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Horizon League Preview: #5 Milwaukee Panthers

By John Parker

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In March, everything was looking up for the Milwaukee Panthers. After an up-and-down season Milwaukee got its leading scorer Jordan Aaron back from suspension, rattled off five consecutive victories to clinch the Horizon League Tournament and secured its fourth NCAA Tournament berth since 2002. Along the way, the Panthers ended arch-rival Green Bay’s best shot at a bid to the Big Dance since the ’90s. Even as Villanova pulled away to end Milwaukee’s season in the Round of 64, there was excitement within the program. If the team could bring in a couple instant-impact recruits to lessen the blow of losing two starters, another run to the tournament wasn’t out of the question. By April, that excitement was crushed when Milwaukee was banned from postseason play due to a low Academic Performance Rate. The Panthers didn’t bring in any proven transfers and the team’s top priority in recruiting decided to go elsewhere.

Jordan Aaron’s heroics helped lead Milwaukee to the NCAA Tournament. Finding a way to replace Aaron’s production is essential to this year’s Panther team. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

While Milwaukee won’t hear its name on Selection Sunday, the team could still be a player in the regular season race.  To do so, it’ll need somebody to step in and replace the scoring that Jordan Aaron and Kyle Kelm provided. With Aaron off the court, last year’s Panther squad often looked lost offensively. News of the postseason ban kept the Panthers from landing any experienced prospects in recruiting, so improvements will likely have to come from the returning crop of players.

The team will look to rising juniors Matt Tiby and Austin Arians to lead the way on offense. Tiby led the Panthers in scoring for much of last season before falling into a slump late in the year. Arians consistently scored in double figures, but cracked 20 points just once. Last year, Milwaukee could rely on all five of its starters to provide double figures on any given night. Without Aaron and Kelm, both Tiby and Arians may need to make major strides to keep Milwaukee in contention this season.

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Brett Prahl earned All-State honors as a senior at East Troy. Prahl and his twin brother Andy joined Milwaukee after helping the Trojans to the 2013 Division III State Semifinals. With the departure of Kelm and Malcolm Moore, there are minutes to be had in the Panthers’ front court this season and Brett Prahl should see action early on.

Springs spent his freshman season at Northern Illinois, where he played 18 games before leaving the team. While Spings’ Northern Illinois team tied and later broke the record for fewest points scored in the first half, he was the second leading scorer on a young team that saw its returning players win 15 games last season after going 5-25 in 2013. Springs is considered a likely candidate to step into the starting role created by Jordan Aaron’s graduation.

Justin Jordan, who committed to Milwaukee in May, is the nephew of NBA legend Michael Jordan. He went to Hargrave Military Academy for a season after graduating from Davidson Day High School, where he spent his junior season on the North Carolina Private School 2A State Tournament runners-up. Jordan is one of five players from that Davidson Day team to sign with a Division I program.

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Three starters return from Milwaukee’s NCAA Tournament team: guard Steve McWhorter, wing Austin Arians, and forward Matt Tiby. With the departure of Jordan Aaron and Kyle Kelm, each of the three is likely to be vital to Milwaukee’s success. Last year, McWhorter was the team’s floor general. He steadied an offense that won just eight games without a true point guard in 2013. In addition to leading the Panthers in scoring for much of the season, Tiby led the team in rebounding. Arians had a tendency to show up against the team’s toughest opponents: he averaged 13 points on 45% shooting (50% from beyond the arc) in games against Wisconsin and Villanova, both better than his season averages against worse competition.

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JJ Panoske will likely replace Kyle Kelm in Milwaukee’s lineup. Last year, Panoske averaged just over 10 minutes per game behind Kelm and backup big man Malcolm Moore. In 2013, he notched 17 minutes and 5 points per game prior to Moore transferring to Milwaukee. To this point Panoske hasn’t provided much offensively for the Panthers, but he has been a solid defensive presence.

The final spot in the lineup will likely belong to either Jevon Lyle or Akeem Springs. Lyle was a deep bench player for much of the season. He failed to log ten minutes in a Horizon League game until Jordan Aaron’s suspension forced him into action in late February, but when he got minutes he was very productive for the team. He scored 15 points in his first real action of the season, an overtime loss at Youngstown State. In the team’s regular season finale, his 20 points secured Milwaukee’s 68-63 victory over Detroit and clinched a home game in the first round of the Horizon League Tournament. Springs left Northern Illinois in the middle of his first season, but he has logged a lot more minutes than Lyle at the D-I level. Springs seems to be the favorite for the starting position because of his extra experience and the fact that he has slightly better size than the 6-foot-2 Lyle.

With the graduation of the team’s offensive catalyst, Milwaukee will need somebody to emerge as a top option offensively. Losing a reliable big man in Kelm will only complicate matters. Given that projected starter JJ Panoske hasn’t produced consistently on offense, Austin Arians and Matt Tiby will need to shoulder more of the scoring load for Milwaukee to contend this season. Even if both can deliver, Akeem Springs has to demonstrate that his solid freshman year production wasn’t merely the result of being the one of the few players willing to shoot. While none of these developments are impossible to imagine, teams that performed more consistently than the Panthers over the course of last season will have fewer question marks. On paper, MIlwaukee should finish somewhere in the middle of the standings.

Projected Finish: 5th Place