#HLWBB Preview: Milwaukee
Joey Yashinsky
Milwaukee Panthers
Last year: 22-12 overall, 11-7 Horizon League
Coach: Kyle Rechlicz (6th year)
Team Preview
By Joey Yashinsky, Horizon League Contributor
Ideally, as a college basketball coach, you’d like for your best player to have some experience. Maybe even be a senior. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll have two outstanding players and both will be entering their final year in the program with major goals in sight.
Meet Steph Kostowicz and Jenny Lindner, a pair of Milwaukee Panthers set to make their senior seasons the most memorable of their college career.
“They both started for us as freshmen,” said Kyle Rechlicz, UW’s head coach. “We’ve almost been grooming our program for this moment. For this year.”
Kostowicz is a 6-foot-2 forward, and when she’s feeling good offensively, there is little that opposing defenses can do to stop her. She can score on the block, she can knock down shots from mid-range, and even buried 14 from beyond the arc. Kostowicz also makes it a habit to get to the free throw line, where she converts at a sterling 76% clip. She begins the year as one of five players voted to the preseason All-Horizon League First Team.
What’s a bit surprising is that Kostowicz doesn’t have the company of her fellow Panther, Jenny Lindner, on those preseason lists. Despite receiving All-Tournament team honors each of the last two years, and finishing top ten in both scoring and rebounding last season, Lindner was not voted all-conference first or second team heading into 2017-18. Rechlicz doesn’t see the snub affecting her star senior.
“I was surprised to see that actually,” Rechlicz said. “But in the same sense, Jenny is a very humble player, and she won’t take a little thing like this personally. It’s just an opportunity for her to put this team on her back and hopefully put an exclamation point at the end of her career.”
As good as Kostowicz and Lindner are, they can’t do it alone. But there is plenty of depth and experience elsewhere on the roster.
Bailey Farley and Kelsey Cunningham are seniors at the guard spot that will give Milwaukee tremendous stability and experience in the backcourt. Farley is a true sniper from outside the arc, connecting on almost 44% of her attempts last year. The presence of such a dangerous shooter like Farley makes it that much more difficult for opposing defenses to double Kostowicz down low or trap Lindner on pick-and-rolls. Cunningham is a suffocating defender and a rapidly improving offensive option. Rechlicz said that Cunningham has been “nailing shots in practice,” the byproduct of a tireless summer refining her stroke.
The Panthers will lose a pair of program mainstays in Alexis Lindstrom and Sierra Ford-Washington. Both played over 1,000 minutes last season and were responsible for much of the ball-handling duties. It’s not easy replacing that level of experience and production, but Rechlicz feels confident that a solution will be found on the Milwaukee soccer field.
McKaela Schmelzer, a redshirt freshman, has been an instrumental part of the Milwaukee women’s soccer team for the last two seasons, good enough in her debut campaign to earn Newcomer of the Year honors in the Horizon League. It would be no surprise to see her compete for that same accolade on the hardwood this winter.
“I have not been around a point guard in a long time that has the skill set McKaela does,” Rechlicz said. “She is a dominant point guard. Speed and control. As much as we’ll miss those upperclassmen, McKaela will really help to bridge that gap.”
In what might have been last season’s most dramatic Motor City Madness game on the women’s side, Milwaukee took champion Green Bay all the way to the wire. If a loose ball had bounced in a different direction or a block/charge call gone the other way, the outcome could easily have flipped. The Panthers were step-for-step with the Horizon League’s Goliath in that semifinal, and Rechlicz brings back several major pieces from that squad.
Milwaukee is seasoned, with four seniors slated to play major minutes. They are deep, with as much collective guard talent as you’ll find in the conference. And after last year’s near-upset of rival Green Bay, these Panthers are determined.
With Kostowicz and Lindner leading the way, and a little extra kick coming from Schmelzer, the women from Milwaukee are going to be a very tough out at Little Caesars Arena next March.
That is, if they are even eliminated at all.
Motor City Madness
Support the Panthers at the 2018 Little Caesars Horizon League Basketball Championships March 2-6 at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Tickets can be purchased at campus box offices now and online starting December 15. For more information, click here.
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