Tuesday, December 6, 2022 7:00 p.m.
Gentile Arena, Chicago, Ill.
I hadn’t thought much about UWGB since Brian Wardle was hired away to be coach at Bradley in 2015. Wardle was replaced by Linc Darner, who took them to the NCAA Tournament his first year, racked up two 20-win seasons, was 12 games above .500 in a five year stint at UWGB, and had four of his five seasons above .500. Darner was the third lowest-paid coach in the HL, and
UWGB dumped him in May 2020 in the middle of a pandemic. Also,
UWGB was required to pay him a $720,000 separation fee.
But UWGB had something big in mind. Their next hire was Will Ryan, son of legendary Wisconsin coaching icon, Bo Ryan! What could go wrong? Two and a quarter seasons later, UWGB is 14-49 under Ryan and the team was one of the last five winless schools to start 2022.
Monday afternoon in Green Bay (that’s right, 30 hours before the start of the Loyola-Green Bay game in Chicago), the Phoenix got their first win of the year with a 68-61 conference win over IUPUI. But despite the win over one of Division I’s worst teams at home, things are looking bleak. UWGB is at 358 in KenPom out of 363 teams. (If I sound a little more sardonic about this than seems necessary, it’s because of the shameful treatment UWGB gave to former coaches Mike Heideman and Tod Kowalczyk while also being one of the most penny-pinching programs in college hoops).
Coach Ryan is likely to start 6’1” sophomore guard Zae Blake, 6’4” junior Randy Tucker, 6’8” sophomore Cade Meyer, 6’5” sophomore Clarence Cummings, and 6’2” junior Nate Jenkins. Blake leads the team in scoring with 11.3 per game, and he’s shooting 58.8% from behind the arc. In Monday’s win over IUPUI, Blake had 20 points, four assists and three steals to lead the Phoenix. Cummings is the second leading scorer at 9.9 ppg. Garren Davis and Davin Zeigler were the only two bench players on the court for more than ten minutes in Monday’s win.
Apart from their win Monday, UWGB’s best game was probably when they went to Madison and lost by 11 to the flagship. In the 56-45 loss the Phoenix held Wisconsin to under 30% shooting and forced 14 turnovers.
Loyola needs to turn the page and cleanse the palate after an ugly end to the DePaul game. The best chance for a Rambler win over a Top 100 KenPom team is coming up this Saturday in Atlanta, so Loyola needs to make more progress avoiding turnovers, denying threes, and keeping opponents off the free throw line.
Green Bay has a 26-15 all time series lead.
Loyola game notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... _Notes.pdfGreen Bay game notes: https://greenbayphoenix.com/news/2022/1 ... icago.aspx TV/Streaming video: ESPN+
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/eve ... /401487660 Radio/Streaming audio: https://loyolaramblers.com/watch/?Live=127&type=LiveLive stats: https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=426261Vegas odds: Loyola by 18.5