Milwaukee men’s basketball has been picked to win the Horizon League for the first time since 2006 by the official preseason poll released on Tuesday.
The poll, voted on by head coaches, Sports Information Directors (SIDs) and media members, featured both Milwaukee and Purdue-Fort Wayne at 421 total points. However, Milwaukee garnered one additional first-place vote.
“This is where we want to be – in the conversation,” said head coach Bart Lundy. “But we haven’t proven anything. Until this program breaks through and puts some more banners up, we’re just talking about what-ifs. But I like where we are on the preseason rankings and in recruiting at a high level.”
The Panthers preceded their 2024 Horizon League championship loss with six consecutive victories to wrap up their season, the second under Lundy.
Milwaukee was tied 70-70 in that championship game with about two minutes remaining before ultimately losing 83-76. Oakland wound up defeating Kentucky in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament after knocking off the Panthers.
“All summer we talked about not being two minutes short,” said Lundy. “We’re not going to have our work leave us two minutes short. It’s been a motivating factor for us.”
Now entering year three, Lundy led the team to 20-plus win seasons in his first two years on Milwaukee’s eastside. The most recent Panther teams to reach that mark in consecutive years were in 2004-05 and 2005-06, preceding that first-place ranking.
Additionally, senior guard Erik Pratt and grad transfer guard AJ McKee were named to the preseason all-league second team.
Pratt, a transfer from Texas A&M, averaged 12.5 points per game in his first season with the Panthers, also finishing in the top 10 in three-pointers per game with 2.1.
McKee paced Queens University with 18.8 points per game last year, finishing third in scoring in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The senior guard was on Lundy’s roster at Queens for three seasons.
“I’ve done a lot of winning with Coach Lundy,” said McKee. “I just really wanted to keep that going.”
Joining McKee in the transfer department are Themus Fulks, Danilo Jovanovich, John Lovelace Jr., JaMichael Stillwell and Esyah Pippah-White.
Fulks, a redshirt senior, averaged 10.6 points per game and 4.4 assists per game last season at Louisiana. The North Carolina native led the Sun Belt in total assists and assists per game two seasons ago for the Ragin’ Cajuns, helping lead them to the NCAA Tournament.
Jovanovich and Lovelace both return to their hometowns, the former from Louisville and the latter from in-conference rival Youngstown State. Jovanovich was the runner-up for Mr. Basketball in Wisconsin in 2022 at Whitnall. Lovelace shot 37% from three-point range and scored 6.6 points per game for the Penguins last year.
Stillwell and Pippah-White join from the junior college ranks. Stillwell, who arrives from Butler CC in El Dorado, Kansas, was named to the All-Southern Conference First Team and JUCOrecruiting.com’s Fab 50 Juco Freshman List in 2022-23 at Miami-Dade CC.
Pippah-White earned Western Junior College Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year last season at Odessa (TX) College.
The Panthers open their season at home against Lakeland on Monday, November 4, at the Klotsche Center.