Panthers off to surprising roaring start in Horizon
UWM women’s team has just one loss this season
There’s no handbook, no prior experience to draw upon when it comes to coaching during a pandemic.
So quarantines, protocols and ubiquitous face coverings aside, coach Kyle Rechlicz and her staff made the conscious decision to try to make the 202021 season for the UW-Milwaukee women’s basketball team as fun as possible in the COVID-19 era.
To this point, the approach can be considered a rousing success.
UWM enters its two-game set at Detroit Mercy on Friday and Saturday afternoon on a four-game winning streak, tied with IUPUI and Northern Kentucky atop the Horizon League with a 4-0 record and sporting a conference-best 7-1 mark overall.
The 4-0 Horizon League start is the Panthers’ first since the 2001-’02 season. The last time they began 7-1 overall was 2016-’17, a season that ended in the WBI tournament.
“It’s probably the most fun that we’ve had,” Rechlicz, now in her ninth year at the helm, said this week.
“As a staff, we went into the season really taking on the mindset that our players are already going through so
much in terms of not being able to have a personal life, really, because they’re having to bubble themselves and not getting to see their families, stuff like that.
“So, we’ve been really intentional about laughing in practice, doing fun drills in practice, enjoying all the small moments because we know at any point in time it can be taken away. We’ve really put a lot of emphasis on having fun, and our team is having a blast coming to practice every day and playing games and really just enjoying each others’ company.”
UWM came into the season a team of extremes with five seniors — Brandi Bisping, Sydney Staver, Bre Cera, McKaela Schmelzer and Miquela Santoro — and six freshmen comprising the bulk of the roster.
Megan Walstad, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, was named to the Horizon League’s all-freshman team in the 201819 season and expected to be the Panthers’ best player, but was also coming off a knee injury that cost her all of last year.
The group came together quickly, opening with wins at home over Ball State and on the road at Bradley. Next was a victory at Marquette, the first triumph there for UWM since Dec. 31, 2008.
A two-point setback at Bowling Green was followed by a rousing weekend run at perennial Horizon League powerhouse UW-Green Bay that earned the Panthers their first sweep of the Phoenix since the teams shared the conference title in 2005-06.
UWM swept Robert Morris at the Klotsche Center last weekend, with 1-7, 1-3 Detroit Mercy up next.
“We don’t talk about the past at all, so as far as we’re concerned we’re going into the Detroit series at 0-0 and trying to come out 2-0. As far as we’re concerned, Detroit is the best team we’ve played this year,” said Rechlicz, whose rotation goes 10 deep with players averaging from 29 to 9.6 minutes per game.
“But I will say after we won the second game at Green Bay, it was pretty cool to hear them in the locker room talk about knocking off two of the other Division I teams and being one of the best in the state this year (UWM and Wisconsin didn’t schedule a game).
“That really says a lot for our players and I think our senior class has a lot of pride in that, for sure.”
‘We’re incredibly scrappy’
Whereas some of Rechlicz’s former teams have relied heavily on the threepointer, this year’s version has excelled in two areas in particular: defense and getting to the free-throw line.
Following their games against Robert Morris, the Panthers ranked second in the Horizon League and 22nd nationally by limiting opponents to 54.1 points per game. They were also first/29th in opponents’ field-goal percentage (34.3) and second/24th in opponents’ threepoint percentage (23.2).
Much of the credit, Rechlicz said, can be attributed to the superior condition the Panthers are in. Aggressiveness has been key as well.
“We’re incredibly scrappy. That’s the biggest improvement from last year to this year, just the intensity and heart that our players are playing with every single possession,” said Rechlicz, whose team was picked to finish seventh in the 12-team Horizon League in the preseason.
“If anybody drives, we’re collapsing and rotating. We’re putting people in positions where they have to move the ball. We’re getting a lot more shot-clock violations than we’ve ever had on other teams. It’s kind of like a sacrifice — everybody’s just laying out every possession and they’re fighting for loose balls.
“I’ve heard some of the coaches that we’ve played against say, in a positive way, say, ‘It’s like you’re bullies. You’re literally like bullies on the defensive end,’ because every cut we’re bumping and just playing very physically — and we’re doing it without fouling for the most part, which is nice.”
Rechlicz also calls this year’s version of the Panthers her most unselfish team, which has led to a plethora of trips to the free-throw line.
At of the start of the week, UWM had made more free throws than its opponent has attempted in six of its eight games. And the accuracy has been uncanny — the Panthers ranked first in the Horizon League and fifth in the nation at 82.7% and first/sixth with 134 makes.
Walstad has led the way with averages of 13 points and 9.6 rebounds per game (tops in the Horizon League) while shooting 51.3% from the floor, 44.4% from beyond the arc (with a team-leading eight makes) and 93.3% from the free-throw line.
“It’s huge. We really missed having her on the court last year,” Rechlicz said. “When you can have a post player that shoots over 50% and has the touch that she has around the basket, it just opens up so much more for everybody else because people have to pay special attention to her. Now driving lanes become a little easier because they can’t help off her in the paint as much.
“And she can shoot the three really well, so you’ve got to stay tight on her out on the perimeter. Having her really provides a lot of offensive opportunities for other people as well.”
Appreciating the opportunity
While Detroit Mercy comes into the weekend with an unimpressive record, Rechlicz and the Panthers aren’t taking anything for granted. That’s because, with the administration’s blessing, the group was allowed to “break the bubble” and go home for a four-day break after the sweep of Robert Morris. It was right into quarantine once back on campus, followed by six consecutive days of testing before the games at Detroit.
“We talk a lot about the physical health aspects of COVID and how dangerous it is, but we also talk about the mental health side,” Rechlicz said. “And this is a really challenging mental health year for athletes in the country because not only are they not getting the opportunities to go home and see their families, their families are also not getting the opportunities to see them play games at a lot of places.
“And we’re one of those schools not allowing fans. It’s a lot of isolation. For an upperclassman, that’s tough. But for a freshman who’s new to the college experience, that’s really tough.”
While UWM’s men’s team has already had four games scuttled by COVID-19, the women have — knock on wood — made it through without disruption to this point. Compare that to the fate of the traditionally strong Duke women’s program, whose players made the decision to shut down for the season due to COVID-19 concerns.
“So far, we haven’t had a team practice (since returning),” Rechlicz said. “We’ve been doing what we call ‘house workouts’ where they come in with their roommates, but we haven’t put the whole team together yet. The first time that they’ll have a contact practice will be the day before our Detroit game. Which is tough, because you know that becomes a little bit of a disadvantage going into the next series.
“But our team, the energy in the gym right now is so contagious and so high because they got that break time, and they feel so fortunate to feel like they’re playing for something again. Honestly, them coming back, I feel like they have even more pep in their step right now than they did before they went home for break. We’re really excited for the next challenge.”