Milwaukee Lutheran displays true grit
Dogged approach has served team well
Tie how the team plays to how its coach used to play.
In one of Milwaukee Lutheran’s lowest moments of the season, it showed its true colors.
A well-regarded team in the preseason, the Red Knights opened the season against Milwaukee Washington and quickly got into trouble. They trailed by 17 points at one point, but eventually regrouped and came back to lead by five before leading scorer Jourdan Weddle fouled out with 6 minutes left.
His departure spoiled Lutheran’s chance of beginning the year on a high note, but the DNA of the team had already been hatched.
“My guys, they never give up. I love that about them,” Lutheran coach Marcus Jackson said. “If you have a team that never gives up, anything can happen.”
The Red Knights are proving that this season. They’ve kicked to the curb a 35-year championship drought and earned a No. 1 seed in the WIAA tournament. Three more wins and the school will have backto-back 20-win seasons.
Five more victories and the Red Knights will be packing their bags to Madison.
There will be some tough teams to beat between now and then, but the
fact that such a exciting possibility exists speaks to the strides the Red Knights have made this season and last. It has been improvement built with (what kind of players) and mindset that won't settle for second rate.
“We've just got dogs, so when we're on the court we know we have to get after it at all times,” senior guard Terry Moye said.
That hard-driving style has worked well with a team that is anchored by a balanced attack that is producing four players averaging double figures and includes a trio at guard that has balanced pushing the pace with playing under control.
The tandem of senior guard Javeon Tolliver (18.2 ppg) and Weddle (18.5 ppg) gives the Red Knights one of just a handful of tandems in the area with two 18-point scorers. Add Moye (10.2) and senior forward Danny Perdzock (11.1) and you have the core of a team that went 1-1 in the Woodland East to win the division by three games.
This is rare air at Milwaukee Lutheran.
The title is the first since 1985 and the sixth overall. And while there have been success stories in baseball and track and field, many of the school's sports have similar droughts. Football's last conference title was 1969. The last of the three conference titles for the girls basketball program came in 2003.
“It feels good because we're bringing life back into our basketball program,” Tolliver said. “Little kids might be looking up to us, thinking they might want to come here and better the program.”
This can also be considered a heck of a start for Jackson.
As he nears the end of his second season with the program, he has a 37-7 record thanks, in part, to a style of play he implemented that balances the faster pace kids enjoy playing with good shot selection.
“I wanted to give guys freedom to be them but within our offense, meaning I didn't want guys to go out there and start jacking up shots,” Jackson said. “I'll give you the freedom to take your shot within the flow of the offense, so I didn't want to hold guys back. I wanted them to be able to play their game.”
Many remember Jackson as the defensive and rebounding presence for Marquette University.
Jackson didn't see coaching in his future during his playing days for the Golden Eagles. After he graduated from Marquette in 2005, he played eight years overseas before retiring in 2012. He got his first break coaching from former Marquette player and Milwaukee Washington all-state performer Robert Jackson, who offered him a chance to coach with the DTA club program.
Now Marcus Jackson, whose hustle at Marquette won him the team's Floor Burn award as a junior and senior, has molded a team that prides itself on many of the aspect of the game that made him successful.
“I just fell in love with it,” he said of coaching. “I love what I can give back to the players. I love the grind of it. It was hard playing basketball for so long and then not having anything to do with it.”
This year Jackson entered the season thinking big. Why couldn't this team make it to state, he thought? Weddle and Tolliver were back. So was the 6-foot-6 Perdzock, giving Lutheran three of its top four scorers from last season.
Weddle, Tolliver and Moye compliment each other nicely. Tolliver, who leads the team with an average of 4.4 assists, is the floor general. Weddle, who also averages 7.8 rebounds and 2.2 steals, brings a little of everything to the floor. Moye defends the top perimeter threat and has been a timely three-point shooter. Perdzock, meanwhile, has been a glue guy who also leads the team with 11.2 rebounds.
The team won the regional title last year and lost to Washington, the eventual state runner-up in the sectional semifinal.
This year Milwaukee Lutheran has a chance to win the overall Woodland Conference title Thursday at Wisconsin Lutheran.
Then its on to the postseason where, if the seeds play out, the Red Knights will face Milwaukee Marshall, Wauwatosa East, Wisconsin Lutheran and New Berlin Eisenhower.
It would be a heck of a run for a that has already accomplished so much.
“It's crunch time,” Moye said. “You just know you have to go hard every game, every practice, all the time.”