as he has missed time recently. Forward Kyle Kelm (12.6, 13.3, 52-71) is not a bad last round pick. Forwards Matt Tiby (12.1, 9.3, 42-31-75) and Austin Arians (10.9, 9, 47-37-78) are probably just filler.