The following story is from the Winter 2024 edition of the "Roar Report" that came out December 19. It is authored by Gary D'Amato, the former longtime sportswriter and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who joined the staff as the feature writer for the Roar Report in the Fall of 2018.

STILL SWEET
 
Twenty years ago, they made an improbable run to the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 and in the process ignited a frenzied following in Milwaukee, became the darlings of the college basketball world and gave hope to long shots and Cinderellas everywhere.
 
March Madness? Yes, and then some.
 
Most of the players on that 2004-05 Milwaukee Panthers team are in their early 40s now, with families and careers and a few extra pounds around their midsections.
 
"I'm 41, so obviously half of my life has gone by," says Joah Tucker, then an imposing 6-foot-5 junior forward and now a successful businessman and director of the Panther Future Fund. "It doesn't feel like 20 years. It definitely went very quick."
 
The team will be front and center again for a celebration of their historic run on Feb. 16, when Milwaukee hosts Northern Kentucky at the UWM Panther Arena. Ah, yes, the old Cell, crackling with electricity back then, the fans rushing the court at the conclusion of a Horizon League Tournament that sent UWM to the Big Dance.
 
It's a perfect time to sift through the memories. The 2004-05 Panthers were a talented, hard-nosed bunch with a lunchpail work ethic. The players knew their roles and every man pulled his weight. They shot the ball well and defended as if their lives depended on it. Coach Bruce Pearl pushed all the right buttons and pulled all the right strings.
 
The key to their success, though, is that they were — and remain — as close as brothers.
 
"It probably goes without saying, we just clicked on the court and off the court," says Adrian Tigert, then a 6-7 junior forward and now living in Wauwatosa and working in sales for a software company. "We had a great locker room. Everyone played a role in making us who we were and we got along really well."
 
Says Tucker, "When I look back, I think about the brotherhood, honestly, As the years go by, the basketball means a little bit less and less. I think about the brotherhood we had and that we still have to this day."
 
The charismatic Pearl had led Southern Indiana to the NCAA Division II national title in 1995 and was in his fourth year at Milwaukee. Two years earlier, he had led the Panthers to their first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. They lost a heartbreaker to Notre Dame in the first round, 70-69. The man could flat-out coach.
 
"I always tell people, Coach Pearl, I feel like his system inflated your score by a point or two," Tucker says. "He was going to give you two points in terms of how he called plays and how he ran his offense. He was a genius with his play-calling. And then he really played to people's talents."
 
Ed McCants, a senior guard, led the team in scoring that year, averaging 17.4 points. Tucker averaged 16.2 points and 5.7 rebounds, junior guard Boo Davis averaged 10.2 points and Tigert averaged 9.2 points and 6.7 rebounds. Junior guard Chris Hill  (7.8 points, team-leading 3.2 assists) and senior forward James Wright (4.0 points, 4.1 rebounds) were key contributors.
 
"Look, that team had great chemistry," says Pearl, now the head coach at Auburn. "Joah, Ed and Boo, those three guys could win their matchup every night. And Adrian started since he was a freshman and was just so solid. He was a big who could score inside and out. Just a great group of kids. One of the best groups of kids I ever coached."
 
The Panthers won their first six games that season but then went into a bit of a mini-funk, losing three in a row and four out of five, including a 66-37 shellacking at the hands of Wisconsin.
 
"Wisconsin is just a tough team, especially in Madison," Tucker says. "I don't think that was a very concerning loss. Pearl kept us in a mindset of we want to be playing our best basketball in March. He was a mastermind at keeping you focused and locked in and understanding that the goal was to be playing great ball late in the season."
 
The Panthers then reeled off eight straight victories before losing, 76-72, at Green Bay on Jan. 29. It would be their last loss until their season-ending defeat to Illinois in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Milwaukee entered the Horizon League Tournament at the U.S. Cellular Arena with a 22-5 record. The Panthers beat Loyola in the semifinals and then avenged an early-season loss to Detroit Mercy with a 59-58 victory on March 8 to earn the conference's automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
 
The giddy fans rushed from their seats and swarmed the court.
 
"I thought one of the more significant things we did is we turned the Milwaukee Arena, where the Bucks had made some historic runs in the early '70s, into an incredible home-court advantage," Pearl says. "The Cell became the hottest, toughest mid-major environment in college basketball."
 
The Panthers entered the Chicago Regional as the No. 12 seed. The first two rounds were played at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland. On March 17, Milwaukee faced fifth-seeded Alabama, coached by Pearl's good friend Mark Gottfried. The coaches met on the court before the game and exchanged small talk.
 
"Mark said, 'Don't take this the wrong way, but you've done a good job at Southern Indiana and Milwaukee. When are you going to get a big-time job?'" Pearl says. "I said, 'Well, in about 40 minutes, after I beat you.'"
 
Cocky? Maybe, but the Panthers backed him up, with McCants and Tucker each scoring 21 points in an 83-73 upset victory.
 
Two days later, Milwaukee faced fourth-seeded Boston College, which had opened their season 20-0 and had throttled Penn, 85-65, in the first round.
 
By now, the Panthers were attracting somewhat of a national following. They were a curiosity, a bunch of mid-major, blue-collar grinders, none of whom was going to have an NBA career. Everyone loves an underdog, especially in the NCAA Tournament.
 
"Sometimes the early parts of those (afternoon) games can be a little sleepy," Tigert says. "But as the teams that were playing after us, as their fans came into the arena … the roar after we would score was clearly more than just our fans." 
 
Boston College jumped out to a big lead early in the game. At one point, Eagles forward Jared Dudley, who would go on to play 14 years in the NBA, intentionally bumped into Tucker.
 
"He said, 'Welcome to the Big East,'" Tucker says. "That fired me up and in turn it fired our team up. We don't make it to the Sweet 16 if he doesn't open his mouth. I got a chance to have a conversation with him when he was playing for the Bucks (in 2014-15). I told him straight up, 'Hey, you guys would have won that game if you hadn't run your mouth.'
 
"We were a group that hung our hat on being tough and not taking stuff from anyone and outworking guys. When he said that, it woke a sleeping dog and the rest is history."
 
Milwaukee roared back to win, 83-75, with Tucker scoring 23 points and McCants adding 18.
 
"The interesting thing about it is, we were the better team," Pearl says. "We didn't out-coach anybody. We had better players than Alabama and Boston College. That just speaks to the quality of kids that I had a chance to coach."
 
The dream season ended on March 24, when top-seeded Illinois beat Milwaukee, 77-63, to advance to the Elite Eight. The Panthers stayed close for most of the first half before the Illini went on a 7-0 run to push their lead to 36-26. Milwaukee never got closer than seven points the rest of the way.
 
Illinois would go on to play in the championship game, losing to North Carolina, 75-70.
 
"I think the big thing is, we belonged," Pearl says. "Our team belonged. Our fans belonged. When you're a mid-major and you're also in Wisconsin and are overshadowed athletically by the Badgers and Marquette … it's just that our alums had a chance to stick out their chests and feel like they belonged in big-time college athletics."
 
The day after the season-ending loss, Pearl called Tucker into his office to tell him that Tennessee had interviewed him and that if the Volunteers offered him the head-coaching job, he was going to take it.
 
"I said, 'Coach Pearl, we've always talked about advancing and evolving. I know UW-Milwaukee is not your ending place,'" Tucker says. "I told him, 'You've got my blessing, man. I understand how it works.'"
 
The 2004-05 Panthers caught "lightning in a bottle," Tucker says. Could it happen again under current coach Bart Lundy?
 
"Yeah, for sure," Tigert says. "Everything we had then remains the same now. I think it takes timing. The conference has to be aligned. You've got a conference tournament and then you've got to get into the (NCAA) Tournament. You've got to get a favorable draw and all those things. You need a little luck on your side.
 
"But there's no question it could happen again."
 
In the meantime, it's fun to reminisce about that magical run in 2005.
 
"I loved my time there," Pearl says. "I'm grateful to UWM for giving me that opportunity. We had great support and we had great kids. Golly, we had great kids."