Every year, it seems, there’s at least one underdog team in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that goes on a run of upset victories and captures the attention of the nation. Twenty years ago, that team was UWM.
The winter edition of the Roar Report – the quarterly publication of Milwaukee Athletics – includes a story looking back at that team and its Cinderella-story run to the Sweet 16 in 2005.
The improbable March Madness run generated national notice by springing two upsets as a No. 12 seed. The Panthers beat No. 5 Alabama and No. 4 Boston College in the first two rounds before falling to Illinois, who later advanced to the title game.
The story includes interviews with coach Bruce Pearl, who rode success at UWM to head coaching jobs at Tennessee and then Auburn, and players Joah Tucker and Adrian Tigert. (Ironically, Pearl’s Auburn team was on the other end of an even bigger upset in last year’s NCAA tournament, as his No. 4 seeded Auburn Tigers lost in the first round to No. 13 seed Yale.)
UWM will celebrate that 2005 magical run at the men’s basketball game vs. Northern Kentucky Feb. 16 at the UWM Panther Arena.
Could that magic happen again at UWM?
“Yeah, for sure,” Tigert said. “…You need a little luck on your side. But there’s no question it could happen again.”
Read the whole story, written by former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sportswriter Gary D’Amato, on the Milwaukee Athletics website.
