University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has eight wins all season before the Horizon League tournament. Panthers had not won in a month before getting a win versus the host, Detroit Mercy, on Friday. They beat two-seed Valparaiso who were missing Alec Peters in a defensive struggle then tonight, they defeated University of Illinois-Chicago in another barnburner. Milwaukee will now face Northern Kentucky in the Horizon League final with their first chance to go back to the NCAA Tournament since 2014.

I’m not going to pretend to know Milwaukee basketball. I feel like whenever Panthers make some sort of run, everybody in the greater Milwaukee area starts cheering for the plucky underdog. This would be a great story with a team only having eight wins, and a new head coach, LaVell Jordan, ready to turn around a program. If you look at UWM’s schedule, they had so many close losses this season so it’s fair to say their eight-win record is a little fraudulent.

This should be an interesting matchup as Milwaukee took down Northern Kentucky Norse earlier this season at home and only lost by six on the road recently. Norse are playing for their first chance at an NCAA Tournament berth with it only being their second year of Division 1 existence so they have just as much to play for as underdog Panthers.

Charlie.