UWGB updates...

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Series: UWGB leads the all-time series 18-12, but UNI has won the last four meetings, including an 82-75 win at the Resch Center last Feb. 21.

Probable starters: UWGB ? F, Tyler Koenig (6-8, so.) 6.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg; Josh Lawrence (6-7, so.) 13.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg; G, Ryan Evanochko (6-2, so.) 11.1 ppg, 5.4 rpg; Javier Mendiburu (6-5, sr.) 9.2 ppg, 7.4 apg; Matt Rohde (6-2, sr.) 10.4 ppg, 2.7 rpg.

UNI ? F, Grant Stout (6-8, so.) 11.2 ppg, 8.8 rpg; C, Eric Coleman (6-6, fr.) 13.7 ppg, 8.3 rpg; G, Erik Crawford (6-3, jr.) 17.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg; Ben Jacobson (6-3, jr.) 17.8 ppg, 2.8 rpg; Brooks McKowen (6-2, so.) 4.3 ppg, 4.2 apg

UWGB update: This is the final game the Phoenix must play without guards Brandon Morris (academic suspension) and Ryan Werch (transfer). They will be eligible in the next game against North Dakota State on Dec. 29. ? By hitting 16 of 17 free throws in Saturday?s 75-70 win at Montana State, the Phoenix improved to 65.6 percent for the season. It entered that game shooting 61.3 percent from the line before putting together the best free-throw shooting performance in Kowalczyk?s three seasons. ? UWGB is one of only three Horizon League teams with a winning record. UW-Milwaukee is 6-1, and Cleveland State is 3-2. Conference teams have gone 28-30 against non-conference opponents but only 18-30 against Division I opponents. The Horizon League is ranked 14th out of 31 Division I conferences in a duplicate RPI poll.

UNI update: The Panthers? only two losses this season came at Cincinnati (76-70 in double overtime) and at Iowa (76-73). UNI blew an 18-point lead against Cincinnati. ? The Panthers beat Missouri-Kansas City (81-58) on Saturday. Coleman had 16 points and 10 rebounds, his second straight double-double. He was named Missouri Valley Conference player of the week on Monday. Coleman and Stout have helped offset the loss of starting forwards David Gruber and Matt Schneiderman, who combined for 23.1 ppg and 13.3 rpg last season as seniors. ? Nine of the 10 teams in the Valley have winning records. The league has gone 51-15 in non-conference games, including 48-15 against Division I opponents, and is ranked seventh among all Division I conferences.

 

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College basketball: Phoenix men hope to mirror rise of Northern Iowa


If the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is looking for an example of a model mid-major rebuilding job, it need only look across the court at its opponent tonight.

Northern Iowa, which hosts the Phoenix at the UNI Dome, hired Greg McDermott as its head coach in 2001 to rebuild a program that had not been to the NCAA Tournament since 1990. Last year, in McDermott?s third season, the Panthers won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament and returned to the NCAA Tournament, where it took eventual national runner-up Georgia Tech to the wire before losing 65-60 in the first round.

One year after McDermott arrived at UNI, Tod Kowalczyk was hired for a similar rebuilding project at UWGB. In his first 65 games, Kowalczyk, who has a 32-33 record, has won two more games than McDermott did at the same point in his third season. It was in that third season that McDermott made his mark.

Buoyed in part by last year?s 82-75 win over UWGB at the Resch Center in February?s Bracket Buster game, the Panthers took an eight-game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament and finished with a 21-10 record.

?We probably got to the NCAA Tournament quicker than we thought was possible,? McDermott said Tuesday. ?You hope in four or five years you get to the point where you can compete for postseason play. In reality, an NIT bid last year would have been a huge step given where our program had been. To skip that step and go all the way to the NCAA was big.?

It?s a feat the Phoenix is hoping to match in Kowalczyk?s third season.

?I think they?re a great model,? Kowalczyk said. ?Greg?s done a great job. There?s a lot of similarities in how he built his program and how we built ours. I think we?re at the same level they are right now.?

The parallels between the two programs are many. Both face budget concerns that leave them with fewer resources than many of their conference competitors. Both saw programs that were strong in the early 1990s fade late in the decade. Both hired young coaches with ties to their respective areas.

McDermott, 40, played at UNI and was a successful Division II coach. Kowalczyk, 38, grew up in the Green Bay area and was a successful Division I assistant.

Both took on programs that had become brutal. UNI was 7-24 the season before McDermott arrived. UWGB was 9-21 the season before Kowalczyk took over.

?It was horrible,? UNI athletics director Rick Hartzell said. ?We hadn?t graduated a player in five years and we had 800, maybe 1,000 people coming to the games. The last coach (Sam Weaver) brought in every transfer, flunk-out and junior college kid. Nobody knew the kids, and they didn?t know who they were playing for.

?Our plan when we hired Greg was simple ? to recruit the best Iowa four-year players we could find and supplement that with whomever else we need to. He found Iowa kids, for the most part, who will do the academic work and compete well on the floor. We followed that recipe to a ?T? and had success much faster than anyone thought.?

Last year, McDermott brought in Iowa?s Mr. Basketball, guard Brooks McKowen. The previous year, he signed first-team all-state guard Ben Jacobson. Kowalczyk?s recruiting class for next season includes highly-ranked Wisconsin players Ryan Tillema, Mike Schachtner and Cordero Barkley.

?The one thing that he?s done and what we attempt to establish is to try to keep some in-state kids at home,? McDermott said. ?Tod?s done a great job recruiting the state. We tried to sneak over there this year, but it was difficult to do.?

In the middle of McDermott?s third season last winter, he got a new contract and raise to reportedly $117,000 per season that included incentives worth up $150,000. At the end of Kowalczyk?s second season last summer, he got a new contract and a raise to $122,500. Both coaches remain among the lowest paid in their respective leagues.

This season, both UWGB (5-2) and UNI (4-2) were picked to finish third in their respective leagues.

?Green Bay has done a great job,? Hartzell said. ?(Kowalczyk) is well thought of, I can tell you that. I don?t know the inner workings of their program as well, but I would say he?s done equally as good a job in a league that?s a little different than ours. The Horizon League is a little more top heavy, while the Valley might be better top to bottom.?

Today?s game is the return part of last February?s game in Green Bay. The Bracket Buster agreement calls for home teams to play at the road team the next year in a regular-season, non-Bracket Buster game. Both teams were awarded home games in this year?s Bracket Buster event on Feb. 19. Opponents for those games won?t be determined until later in the season.

This will be the eighth game between the two schools in the last nine years, and both coaches expressed an interest in continuing the rivalry that dates to their days as conference foes in the Association of Mid-Continent Universities in the 1980s.

?I think it?s a natural game,? McDermott said. ?There?s so much tradition between the two schools and so many similarities between the two schools.?