Keys for Phoenix against Milwaukee (Tournament Edition)

After falling flat on its face in the regular season finale against Valparaiso, the Phoenix must play tonight as the No. 4 seed against the No. 9 seed Milwaukee Panthers. Green Bay won the two regular season meetings by a combined 37 points. Green Bay comes into the game 16-14 overall and finished the conference schedule with a record of 10-6, while Milwaukee finished 8-23 overall and 3-13 in Horizon League play. The winner of tonight's game at the Resch Center will play the winner of No. 5 UIC and No. 8 Cleveland State Friday in Valparaiso. Here are some of the keys to beating Milwaukee tonigh:

1) What can Brown do for you?

I sound like a broken record, but Alec Brown needs to get the ball this game. Brown has dominated the Panthers in the two meetings, averaging 25.5 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in the two contests during the regular season. He shot an impressive 63 percent to score the 51 points in the two games, and 71 percent from 3-point range. Alec Brown should be the focal point of the offense and Milwaukee has no one who can slow Brown down. Milwaukee also struggled on the glass, finishing last in the Horizon League in rebounding. If Brown can get going with his scoring and getting second chance points due to his rebounds and putbacks, Milwaukee has little shot of moving onto the next round.

2) Slow down Milwaukee's back court

Milwaukee had a down season this year, but its back court of Paris Gulley and Jordan Aaron are capable of going off at any time. Both players average nearly 15 points per game and Aaron, a junior college transfer, was named to the Horizon League All-Newcomer team yesterday. Aaron has scored 34 on one occasion and scored 28 in Milwaukee's 95-88 double overtime victory at IUPUI Feb. 23. Gulley, on the other hand, has scored in double figures in each of Milwaukee's past eight games. He has struggled from the field as of late, including going 6-of-17 against Green Bay last week, but he has shown he has the ability to get to the free throw line as evidenced by shooting 16 free throws in a 71-53 victory over Loyola last month. If these guards get hot, anything can happen, especially in a one-and-done scenario.

3) Dominate the glass

There is no reason Green Bay should not be able to do this, as Milwaukee is dead last in the league in rebounding by a wide margin, while Green Bay is first. The Phoenix has three players in the top eight in rebounding, led by Jordan Fouse, who led the league with 7.6 rebounds per game. In the battle against Milwaukee at Milwaukee, the Panthers kept the rebounding edge somewhat close, only losing 39-33, but in the rematch at the Resch, the Phoenix dominated the battle of the boards 35-21. Three players in that game had eight rebounds, which was three more than Demetrius Harris, who led the Panthers in that category. Green Bay should, not only win the rebounding battle, but dominate it. If it does like I think it will, it will be a long day for the Panthers, who have only won one game away from Milwaukee this season.




Prediction: PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yes, that was a Rocky reference) Seriously, though, Green Bay 76, Milwaukee 60