Set to embark on the first season under the direction of new head coach Bart Lundy, the new-look Milwaukee men's basketball team officially gets the 2022-23 campaign underway this week when it hosts MSOE Monday at the Klotsche Center. The matchup against the Raiders is set to tip-off at 5 PM on ESPN+ and will have live statistics available. It will also feature the "Educators Credit Union Milwaukee Panther Men's Basketball Radio Broadcast", which airs on 101.7 FM The Truth and streaming services. Scott Warras is on the call for his seventh season as the voice of the Panthers and all links are posted on the MKE website.

LOOKING AT THE RAIDERS
The Raiders are coming off a 9-15 season a year ago, which included a 5-11 record in Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference league play. Head coach Brian Miller is in his 19th season at MSOE (since 2004) and has a career record at the school of 287-188 (.604 winning percentage). He has led his squad to 16 conference tournament appearances and was named the NCAA Coach of the Year in 2019. He is the winningest coach in school (and athletic department) history. Leading scorer from 2021-22 Michael Pitroff (15.9 ppg) has graduated and the team will be looking for players to step up on the scoring front, as four of the top five point-scorers last season were seniors.

SERIES HISTORY
The game on Monday will be just the second between the two schools in the regular season on the hardwood, although the two programs have played exhibitions including as recently as last season (a 69-63 win by the Panthers). The only other time it was a regular-season game was in November of 2016, an 88-58 MKE victory. The two do have a history dating back prior to when Milwaukee moved to the NCAA Division I level full-time in 1990-91. The Panthers won each of the three regular season games between the teams from 1985-87.

LAST TIME OUT
For the second time in the past three seasons, the Panthers will head into the new schedule without a true exhibition contest on the docket. The team did, however, participate in closed-door scrimmages to prepare for the new campaign.

AND WE'RE OFF
A couple of different looks to the season opener, which sees Milwaukee playing its opening game of the season at home for just the fourth time in the past 10 years. The team is now 19-13 in season openers since returning to the NCAA Division I ranks full-time in 1990-91, which includes the 75-60 victory at North Dakota to start the 2021-22 campaign. In all, the team is 26-6 in that same span in home openers (while 13-1 in season openers at home), claiming wins in 19 of the past 22 (13 in a row at one point). Also, the Panthers have not lost the season opener when it was played at home since dropping an 80-79 decision to Platteville in November of 1994 (have won the previous 13 in that scenario).

ROSTER UPDATE
Jordan Ratliffe, a redshirt senior who comes to the Panthers after earning multiple postseason honors in three years at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, including First-Team Conference Carolinas All-Conference following the 2021-22 campaign, will unfortunately miss the 2022-23 season due to a knee injury that happened prior to the start of the season.

ROSTER OVERHAUL
The Panthers will enter the 2022-23 season with very few familiar faces from a year ago, as the only four retuning players include Vin Baker Jr., Markeith Browning, Moses Bol, and Vincent Miszkiewicz. Baker Jr. is the most experienced player in an MKE uniform, having played in 27 games a season ago. Miszkiewicz has technically not yet played for Milwaukee after sitting out last season due to transfer regulations.

The roster includes 13 total newcomers, with a wide variety of backgrounds.
True Freshman (4): Zach Howell, Elijah Jamison, Vinko Polovic, Brian Taylor II
Redshirt Sophomores (2): Markeith Browning II, Vincent Miszkiewicz
Sophomores (4, all transfers): Keon Edwards, BJ Freeman, Kentrell Pullian, Justin Thomas
Redshirt Juniors (2, both transfers): Angelo Stuart, Jalen Johnson
Juniors (1): Dominic Ham
Redshirt Seniors (2):  Vin Baker, Jr., Jordan Ratliffe
Seniors (1): Ahmad Rand
Grad Students (1): Moses Bol

THERE WILL BE SHOES TO FILL
With such a large list of players having moved on due to graduation and transfer, Milwaukee will be among the teams with the biggest need for newcomers to step into large roles across the entire country.

Milwaukee returns just 11.8 percent of total points from last season, as Vin Baker Jr. (139/5.1 ppg), Markeith Browning (62/4.4 ppg), and Moses Bol (43/1.7 ppg) accounted for just 244 of the 2,073 points the offense accumulated last season, a cumulative average of 11.2 ppg combined.

For rebounds, the number is 17.5 percent returning, with Bol (87), Baker Jr. (86), and Browning (28) grabbing 201 of the 1,149 rebounds overall.

Lastly, will be the experience factor, as Baker Jr. (11), Bol (4), and Browning (0), accounted for just 15 of the 160 total starts that the lineup consisted of during the 32-game season.

Fewest Returning Points Per Game in NCAA
9.1          IUPUI
9.1          West Virginia
11.0        Monmouth
11.2        Milwaukee
12.0        Tennessee Tech
15.4        Southern Mississippi
17.3        Ohio State
17.7        UTRGV
18.4        Northwestern State
19.0        Texas-Arlington
19.9        Illinois State
20.7        South Alabama
24.9        Iowa State

LUNDY'S LINE
Head coach Bart Lundy brings an extensive background of success to the Panthers, which includes an impressive run through the postseason that extends many years and a pair of trips to the NCAA DII Final Four in his career. A look back at his past seven seasons reveals the gaudy numbers that were posted.
2021-22: 30-4 overall, 2-1 in NCAA Tournament
2020-21: 16-6 overall, 0-1 in NCAA Tournament
2019-20: 24-7 overall, NCAA's cancelled
2018-19: 31-5 overall, 3-1 in NCAA Tournament
2017-18: 32-4 overall, 1-1 in NCAA Tournament
2016-17: 30-4 overall, 2-1 in NCAA Tournament
2015-16: 25-7 overall, 1-1 in NCAA Tournament

Lundy enters season No. 21 of his collegiate career with an overall mark of 429-190, a .693 winning percentage.

LOOK AT THAT RESUME
Lundy brings an impressive career resume, most impressively over the past six seasons where he has earned 30-plus victories in four of them while registering a 163-30 mark (.845 winning percentage) in that stretch. His run of three consecutive seasons of 30-or-more victories from 2016 to 2019 (32/30/31) was matched only by Gonzaga across all NCAA levels in that timeframe.

The Royals reached the NCAA Division II Final Four in 2017-18 and the Elite Eight again in 2018-19, as well as advancing to the Sweet 16 on two occasions (2017/2022). Lundy had his team as the top seed in the tournament in 2017 and 2019 and the No. 2 seed in 2019, 2020, and 2022. His overall record in the NCAA Tournament is an impressive 13-6.

AMAZING AHMAD
One of the newcomers to the MKE roster, senior Ahmad Rand, has quite the resume when it comes to shot-blocking. Listed at 6-8, he finished eighth in the Pac-12 in blocked shots per game (1.14) last year while appearing in 29 games for Oregon State (33 total blocks). Rand spent his first two years at USC Salkehatchie in Allendale, South Carolina, leading the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) in blocked shots per game both seasons, finishing at 4.4 bpg in 2018-19 and 4.98 bpg during the 2019-20 campaign.

BIG MO!
Moses Bol emerged down the stretch last season, seeing more minutes and production as he commanded the paint with his presence. Bol blocked five shots against Green Bay Feb. 13 - all coming in the second half - marking the first game of at least five blocks for a Panther since J.J. Panoske set the school record with eight against Northern Kentucky in January of 2016 - a span of 195 games. He also set an NCAA-best by grabbing eight rebounds against the Phoenix that evening.

THE ROAD TO 1,000
Jalen Johnson joins the Panthers with quite an extensive career at the NCAA Division I level under his belt at Alabama A&M in which he was named a BoxToRow All-American in each of his final two seasons. He averaged 16.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last winter and will start the season with 893 career points. Once he gets to 1,000, he would be the 29th player in program history to do so wearing a Panther uniform, while also joining Te'Jon Lucas (2/19/20) and Jake Wright (final game of the 2018-19 campaign) as the third consecutive to have reached the mark while not spending most of his career at Milwaukee. The most recent to hit the mark in MKE-only games was Matt Tiby in 2016, finishing with 1,332 points (in three seasons).

DEEEEEEEE-FENSE!
The Panthers were very good on defense last season, leading the Horizon League with their .401 opponent field-goal percentage - a number that finished No. 37 in the country. Milwaukee held Green Bay to just 26.0 percent (13-of-50) shooting from the floor Feb. 13, the sixth time last season they held an opponent below .300 (North Dakota was held to .290/Saint Xavier to .297/Northern Kentucky to .294/Green Bay to .278/Wright State to .290). In addition to those six stellar outings, the Panthers also held six other opponents to .388 or less on overall field goal attempts in a game. The 49 points scored by the Phoenix Jan. 5 marked the first time MKE held an opponent under 50 since a 72-49 victory over Detroit Mercy back on Feb. 22, 2018 - a span of 101 games. The team also set a new program record in the category in the NCAA DI era, topping the .413 mark allowed by the team back in the 2004-05 campaign.

Also for perspective, that day against the Titans was the last time an opponent was held under 30 percent (UDM connected on .286 that day) prior to this season. The last time a Milwaukee defense held opponents under 30 percent even TWICE during a season was way back in 2011-12 (.255 vs. Wright State and .276 against Butler).

ROLLING OVER THE JAGS
Milwaukee was filling it up from all over the court against IUPUI Jan. 15 of last season, with the season-high points total of 89 (in regulation) the most since scoring 94 in a victory over ... those same Jaguars in early January of 2021 (Jan. 8). The .623 field-goal percentage (33-of-53) was also one for the record books, checking in at seventh-best in program history (5th-best vs. DI opponents).
Single-Game Field Goal Percentage
1. .678 (40-59) Cleveland State 2/8/96
2. .650 (26-40) UMKC on 11/30/13
3. .639 (39-61) Chicago State 1/19/91
4. .628 (27-43) SD State 12/11/10
5. .627 (47-75) Judson on 12/13/15*
6. .625 (30-48) La Crosse on 11/10/17*
7. .623 (33-53) IUPUI on 1/15/22

TURN THE RADIO UP
This marks the first full hops season that 101.7 FM The Truth will serve as the radio home of the "Educators Credit Union Milwaukee Panthers Men's Basketball Radio Broadcasts". Fans can listen to veteran broadcaster Scott Warras, now in his seventh season, call all the play-by-play action on air at 101.7 FM and via live online streaming services. Plus, head coach Bart Lundy will appear on 101.7 FM The Truth's "MKE in the Morning" shows with Mel and DZ on the first and third Wednesday of every month throughout the 2022-23 basketball regular season.

LEAGUE LIFTOFF
Milwaukee broke a recent skid in Horizon League openers two years ago, topping Green Bay (68-65) after having dropped the initial game of the conference slate each of the prior six times, dating back to an 82-76 victory over Youngstown State in 2013-14. Since joining the MCC/Horizon League, Milwaukee is now 14-14 in league openers following the tough loss to Youngstown State a year ago.

IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT
It was a long time coming for Vin Baker Jr., taking the court November 9 of last season for the first time since the end of the 2019 season - a span of 993 days. Since that date, Baker Jr. spent the 2019-20 season sitting with Milwaukee due to transfer regulations and then missing all of the 2020-21 campaign due to injury.  But he came up big against North Dakota, contributing 11 points off the bench, including an emphatic dunk in the closing minutes that put the game away and set off a huge celebration on the MKE bench. His 11 points tied his career-best, matching the 11 he scored against Pittsburgh in Feb. 2018.

IT'S OUR HOUSE
Although the building is not new and has been the site to many historic basketball moments in Milwaukee history, this is Milwaukee's eighth season in an arena that bears its name - UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. In July of 2014, the University and Wisconsin Center District entered into a 10-year partnership that included naming rights to the facility formerly known as The MECCA and U.S. Cellular Arena.

UP NEXT
The team is set for a quick turnaround, heading immediately to Indiana to take on Purdue Tuesday. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.