The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men’s basketball team is looking for a fresh start after a disappointing season last year that resulted in an 8-24 record. Coach Rob Jeter will look to a number of new faces on the team to replace three starters from last year. The returners include senior guard Aaron Jordan, who averaged 14.4 points per game, and forward J.J Panoske, who averaged 3.7 rebounds per game. But this years line-up will include many newcomers.
” I am very excited for the new faces we have in place here,” said Jeter. “Right now we need to learn how to play together, and we are still in the process of doing that.”
Some of the new faces Coach Jeter is turning to include transfer students Steve McWhorter and Matt Tiby.
McWhorter, who is a junior guard sat out last year as a transfer from Indiana State. He played two years there and helped to a NCAA tournament appearance while averaging 25 minutes per game. He is the projected point guard this season, with Jordan Aaron, last years starting point guard, moving to shooting guard.
“Jordan is a scoring guard, so i think whenever we get those two guys on the court together, they complement each other well. Plus McWhorter is a little bigger, so it takes some pressure defensively off of the little smaller player we have in Jordan. But i think he does a nice job of running the team.”
The 6 foot 8 forward, Matt Tiby, is a transfer from Kirkwood Community college. He averaged 11.3 points per game and 6.2 rebounds as a freshman at Kirkwood. He sat out the scrimmage last week with a knee injury, but is currently projected to start at power forward. Jordan Aaron also sat out the scrimmage with an ankle injury.
When asked about their injuries, Rob Jeter said, “If this was a real game, they would have been ready to go. This was just a precautionary measure to help them heal.”
Other players to keep an eye on include: freshman guard Cody Wichmann who recently had 19 points including 5 three-pointers in the scrimmage, and returning guards Austin Arians and Thierno Niang. Arians had success in 29 games off the bench last year and is looking to start at the other forward position alongside Tiby. Niang started 6 games last year before hurting his back that ended his season.
“Tonight, I thought he played well.” Jeter said on Wichmann, “Luckily we have a couple more weeks to see where he is before we make a decision on if hes going to play a lot of minutes or maybe redshirt.”
The team opens up it’s season on November 8th at Loyola.