12.11 @ Wisconsin

[MayorCK]

Milwaukee 9-2
@
#4 Wisconsin 10-0

Day: Wednesday


Date: Dec. 11, 2013


Location: Madison, Wis.


Time: 7:00 pm CT


Coverage
TV: none/BTN.com



Radio: WISN (AM 1130)

[MayorCK]

If I am not mistaken, this is the highest ranked non-conference opponent in school history. Let's shock the world!

[Jimmy Lemke]

Winning in Madison would be a feather in the cap for this program.

I can't wait.

[BBF]

Now here's something interesting. Massey does a composite ranking based on all other rankings and ratings. Perhaps the Badgers will spend the next two days reading their press clippings and decide the game will be over at the opening tip. With Bo as their coach, I doubt it -- but we can hope.

http://www.masseyratings.com/cb/compare.htm

[BBF]

And to expound on Jimmy's point, it would indeed be a feather in the cap. But in the end it's just a non-con game and I'd trade it in a heartbeat for a win in Detroit on February 27 to secure the HL championship and the tournament at the Cell.

[DKelly28]

If I am not mistaken, this is the highest ranked non-conference opponent in school history. Let's shock the world!

I thought so too but according to a tweet from Kevin O'Connor, Kansas was ranked #2 when Milwaukee played them in 2004 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. Would still be amazing to get this W.

[Jimmy Lemke]

And to expound on Jimmy's point, it would indeed be a feather in the cap. But in the end it's just a non-con game and I'd trade it in a heartbeat for a win in Detroit on February 27 to secure the HL championship and the tournament at the Cell.

I don't know. For a team that is 9-2 and (at this point anyway) seems to have postseason aspirations, this game could be the difference between being confident and nervous on Selection Sunday. Say a 24-8 Milwaukee team goes into the NCAA Tournament with an automatic bid having won the conference tournament. A victory on the road over Wisconsin, a sure-fire top-4 seed team, could be the difference in two or maybe even three seeds if the Panthers were to lack another "quality" victory at the end of the season. The difference between a 15 and a 13 or a 13 and an 11.

My point is that for a team with postseason aspirations, this game holds a great deal of significance as being the most important prospective victory this side of five days before Selection Sunday. Whether those aspirations are legitimate or hopeful remains to be seen; in either case, we will have no idea on December 11th at 7 p.m. We'll know a lot more at 10 p.m.

[BBF]

I would bet a lot of money that the H League will be a one bid league again this year. That's just reality. Getting into the tournament substantially trumps a non-con game that may improve a seed line, so I stand by my comparison. A win that brought the HLT to the Cell would be immensely more important for the program than any non-con win in a one bid environment.

That said -- this is not an either/or proposition. ;) But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There appear to be a lot of people who think UW is the top team in the country. I don't, but I think they are a solid top 15 team. We haven't yet played anyone that has a good argument to be in the top 100. Our defense is porous at times, we don't value the ball as well as we should, and as we saw against Bradley and DePaul, we have trouble against big athletes in the paint. I'm not writing off our chances on Wednesday, but I'm not going to oversell them, either. I love what the team has done so far, but I'm not going to hinge my feelings about this team on whether it can upset a vastly better opponent on the road. I just want to see us play hard and smart, whatever the result. Win or lose we will still be 0-0 in the HL, and that's what counts. Green Bay beat an Elite Eight team last year in the non-con. How did that work out for them on their glorious march to the CIT?

[MU/Panther]

On the news on Fox 6, they had Tiby & Aaron on. I guess when your 9-2, the media starts to coming out to you.

[Jimmy Lemke]

So much to read today folks:

Danny's Preview: http://pantheru.com/2013/12/panthers-are-set-for-big-test/

Jimmy's Feature: http://pantheru.com/2013/12/panthers-badgers-build-through-swing-aau/

[illwauk]

Just pathetic... absolutely pathetic. As annoyed as I get for all the casual hate Rob Jeter gets, displays like last night are exactly why our fans give him so much sh*t.

I get that the Badgers are damn good this year, and that Bo Ryan is a hell of a coach; but no one knows Bo Ryan or his tendencies better than Rob Jeter. There's absolutely no reason he shouldn't be able to recruit a team that's capable of at least staying competitive with Wisconsin, if not pulling off the upset every few years. He can whine about facilities all he wants, but it wasn't so long ago that the Panthers made it to the Sweet Sixteen with those very same facilities.

Right or wrong, winning the Horizon League isn't going to grow our fan base anything close to what beating UW (and/or MU) would. The Badgers have played us more than they've played any other team outside of the Big Ten. We need to start looking at them like a default conference rival, and right now, our rivalry resembles that of Tennessee-Vanderbilt in football.