In the bleak midwinter

[BBF]

That's probably the darkest titled Christmas carol that I know, but it is depressingly descriptive of the state of the program. I'll say first, as I have repeatedly, that LaVall Jordan seems like a good guy, and we all know that there are some very fine young men on the team even though there is not much talent by the standards of our program over the last fifteen years. They have actually exceeded my expectations so far, but that's not saying much -- at 4-9 the team is a win or two ahead of where I expected. By the end of the year, with the Horizon League being historically, remarkably bad, it's not impossible it could reach low double digits in wins. We might even end the year somewhere outside the 300s -- low, low major territory -- in the RPI and kenpom ratings.

But let's get some hard truths on the table.

Some might say that the team's woeful record was to be expected because this is a "rebuilding year." Well first of all, it didn't need to be. Imagine adding three high major quality starters to this team (not to mention at least one juco transfer big man now playing at another school). It was utter insanity for a mid-major program like ours to give up that precious opportunity. You can't do that at this level! Did the decision-botchers really not understand that our best players would leave when they abused the team with the the no-post-season decision and then massacred the coaching staff they came to play for? Actually, I suspect they did understand it. But they were so frightened by the prospect of a successful year under their nemesis Rob Jeter that they were willing to sacrifice any possibility of success.

So instead we don't have a rebuilding year -- we have undergone a complete teardown, to be followed by years of trying just to get the program back to where it already was. We have been put in a position where a team that won 20 games twice in the past three years (despite "sabotage") and went to the NCAA tournament only three years ago is now looking up at a miserably bad league. And the only hope we have to change that is to attract recruits to a reeling program playing in empty gyms (more on that later). Of course, those recruits that are the only chance for the program need to be obtained by recruiters with no track record in Wisconsin and then coached by a staff with very little experience. How does that plan sound?

And then there's the fan interest. Any of you few remaining readers who view this board or the old one have noticed the same thing. The walls are closing in. There is virtually no conversation. This exactly mirrors what is happening at the games. No one is going. Attendance, always a challenge in this city, has collapsed into a bad joke. We almost certainly have not seen actual attendance exceeding 600-700 people at any game this year. I have real doubts that we will see a legitimate crowd of 1,500 at a game this season, excepting possibly Valpo and GB -- when their fans will probably outnumber ours. All that work done over years (many more years than our recent AD's tenure, let me be clear) to secure the Arena? What's the point now? Our "crowds" could comfortably fit in the minimal bleachers at Baker Fieldhouse if it still stood. Is there still a gym floor at Engelmann? Maybe we could move there and set up a couple folding chairs. It would certainly be cheaper.

If someone had wanted to draw up a plan to destroy interest in our program, to make it more likely that the calls would begin to drop the program entirely or to move it back down to the dismal reaches of D2 or 3, could they have done it any better than what has actually happened? Our astonishingly inept administration not only banished our coaching staff, our best players, our radio voice and the legitimate prospect of a tournament year this year, in doing so they also alienated so many of us fans and boosters who refuse to abet their incompetence and venality by attending or supporting the program until they are gone. And the dismal present and (to put it kindly) uncertain future of our program are managing to alienate those few who remained. Who are now also voting with their feet. College sports is all about passion and emotion. Does any remain? The worst possible thing you can say about a program is that nobody cares. And we are getting there.

We are in the bleak midwinter, and I have grave doubts that we will ever again see a spring as long as the architects of our demise hold the power to stop it from coming -- something that appears to be their exact plan.

Happy Holidays

[BBF]

And having just posted the unvarnished truth above, I look at my JS Online news feed and find a new "let's put some lipstick on this pig" column from Gary D'Amato, including this mind-boggling observation:

"Jordan has embraced the challenge of building a program from the ground up."

We won 20 games last year! We went to the tourney three years ago! We had three of the best players in the league coming back as senior starters this year! What the hell are we doing at ground freaking zero!!!!!?????? Why should we have to "build a program from the ground up" -- an almost impossible and undeniably lengthy project for a program like ours, when we were nowhere near the ground? Again, it isn't because of the new coaches, who I'm sure are nice young fellows. It's certainly not the fault of players like Cody who have every right to be proud.

It's because we have an incompetent administration that spit in the eye of the players, fans, donors and community. Gary, don't kid yourself: until the saboteurs are gone, so are we. Because until they're gone, we know this program can never reach its potential.

[dylanrocks]

Where was Gary D'Amato a year ago at this time when the team was 9-4 and had beaten Minnesota and Wisconsin?

[DKelly28]

100% agree with what you've posted, Fran.

I'm not even going to give Gannett, the JS or D'Amato the satisfaction of a page view on that article.

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

I have said this multiple times, here and on the "other board". I had a period of my life where I could not devote the time or money to the program I would have liked to. Now things have changed for me in my life and I was.....WAS....ready to come back into "active status". Then came the news of the Jeter coup, and I began to learn about the inept "social experiment" being conducted in our Athletic Department.

Instead of making hiring decisions based on merit, qualifications, and performance, UWM made one based on identity politics. So now we have an inept, petty, bitter, and wholly unqualified person at the helm hired not for what she has done, but simply for who she was.

That leaves me no choice. I am no longer willing to devote a single cent, or a single minute of my time, to another in a long line of University funded (read: taxpayer funded) social experiments designed to prove that all that matters is identity, and achievement is secondary.

I fully expect that this team, and this staff, will receive "Participation Trophies" from their "leadership" and the University, and we will all hear many tales of how hard they worked, and that the losing doesn't matter.

As if it were not already clear: in sports, LOSING matters. WINNING matters. Certainly you want to win the right way, and not be Pearlesque, but losing the right way is NOT acceptable either.

As for Jordan, he is now part of the problem. He knew what he was doing taking this job. He knew he was participating in a grand social experiment and assisting in the destruction of a program for personal political agendas. He took the job anyway. Hell, he was OFFERED the job due to even MORE identity politics at work.

They can all go have sexual intercourse with themselves....I will root for the Badgers. At least that University has not allowed PC BS and Identity Politics to dominate the Athletics Department.

[dylanrocks]

At last look, the H League has further regressed as a conference, sliding to 50-55 against Division 1 competition.

Let's all put our heads together and think real hard about how that record might easily be 55-50 ... or better.

It seems like Eva is trying to wreck a program and a conference all at once. If this is the future of college athletics, count me out.

[BBF]

How do you really feel Hawk?

I look at this strictly from a results standpoint. Whatever the reason behind why we got this administration, the bottom line is that it was another in a long and infuriating line of terrible hires, all of which damaged our program terribly.

[Skrapheap]

Haven't read the D'Amato piece.

Given the state of the program and the league, it seems appropos to quote myself:

i hope the Athletic department is suitably grateful to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for running a press release as a Gary Amato article.

[dylanrocks]

Scotty Tyler, yet another baby who was thrown out with the bathwater during the spring purge, last night had 45 points and 11 rebounds as the No. 16 Whitewater Warhawks improved to 9-0 with a 109-96 victory over previously unbeaten Ripon.

Scotty, who would have been an important reserve on a very good Milwaukee team this season, is averaging 15.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.8 blocks per game as Whitewater's starting power forward.

The assistant coach who brought Scotty to Whitewater also helped land the team's leading and fifth-leading scorers, Chris Jones and Demetrius Woodley, from the JUCO ranks. His name? Chad Boudreau.

Good grief!

[BBF]

Recruiting to D3 is one thing, dr. Do you have any proof that Boudreau could recruit D1 players that were any good?

(He said, playing straight man.)

[dylanrocks]

Well, it says on his Whitewater bio that Chad helped recruit and develop 12 all-Horizon League players, including three first-team all-league players and six all-league newcomers.

But that couldn't be because we had a precipitous drop-off in talent level over the last decade-plus, right?

By the way, Scotty's 45-point outburst was the high-scoring effort in program history. It's a very proud history, too, with four national championships and two under current, widely respected coach Pat Miller. He's the one who hired Chad for the position.

[dylanrocks]

Pizzazz. Salesmanship. A new drumbeat.

Isn't that what was demanded when the previous cast of coaches and players were jettisoned in March?

Well, where is it? I don't see much of anything on the boards and I certainly don't see or hear any pulse at the games.

So what was the purpose of this exercise? I'm still struggling to find answers nine months later. Please help me with this.

[dylanrocks]

By the way, through five home dates -- exhibitions included -- the average announced attendance has dropped from 2,080 to 1,249, a 40 percent falloff.

That number is roughly 400-600 more than what the state's D2 and D3 programs draw. Dangerously close, in my opinion, given our history of flip-flopping levels.

There's considerable cause for alarm here, folks.

[MayorCK]

To even think that Scotty Tyler could produce those numbers in Division I is foolish. He is playing at a high level at the level he has the best chance of being successful in, and kudos to him for that.

I'm sure that Derek Rongstad will play at a high level at Whitewater as well, when he gets there. Boudreau knows what those guys can do. But let's not lump everyone on last year's roster who've left in the same boat as the starters. Scotty was not a D-1 starter (although he probably would be currently, with both Prahls out, but these are minor details).

[dylanrocks]

To even think that Scotty Tyler could produce those numbers in Division I is foolish. He is playing at a high level at the level he has the best chance of being successful in, and kudos to him for that.

I'm sure that Derek Rongstad will play at a high level at Whitewater as well, when he gets there. Boudreau knows what those guys can do. But let's not lump everyone on last year's roster who've left in the same boat as the starters. Scotty was not a D-1 starter (although he probably would be currently, with both Prahls out, but these are minor details).

Of course he wouldn't. The point is that he would be a significant contributor (and possible two-year starter) on what was set up to be a 20-plus-win team in a year that would have been Rob Jeter's last.

In short, the previous regime knew what it was doing in recruiting and on the bench and had built up considerable momentum over the previous three years, winning 55 percent of its last 100 games and 64.3 percent of its last 42 games (27-15) despite the APR ban.

The all-time program winning percentage is 52 percent. Things weren't bad here. In fact, they were pretty damn good. THAT's the point!

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

SO here we are....Preseason is over. Non-Conference is over. Conference season underway. Under our bold new leadership, how are we faring toward our stated minimum achievement of Sub 100 RPI and Top 3 in Conference?

As of 1/2/17:

RPI: 304 - That is only 200 places below expectations. In the land of Braun, this is acceptable, so long as Jordan continues to kiss her hairy butt on a daily basis and tell her she is smart, pretty, and loved.

Conference Standings: Last (Tied - 10 of 10 with Detroit, until they beat us too.) Again, fully acceptable under Braun.

Chances of Post-Season invite: We can only expect to be invited to the Inaugural LGBTQ....RSTUVWXYandZ and Friends SNOWFLAKE SAFE SPACE MICRO AGGRESSION FREE Tournament - Presented By Starbucks - in Portland, in which record is irrelevant, only proper hiring practices and percentage of LGBTQ....RSTUVWXYandZ employees in the Athletic Department are a qualification, and all mascots must be politically acceptable, completely non-religious in nature, and offensive to no sentient, semi-sentient, or non-sentient, life forms on this planet or any other. Scores will NOT be kept and everyone will be awarded a trophy at the conclusion of the "tournament"....there will be no champion.....WE ARE ALL WINNERS!!! YAY!!!!

And now we will hear all about how Jordan must have "time" to rebuild the program....a program that did NOT require "Rebuilding" at all, until it was imploded. And how much time will Jordan get? Probably 5 years, or until he dares disagree with Her Holiness, the High Priestess of Suck, Amanda Braun, at which point the measuring stick will be brought out of mothballs again and another staff jettisoned and we will "rebuild" again.

I am so proud of my University.

In the immortal words of Bill Simmons, I will now light myself on fire.

[dylanrocks]

Before the ill-fated and ill-founded decision to move our games back to the KC in the summer of 2012, our AVERAGE RPI over the previous four years was 120.

After posting a No. 307 ranking in 2012-13 that mirrored the mood around the program and the facility in which it played, we miraculously recovered to post RPIs of 135, 201 and 171 the next three years, an average of 171. There were still 180 programs -- over half the schools in the country -- that were worse off.

Then a fire was started, the coaches and players were jettisoned, donors and fans were driven off and we're back over 300 for just the second time in program history.

Rob Jeter is gone; is the program now "fixed?"

[MayorCK]

Let's keep up the bitching and moaning, guys. It's really accomplishing a ton.

[ArtisGilmore53]

The fact is Mayor your beloved joke of an Athletic Director killed a very good mid-major program. And you and the rest of your rainbow flag kissers are afraid to admit the truth. The program is now officially a joke and the fact is that no one cares. Apathy is the very worst thing that can happen. Ask the 2000 people who don't go to games now. There are only, and I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, four or five people on the other chat room kissing each other asses and acting like you are proud of "Val" and where the program is? Are you on meth? I have NEVER met a coach in my 35 years of involved in basketball as either a college player, scout, ref or statistician who praised losing as much as 'VAL'. Praising the effort of loss after loss, and they still count MSOE as a win. That's a joke on its own. Your athletic director is an insecure, inept, paranoid twit who killed this program because of her personal vendetta with the previous staff. She wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for a certain US Senator, a testosterone - less chancellor and a overly fearful politically correct world that wants everyone to have a Coke and sing peace songs and hand out participation trophies. The fact is, you and all your 'supporters' (pun intended) are hypocrites as well, for this program is now below 300 in RPI and will never see 3rd place in a piece of sh-t Horizon League. Are you proud to be a Panther now? Maybe she can reach out to TJ again? Also ask your self, why are there only 3 people left, out of approximately 25 administrative staff people in the Athletic Department that are still there since she too over just three years ago?

[BBF]

Rainbow flag kissers? That's just offensive and doesn't add anything useful to the discussion. And for my part I have no interest in conflating the dire situation of our program with some larger "political" discussion.

Let me be clear. The problem isn't who anyone is. And at this point it's not even why they are in the positions they hold. The issue is whether the people administering our program are capable, and whether they acted in good faith. I believe the evidence is overwhelming -- and getting clearer by the week -- that our administration did not and cannot meet those standards.

Competence and incompetence come in all varieties of people.

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

And at this point it's not even why they are in the positions they hold.

I vehemently disagree with this statement. Why they are where they are is, in fact, the REAL problem with the program, and the University itself. It has become a social experiment in athletics, and a part of a very political/social agenda for a very powerful person in this state, with no push back. Without even any questions asked.

A publicly funded entity should not be the personal plaything of a US Senator to promote her agenda. If that does not bother you, then you are part of the problem.

[BBF]

In the context of our program I honestly don't care if we are where we are (i.e., looking into an abyss) because of some socio/political conspiracy (of which I am rather skeptical) or simple bad hiring, executive inattention and the resultant managerial incompetence. But I guarantee that pursuing the problem from the former angle will inevitably (and understandably) be easily dismissed as just another rant in our "post-fact" age. In other words, you can tilt at those windmills all you want, but it's not going to do anything positive for our program.

My training is to deal with the facts. The facts as I see them are that the program was purposefully undermined and then ripped apart, and consequently the team's results and fan interest are crashing. If that's not enough to justify the significant and obvious changes that are needed in our administration, then there is realistically no hope that our program will ever exceed its past accomplishments, and it is very unlikely that it will ever match them.

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

Be as skeptical as you like. We know that the hire was made, in part, under the direction of a former "personal acquaintance" of the prospective employee, with no refusals, which is a pretty clear violation of state statutes. We also have pretty clear evidence of meddling by a sitting US Senator into the hiring and supervision of a public employee. If such unethical and potentially illegal activities are trivial to you, so be it.

They are not to me, without regard for the politics of those involved. UW Madison has not similarly been tampered with, and they hire on merit alone in an industry where merit is the only thing that matters.

This program, and this University, are in serious trouble because some people shrug and say "oh well, so what" when these things come up. I am not willing to just stand by and allow that to go unchallenged.

[BBF]

Let's keep up the bitching and moaning, guys. It's really accomplishing a ton.

If you want to know what not calling out the administration for its actions over the last several years accomplished, it's right there for all to see in the state of the team's results and the fan "interest."

[ArtisGilmore53]

The bottom line, the AD is a %$%#^&.....NO ONE, AND I MEAN NO ONE, cares about the program of the 'new era' and the eunuch board has become such a joke that 'mupanther' is having a conversation with himself regarding the Green Bay game. Remember when that game meant something? What a joke, and what total waste their beloved Athletic Director truly is. No matter whomever helped her (and they know who they are) get the job she is so bad at. :mad::mad::mad: Program is dead.

[dylanrocks]

In short, I don't like Eva because of what she took away from the true fans, those who had a passion and a real investment in the program.

There were some of us who would follow the team to Edwardsville and Fargo ... and the remaining followers talk about "trying to make it to a game" and missing a home game because of dinner plans.

I wouldn't even call what's left a fan base.

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

Update on the 2017 Milwaukee Panthers:

RPI: 287....movin' on up baby. Soon we will catch some of the vaunted programs ahead of us like: Marist (252), Central Arkansas (253), Lipscomb (256), North Florida (258), Liberty (259), Wagner (267), MD Eastern Shore (269), Binghamton (271), Texas - Rio Grande Valley (274), and Mass-Lowell (280)....powerhouses one and all.

Conference: 0 - 3...last place....tied with Detroit.

It has become totally clear that the plan of The High Priestess of Suck, Her Royal Highness, Queen of Downer Street, Lady Amanda Braun, is on track. I for one cannot wait to see the Panthers in the Inaugural LGBTQ....RSTUVWXYandZ and Friends SNOWFLAKE SAFE SPACE MICRO AGGRESSION FREE Tournament - Presented By Starbucks - in Portland

[dylanrocks]

But what of Minnesota, that hopeless wasteland to which Akeem Springs foolishly brought his abundant talents. How are the Golden Gophers doing?

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

But what of Minnesota, that hopeless wasteland to which Akeem Springs foolishly brought his abundant talents. How are the Golden Gophers doing?

The Minnesota Golden Gophers are a lousy, rotten, no good, miserable, laughable, and lowly #5 in the RPI as of this moment.

They are also first place in the Big Ten, but as we all know, the Big Ten is a joke of a conference and cannot sniff the collective jocks of the mighty mighty Horizon League.

We certainly do not miss someone who scores almost 10 points a game and has assumed a leadership role over such a crappy program as Minnesota. They suck.

We are certainly much better off without him.

ALL HAIL The High Priestess of Suck, Her Royal Highness, Queen of Downer Street, Lady Amanda Braun

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

ALL HAIL The High Priestess of Suck, Her Royal Highness, Queen of Downer Street, Lady Amanda Braun

Her magnificence, Lady Braun, has had ANOTHER incredible idea to improve our incredible profile.


$2 BEER!!!!!

934

At a college basketball game. Filled with students.


WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG????


This is SURE to get the attendence up over 1,500 and probably get us in the news coverage too!


Be sure to stay tuned...sources say that the next home game will be Disco Demolition Night. A sure fire hit!

ALL HAIL The High Priestess of Suck, Her Royal Highness, Queen of Downer Street, Lady Amanda Braun

[dylanrocks]

Dear Lord!!!

It's only a matter of time before she employs the performers from Heartbreakers to put butts in the seats ... and artificially inflate the attendance to 1,800.

[dylanrocks]

It's amazing that it took her three years to come up with the $2 beer idea ... or is it?

[MayorCK]

The fact is Mayor your beloved joke of an Athletic Director killed a very good mid-major program. And you and the rest of your rainbow flag kissers are afraid to admit the truth. The program is now officially a joke and the fact is that no one cares. Apathy is the very worst thing that can happen. Ask the 2000 people who don't go to games now. There are only, and I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, four or five people on the other chat room kissing each other asses and acting like you are proud of "Val" and where the program is? Are you on meth? I have NEVER met a coach in my 35 years of involved in basketball as either a college player, scout, ref or statistician who praised losing as much as 'VAL'. Praising the effort of loss after loss, and they still count MSOE as a win. That's a joke on its own. Your athletic director is an insecure, inept, paranoid twit who killed this program because of her personal vendetta with the previous staff. She wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for a certain US Senator, a testosterone - less chancellor and a overly fearful politically correct world that wants everyone to have a Coke and sing peace songs and hand out participation trophies. The fact is, you and all your 'supporters' (pun intended) are hypocrites as well, for this program is now below 300 in RPI and will never see 3rd place in a piece of sh-t Horizon League. Are you proud to be a Panther now? Maybe she can reach out to TJ again? Also ask your self, why are there only 3 people left, out of approximately 25 administrative staff people in the Athletic Department that are still there since she too over just three years ago?

Read carefully, wiseguy.

First of all, you will not find me on the freak board. Second of all, I agree with DarkHawk's stance on the reason Snagglepuss was hired 100%. Thirdly, I believe that the current Athletic Director should be scrubbing Walmart toilets with a goddamn toothbrush. Jimmy, as well as anyone else on this board who actually knows who I am, knows that unequivocally.

My point is that crying over milk you can't put back in the glass at this point is stupid. It's time for a new plan of attack.

[Spirit of Bruce]

I have to admit, it is pretty amusing to go over to the other board and see mupanther having conversations with himself. It's the discussion board version of Kramer having "The Merv Griffin Show" set in his apartment.

[Spirit of Bruce]

It's amazing that it took her three years to come up with the $2 beer idea ... or is it?

My prediction is there will be 12 students at the game, an increase of 100% from the last home game. They would never have $2 beer during the semester, it would pack the arena, and they would run out 10 minutes into the game. Like they do with $1 hot dogs...

[ArtisGilmore53]

Read carefully, wiseguy.

First of all, you will not find me on the freak board. Second of all, I agree with DarkHawk's stance on the reason Snagglepuss was hired 100%. Thirdly, I believe that the current Athletic Director should be scrubbing Walmart toilets with a goddamn toothbrush. Jimmy, as well as anyone else on this board who actually knows who I am, knows that unequivocally.

My point is that crying over milk you can't put back in the glass at this point is stupid. It's time for a new plan of attack.


I apologize then, and do agree with you. Except that even WalMart wouldn't hire her if they knew her background and how she got her current gig!

[Goose85]

Question for the board on this $2 beer thing. Who gets the concession revenue at the UWM Arena? If Milwaukee does then no problem, but if not, would the Panthers have to pay the difference on each beer sold?

[dylanrocks]

How far has this program fallen in nine months?

Winners of 16 of the last 18 meetings with rival UIC, it enters tonight's game at the Pavilion as 6 1/2-point underdogs to the Flames.

Last year's combined margin of victory in two games was 38 points.

This is progress?

[dylanrocks]

Let's do a little singin' tonight:

"She's a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America, too
She's a good girl, crazy 'bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend, too."

...

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

ALL HAIL The High Priestess of Suck, Her Royal Highness, Queen of Downer Street, Lady Amanda Braun

Status Update: RPI - 282 - Not much to say here. There are 351 D1 RPI ranked teams. Milwaukee is the 69th worst team in D1. What makes this worse than it sounds is that Milwaukee has not even played a team in the RPI top 100. Let this sink in a minute...Milwaukee is near the very bottom of the entirety of D1 and have only played teams who will likely not even play in the NIT, much less the NCAA.

One other point of comparison: Milwaukee fired a coach due to substandard performance last year. That coach had finished the season with an RPI more than 100 spots higher (175) and had played 4 teams in the RPI top 50, winning 1 of those 4 games.

In summary, Milwaukee has dropped over 100 spots, even though Milwaukee has played a patty cake schedule. Good times, man.....good times. This should REALLY help with recruiting....along with the 10,000 regularly empty seats at the Arena we spent all that money to buy the naming rights of. BRILLIANT!

Conference: 1 - 5 - Last Place - Again, I remind you that Milwaukee fired a coach due to substandard performance after finishing 5th in a much more competitive Horizon League that had 5 teams with 20+ wins and one team with 30 wins.

One other thing to consider. Butler, who at one time was Milwaukee's chief rival in the Horizon League and the measuring stick Milwaukee used to gauge its progress as a program, is now in the Big East and the #13 team in the nation. Butler capitalized on two extremely successful seasons and as soon as the opportunity became available, left the Horizon League. Since doing so, their program is now, arguably, on par with Marquette.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee made literally no effort to leave the Horizon League after successive Sweet 16 appearances, with many on the boards and in the AD's office laughing at the mere thought of it, and now has completely imploded.

For those of you who argue that how someone gets hired is irrelevant, I want you to think long and hard about this. While Butler was run by competent, aggressive, and determined leaders willing to take big risks, we hired one "PC compliant" or "Big name retread" after another, until we finally landed the ultimate example of a politically correct, quota filling, Social Justice Warrior crony in the history of sports.

A hire I would argue that is equivalent to the Packers hiring Caitlyn Jenner as their new GM after receiving in a threatening phone call from a US Senator hell bent on elevating a certain group of people no matter how unqualified.

ALL HAIL The High Priestess of Suck, Her Royal Highness, Queen of Downer Street, Lady Amanda Braun

[BBF]

It's important not to be misleading (as I know you were not intending). It's true that Milwaukee fired a coach "due to substandard performance." It just wasn't substandard performance by the coach, his staff or his players. It was by the administration doing the firing. In fact, "substandard" is really too nice a word for what happened.

[dylanrocks]

It's just bizarre and sad to pick up the morning paper and see the once-proud Milwaukee program in dead last in the league standings.

We badly need an administrative overhaul!

[FrankTheTank]

It's just bizarre and sad to pick up the morning paper and see the once-proud Milwaukee program in dead last in the league standings.

We badly need an administrative overhaul!

I had a very interesting conversation with my dad yesterday morning. He is an alum and former student athlete at Arizona State (he brings it up every chance he gets) and likes to talk college sports. The very first words out of his mouth:

"WTF is going on with Milwaukee Basketball? There on the verge of being completely irrelevant and albatross to the entire university."

Thank you AB for making this conversation a possibility!

[dylanrocks]

In trying to stay with the big picture, I'm very alarmed by what I see and hear from this most recent homestand, folks.

641?!?!

That was the ANNOUNCED attendance for Sunday's victory over YSU. I know that the NFC championship game started two hours after the opening tip, but 641 announced?

You would think that Friday's game against CSU would have drawn much better, given that it had no competition from the Packers, Badgers, Bucks or Marquette, right? So what was the attendance?

1,194 ANNOUNCED.

Our season attendance, which now stands at 1,279 per game, is a 50% dropoff from a year ago, when we drew 2,580. Alarming!

In fact, it's never rebounded from the year before the ill-founded (and seemingly purposely harmful) move to the Klotsche Center in 2012, when attendance was 3,498.

Previously, we had never witnessed anything quite so precipitous. To say that I'm concerned is a gross understatement.

[Skrapheap]

Oh, but don't forget....we're gonna win the league in the next two to three years, as they're predicting on the other board.

If consecutive victories for the first time this season can inspire such confidence, what can't this program do? I better start saving my pennies for the inevitable Final Four berth.

[MayorCK]

In trying to stay with the big picture, I'm very alarmed by what I see and hear from this most recent homestand, folks.

641?!?!

That was the ANNOUNCED attendance for Sunday's victory over YSU. I know that the NFC championship game started two hours after the opening tip, but 641 announced?

You would think that Friday's game against CSU would have drawn much better, given that it had no competition from the Packers, Badgers, Bucks or Marquette, right? So what was the attendance?

1,194 ANNOUNCED.

Our season attendance, which now stands at 1,279 per game, is a 50% dropoff from a year ago, when we drew 2,580. Alarming!

In fact, it's never rebounded from the year before the ill-founded (and seemingly purposely harmful) move to the Klotsche Center in 2012, when attendance was 3,498.

Previously, we had never witnessed anything quite so precipitous. To say that I'm concerned is a gross understatement.

If you were so concerned, you'd be showing up to games. I haven't seen you.

[MayorCK]

In the name of full disclosure, the two games this past weekend were the first I've not been to this season, so if Dylan decided to finally show up (which I doubt) I wouldn't know.

[dylanrocks]

Don't make this about me. I've never called for a boycott nor have I ever privately advised anyone not to attend. J. Hart can attest to this. I'm simply in a different place in my life than I was in my 30s and 40s and often have conflicting work/family commitments and priorities.

But for the record, I did attend one game this year and was pleased with the energy shown by the players and coaches. In contrast, there was nothing coming from the sparse gathering in the stands. It was as if someone had taken a pin and popped the party balloon.

As someone who's attended games for more than a quarter-century, it's my observation that the program is in danger of lapsing into total irrelevance. Just take a look around; I'm not the only one missing.

The administration can't fire Rob Jeter again, so what can be done?

By the way, if I can gotten my wish and been able to attend the most recent game, do you know what the attendance would have been?

642. ANNOUNCED. Or perhaps they would have made up a different number.

[dylanrocks]

Full disclosure: I personally won't BUY a ticket this year or until the architects of the purge are relieved; that would reward bad behavior.

[Goose85]

On average, it costs $340,000 per year to have the arena called UW Milwaukee Panther arena. I'm not sure if averaging less than 2,000 per game is going to cover that expense, not to mention other expenses associated with the basketball program. This should have been a year with increased attendance and elevated excitement building toward a possible league title and NCAA bid.

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

I will not pay for a ticket. I will not even use a free ticket. I will not support, in any way, this program, or the University for that matter, while a usurper and a fraud is allowed to remain in the big chair. They clearly do not care about success, so why should I?

I consider myself a college sports "free agent" and am currently shopping around for a new program to devote my time and attention to. Could be Marquette. Could be Wisconsin.

[dylanrocks]

Goose raises a great point. After all, there is an operating budget and men's basketball HAS to be the economic engine for a D-1 program that doesn't sponsor football. It's just a matter of dollars and sense.

So without further adieu, here are our attendance numbers from the last 10 years (exhibitions not included):

2007-08 -- 3,622
2008-09 -- 2,440
2009-10 -- 2,883
2010-11 -- 4,154
2011-12 -- 4,154
2012-13 -- 2,266
2013-14 -- 2,847
2014-15 -- 3,419
2015-16 -- 2,841
2016-17 -- 1,247

I'll let people draw their own conclusions from these numbers, but do remember that the 2012-13 year marked the move back to Klotsche.

[BBF]

Now we're getting to it. The disastrous events surrounding the coaching transition have had devastating consequences on the program's fan interest. We are quite literally trending rapidly towards WIAC territory as far as program support goes. The economic consequences of this are devastating.

As dr put it so succinctly -- the AD can't fire Rob Jeter again. There's no one else to blame now.

The economic collapse of the program is 100% the administration's responsibility. It's time for the Chancellor to excise the true bad actor and give the fan base some hope that we could once again have a program that can both be successful and that we can be proud of. There's not one of us who wouldn't rally behind LaVall Jordan immediately. Despite the catastrophically bad season the team is having, I would be on the phone to the ticket office buying season tickets within the hour, and I know with direct, first person certainty that I would not be alone in doing so.

If this does not happen, then prepare to accept that our proud program is becoming Chicago State-Milwaukee. If it survives in D1 at all.

[Jimmy Lemke]

In the name of full disclosure, the two games this past weekend were the first I've not been to this season, so if Dylan decided to finally show up (which I doubt) I wouldn't know.

To be fair to dylanrocks, he does have a hot girlfriend now. The bachelor life is over for our dear friend, so we can only mourn his absence.

[Jimmy Lemke]

On average, it costs $340,000 per year to have the arena called UW Milwaukee Panther arena. I'm not sure if averaging less than 2,000 per game is going to cover that expense, not to mention other expenses associated with the basketball program. This should have been a year with increased attendance and elevated excitement building toward a possible league title and NCAA bid.

I do want to make a couple notes here.

- The money for the naming rights isn't coming out of the athletic department. The university correctly pulls it out of its marketing budget. It is, after all, advertising for the university, as is that banner ad in the visitor's bullpen at Miller Park that has been on Sportscenter about 6,000 times.

- The Panthers' putrid attendance isn't the only attendance; the Admirals move to the Arena brings thousands through the doors a few dozen times a year now. Those people are also not as connected to the university; unlike high-majors like Marquette and Wisconsin, mid-majors like Milwaukee don't have tons of casual fans that make up the crowd. I would say a grand majority of our game attendees have attended, graduated from, worked for or have business with Milwaukee. So having a team like the Admirals move into the Arena is a big deal because a great deal of their fans aren't connected to the university, yet they're slammed with the brand all the time. Now if only the brand they're getting slammed with would be coherent.

- Speaking of our poor attendance, you can attribute that to the fact that the "Director of Tickets and Event Operations" job has been totally vacant since Eric Becker left for Pitt. His last day at Milwaukee was August 15th, so the latest Amanda Braun knew she would need a new ticket manager was August 1st. That job is still not filled, and it will be six months in a week since she learned of the pending vacancy. That's if she found out August 1st (spoiler alert: she knew before then). What makes it all the more infuriating is that a big part of the reason Becker left was because he was the assistant ticket manager who was filling in on an interim basis ever since B-Mo went to Marquette. Not only did Amanda not promote him to the Director job, I never heard anything about his pay increasing with the increased workload or added job responsibilities.

You don't even need to go to last school year to find evidence of Amanda Braun being wildly incompetent at her job. See her fail to fill an incredibly important position for half a year and know exactly why there were 422 fans in the crowd Sunday. Oh yeah, I counted...by hand...the amount of fans in the crowd during the first half. Even if I give an incredibly generous margin of error of 100, that's still more than 100 less than they claimed. Of course, I didn't count the arena employees, the coaches, the players, the refs, the band (they're paid to be there), or the people walking past the building outside. I'm surprised they didn't try to mask the attendance even more. It's something a ticket managers do across the country, and while I'm not a fan of it, in this instance I probably would have at least asked if we could nudge it over 1,000.

I give her credit for owning the doofus mistake of moving the game to accommodate the Packers - not that she moved it, but that she moved it to finish around the start of the Packer game and not earlier to the morning, like 11 am - and not fudging the numbers.

I grew up Catholic on the southwest side, and my family always went to 11 o'clock mass. It would get out between 12:05 and 12:15 every Sunday, except when the Packers were playing - none of the priests ever failed to get us out after 11:45 those days. It's not like she's an outsider; she grew up in this state and has now spent 10 years of her (so-called) professional life here. The Packers are the religion here.

[Jimmy Lemke]

On average, it costs $340,000 per year to have the arena called UW Milwaukee Panther arena. I'm not sure if averaging less than 2,000 per game is going to cover that expense, not to mention other expenses associated with the basketball program. This should have been a year with increased attendance and elevated excitement building toward a possible league title and NCAA bid.

I do want to make a couple notes here.

- The money for the naming rights isn't coming out of the athletic department. The university correctly pulls it out of its marketing budget. It is, after all, advertising for the university, as is that banner ad in the visitor's bullpen at Miller Park that has been on Sportscenter about 6,000 times.

- The Panthers' putrid attendance isn't the only attendance; the Admirals move to the Arena brings thousands through the doors a few dozen times a year now. Those people are also not as connected to the university; unlike high-majors like Marquette and Wisconsin, mid-majors like Milwaukee don't have tons of casual fans that make up the crowd. I would say a grand majority of our game attendees have attended, graduated from, worked for or have business with Milwaukee. So having a team like the Admirals move into the Arena is a big deal because a great deal of their fans aren't connected to the university, yet they're slammed with the brand all the time. Now if only the brand they're getting slammed with would be coherent.

- Speaking of our poor attendance, you can attribute that to the fact that the "Director of Tickets and Event Operations" job has been totally vacant since Eric Becker left for Pitt. His last day at Milwaukee was August 15th, so the latest Amanda Braun knew she would need a new ticket manager was August 1st. That job is still not filled, and it will be six months in a week since she learned of the pending vacancy. That's if she found out August 1st (spoiler alert: she knew before then). What makes it all the more infuriating is that a big part of the reason Becker left was because he was the assistant ticket manager who was filling in on an interim basis ever since B-Mo went to Marquette. Not only did Amanda not promote him to the Director job, I never heard anything about his pay increasing with the increased workload or added job responsibilities.

You don't even need to go to last school year to find evidence of Amanda Braun being wildly incompetent at her job. See her fail to fill an incredibly important position for half a year and know exactly why there were 422 fans in the crowd Sunday. Oh yeah, I counted...by hand...the amount of fans in the crowd during the first half. Even if I give an incredibly generous margin of error of 100, that's still more than 100 less than they claimed. Of course, I didn't count the arena employees, the coaches, the players, the refs, the band (they're paid to be there), or the people walking past the building outside. I'm surprised they didn't try to mask the attendance even more. It's something a ticket managers do across the country, and while I'm not a fan of it, in this instance I probably would have at least asked if we could nudge it over 1,000.

I give her credit for owning the doofus mistake of moving the game to accommodate the Packers - not that she moved it, but that she moved it to finish around the start of the Packer game and not earlier to the morning, like 11 am - and not fudging the numbers.

I grew up Catholic on the southwest side, and my family always went to 11 o'clock mass. It would get out between 12:05 and 12:15 every Sunday, except when the Packers were playing - none of the priests ever failed to get us out after 11:45 those days. It's not like she's an outsider; she grew up in this state and has now spent 10 years of her (so-called) professional life here. The Packers are the religion here.

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

But Braun has succeeded in one respect....she has ticked a whole lot of Social Justice Warrior boxes off, so despite her utter failure to perform her stated responsibilities to even a minimum level, she is to be considered a raging success by the University Administration, the Snowflakes in the student body, and the non-sports media (and even parts of the sports media).

After all, in those people's minds, WHO you are is the ONLY thing that matters....What you actually DO is secondary, and as long as WHO you are is good, substandard performance is forgiven.

Identity politics is not just some harmless thing employed by a political party....it is a way of life for it's adherents and it has real consequences....we are witnessing them on a daily basis at Milwaukee.

And before some of you blow up over me "injecting politics" into this, remember one thing....she was hired DUE TO POLITICAL INTERFERENCE. I am not injecting politics into this, I am merely pointing it out.

[BBF]

Hawk, I simply don't agree with your take on this, but even if you were right, I think you are missing the bigger picture. "Identity politics" clearly had nothing to do with the previous disastrous AD hires. As Jimmy just explained on the Eunuch board using the APR ban as an example, the administrative incompetence that has hamstrung our program even while our coaches and players were competing proudly and well is a systemic issue lasting over years and extending well beyond the current officeholder. In my opinion she has just mismanaged it further, and to crisis levels. Bluntly, I believe that ever since Bud Haidet retired our program has been mismanaged, unsupported and yes, even sabotaged.

It seems to be important to you that change occur so as to rectify what you view as the consequence of bad ideology. I couldn't care less about that. We need change because we are failing. Incompetence and lack of integrity are immensely more persuasive reasons for change than "identity politics." The stuff you are talking about just invites reactionary arguments that will not advance the ball.

This actually reminds me of a conversation I had with Senator Johnson last year. I was lobbying him about a justice system issue. We come from very different ideological perspectives but we had some sympathetic resonance, too, because we both recognized the same systemic problem. Focusing on the real issue is the bottom line. Our problem isn't why someone was hired. Our problem is the state of the program.

[BBF]

And by the way, great job on the other board Jimmy. That false trope about the APR ban being Rob's fault has always rankled the hell out of me. Let's face it, it's expedient for those who don't like Jeter (and in some cases never liked him) to blame him for that too, just like they blamed him for everything else ("everything else" being, of course, not being Bruce Pearl). The reality is that Rob was elevating this program when Geiger sent it reeling by banishing it to Siberia (aka, the Klotsche). Then, after recovering with a fantastic tournament run the next season, it was sent reeling again with the APR ban that was, as you well explained, purely the result of administrative mismanagement.

By the way, what are the 73 remaining engaged fans going to do when it turns out that LaVall Jordan isn't Bruce Pearl either?

[TheDarkHawkReturns]

Fran: I appreciate your position, and I agree that the University as a whole has been mismanaged for a very long time, and not just Athletics. I would argue the root causes of all that failure is, at least in part, the one I point out in my previous post.

The hire of Nancy Zimpher was a great move. After that many of the hires at the key positions have all been about many other things besides than execution and experience, IMO. Some of that is to be expected, and I am not saying that it is entirely wrong to look at all aspects of a candidate's resume, but as time has passed, the "WHO" part has risen higher and higher on the criteria list, until eventually we hired an demonstrably incompetent and inexperienced person simply because of the "WHO".

The reason why Braun still has a job at all is still the "WHO" part, too. Not only does this elevation of identity taint hiring, it prevents consequences of failure from being implemented, prolonging the suffering.

Until the "WHO" is made substantially subordinate to the "HOW GOOD", we will continue to flail around aimlessly. At a University, I hold out little to no hope that this will ever occur.

If you need more details, ask Jimmy privately about the hiring practices in the Braun era.

[dylanrocks]

Here's what a friend who's a fan of all the state teams and attends Marquette, Wisconsin and UWM games said to me this weekend:

"In three or four years, UWM might be pretty good!"

Cue the Twilight Zone music, man! I still don't understand this at all. Are the architects of the purge trying to dismantle the program?

[Skrapheap]

Cue the Twilight Zone music, man! I still don't understand this at all. Are the architects of the purge trying to dismantle the program?

Let's hope they've stopped trying, thinking they've done as much as they need.

[dylanrocks]

I just finished watching the game, 'Heap. I don't know how much more work there is to do. That performance was purely "Cobbian."

[dylanrocks]

I have to admit that ASN announcer Dave Armstrong's comment that LJ is "changing the culture" at Milwaukee has me puzzled.

With as many 20-win seasons as we had and as much energy as was expended by players, coaches, former administrators, staff members, donors and fans over the last 11 years, what part of the culture needed "changing?"

I find this the most peculiar thing I've heard about the transition. After all, LJ himself has credited Rob for "building the program."

[BBF]

I assume he meant changing the culture to D3 status.