1.25 Green Bay

[Jimmy Lemke]

All general tickets gone for Friday's game against Green Bay. Some student tickets still available.

[Anger Management]

so glad i have a game myself to attend to

[MU/Panther]

Panthers are a 5 point underdog. I hope the Panthers can win on ESPNU.

[Jimmy Lemke]

Sitting next to Robbie D and Todd Rosiak tonight.

[Jimmy Lemke]

MKE has 1-6 shooting at the first break and only two points. But GB is also bad.

[Jimmy Lemke]

Link: Game Story (http://www.brewcityball.com/forums/content.php?527-A-familiar-tune)

[Tyrunner0097]

I'm almost in tears watching this team and program die right before my eyes...I've stood up for Jeter long enough...time to cut our losses and do a complete restart of the program...

[lutzow10]

The problem is that the whole atletic department is a mess. They need to clean house, figure out what this schools short and long term goals are and find people to fill AthDept positons who know how to make those things happen. I can't see this athletic department doing whats best because I don't think they know how to do whats best... or what best even is.

[illwauk]

Everything about this damn athletic department is backwards:

-Full of ladder-climbers who are at Milwaukee to advance their career and use it as a springboard to elsewhere (rather than people who genuinely care about Panther athletics).

-Full of baby boomers who still think of Milwaukee as a commuter campus (rather than younger guys in their late 20s/30s who know commuters are just a fraction of the many types of students who attend Milwaukee now).

-Headed by people from outside the UW System bloodstream (who have no idea how to market a program that just came of age less than a generation ago) who only hire coaches from within it (which gets us a stale ass, behind the curve, WIAC-style product) when, if anything, that should be the other way around.

-Full of people who'd rather play grab-ass with the pro franchises in town (see the first bullet point) than give a serious look into how to market Milwaukee athletics... or goodness forbid... figure out a way to actually make the athletic department an asset the university could invest in with a clear conscience.

Frankly, with the way things are I honestly wouldn't be upset to find out we're going to D2 or D3 after this year. Anything is better than this sh*t.

[Jimmy Lemke]

Everything about this damn athletic department is backwards:

-Full of ladder-climbers who are at Milwaukee to advance their career and use it as a springboard to elsewhere (rather than people who genuinely care about Panther athletics).

This couldn't be further from the truth. Kathy Litzau, Deedee Merritt, Levar Ridgeway, Kevin O'Connor, John Stewart, Brian Morgan...every one of these people and more were here when I was a freshman in September 2005. Most of them have been promoted or changed jobs - Litzau from VB coach to SWA, Deedee from special assistant to Asst. AD to Development, Levar from head tickets to marketing, B-Mo from asst. to head tickets - so I would argue that if there's any problem with ambition, it's that we have a lot of people who are complacent in Milwaukee and perhaps aren't blowing the doors open. But like I said, most of them have been promoted, so I'd say there's enough ambition to go around for people who have been in the program for a long time. This isn't an issue.


-Full of baby boomers who still think of Milwaukee as a commuter campus (rather than younger guys in their late 20s/30s who know commuters are just a fraction of the many types of students who attend Milwaukee now).

Commuters are about half, but the problem here doesn't stem from a lack of on-campus marketing so much as the red tape that keeps Levar's marketing efforts out of the dorms and the union. I think this problem here is more pointed to the city at large that supports this program and doesn't understand the changes.


-Headed by people from outside the UW System bloodstream (who have no idea how to market a program that just came of age less than a generation ago) who only hire coaches from within it (which gets us a stale ass, behind the curve, WIAC-style product) when, if anything, that should be the other way around.

Passionate people need to be in these jobs. It's not where they come from it's where they want to take this program. We need more incentive-based pay to counteract the seemingly lack of passion - offer them more money if they can earn it in ticket sales, attendance, development, etc.


-Full of people who'd rather play grab-ass with the pro franchises in town (see the first bullet point) than give a serious look into how to market Milwaukee athletics... or goodness forbid... figure out a way to actually make the athletic department an asset the university could invest in with a clear conscience.

We haven't lost many people to pro sports franchises. The only one I can think of is Jason Clark, who left us to be GM of the MKE Iron (now Mustangs, possibly defunct). And Jason is a football guy - I always liked to tell him, if you can be an Indiana Hoosiers football fan, you're a HUGE football fan. I don't know what you mean by the clear conscience remark, but I'm sure that most of the money accounted for is going to the right places.


Frankly, with the way things are I honestly wouldn't be upset to find out we're going to D2 or D3 after this year. Anything is better than this sh*t.

You're overreacting. Programs have bad years and recover. It happens more often in the mid-major world than it does with high-majors, so people who aren't accustomed to rooting for mid-majors have a shorter fuse.

Are things going in the wrong direction? Yes. Are certain people in the athletic department holding us back? I believe so. Is the basketball program in a bad way? Sure is. But things can turn into a good thing quickly - keep an eye out for news on the WCD, Frank Gimbel's term is expiring.