![\"Players](\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2019\/01\/rechlicz300x200-_DX24441-300x200.jpg\")
When Rechlicz took over in 2012, the team grade-point average hovered around 2.7. Last year, she said, the GPA was 3.5. There is not necessarily a correlation between hitting the books and hitting jump shots \u2013 the latter does require a certain amount of athletic skill \u2013 but Rechlicz believes a strong work ethic in the classroom carries over to the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m very much a character person in terms of recruiting players and in terms of the athletes that I have,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are a lot of skilled players out there, but I think character is what makes or breaks your experience both as a coach and as a student-athlete.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came in, academics weren’t much of a priority. There was a lot of partying going on. A lot of stuff that doesn’t associate with me in terms of Division 1 athletics because we’re extremely fortunate and blessed to be able to get these full Division 1 scholarships, to be able to get our degrees, to be able to move forward in our lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn’t feel like the team, at the time when I first took over, was taking that seriously. We came in and hit our core values very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Change does take time, however, and Rechlicz’s first three teams went 9-20, 8-22 and 10-20.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a hard three years,\u201d the coach acknowledged.<\/p>\n
Seniors lead the way<\/h3>\n
The light at the end of the tunnel was supplied in 2014-15 by three seniors: Ashley Green, Macie Dorow and Hannah Kaul. The trio embraced Rechlicz\u201ds message, challenging themselves and their teammates on and off the court and setting a standard for the program. After the Panthers were eliminated by UW-Green Bay in the Horizon League tournament, Rechlicz brought them in front of the team.<\/p>\n
“I said, \u2018You have left your legacy here. It might not have been in terms of wins but it absolutely has been in terms of changing the culture,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI said, \u2018We are going to win because of you.\u2019 And sure enough, the next year we won 19 games. I honestly believe a large part of it was due to those three and the commitment they made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Post players Jenny Lindner and Steph Kostowicz were a couple of impressionable freshmen on that team and picked up where Green, Dorow and Kaul left off. They would lead Milwaukee’s renaissance and fuel the back-to-back 20-win seasons.<\/p>\n
Last year, Lindner averaged 14.2 points and 7.9 rebounds and Kostowicz averaged 13.6 and 7.5 as the Panthers reached the second round of the WNIT before bowing to Indiana, 74-54. Milwaukee was the only Horizon League team to win a game in postseason play.<\/p>\n
Lindner, Kostowicz and Bailey Farley (11.7 points per game) have moved on and the 2018-19 Panthers are young, with five freshmen, five sophomores and just two seniors on the roster.<\/p>\n
Improved talent<\/h3>\n
If anything, though, the talent level has improved. Rechlicz is known as an offensive-oriented coach, but she thinks this group has a chance to be her best defensive team because of the players\u2019 length and athleticism. The post players are raw but skilled and the guards will present tough match-ups.<\/p>\n
Bre Cera, a Mukwonago native and redshirt sophomore who started her career at Iowa before transferring to UWM, is a difference maker at guard. She started 18 games as a true freshman at Iowa and helped the Hawkeyes reach the quarterfinals of the WNIT.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is an incredible player,\u201d Rechlicz said. \u201cProbably one of the best defenders that we’ve had here, and really knows how to score. I’m very excited about her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another guard, junior Jamie Reit, started 30 games last season and is the leading returning scorer (8.7 points per game).<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our guard play is going to be a strength for us this year and so we’ve got to find ways to put our guards in good positions to score,\u201d Rechlicz said. \u201cBut our posts are young and they’re talented and so I could see by mid- to end of the season them stepping up in some of those categories and really helping us down the stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think our team is definitely going to evolve as the season goes along. I think we\u2019re going to start off as one team and by the time we get to the conference tournament we’re going to be a completely different team.\u201d<\/p>\n
A fierce competitor in Green Bay<\/h3>\n
There is no question Milwaukee is on the right track but if the Panthers are to reach all their program goals, they\u2019re going to have to find a way to compete toe-to-toe with UW-Green Bay, the conference\u2019s 500-pound gorilla. The Phoenix went 29-4 last year and entered the 2018-19 season having won 20 consecutive regular-season conference titles.<\/p>\n
Green Bay has made the postseason every year since 1998 and has strung together 40 consecutive winning seasons. Only Tennessee has a longer such streak in women\u2019s college basketball.<\/p>\n
Though the Panthers lost twice to the Phoenix last year, by scores of 52-29 and 65-36, Rechlicz believes her team is closing the gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely, we are,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve beaten them here recently (in 2017). We\u2019ve had close games with them. They\u2019re really good. (Coach Kevin Borseth) has built a system and he’s a really good coach and he teaches defense first. They were ranked No. 1 in the country last year defensively. We weren’t the only team to have problems with them on the offensive end.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players that come here definitely have an edge about them when it comes to Green Bay, just like I’m sure the Green Bay players have against Milwaukee. So, there’s definitely a different level of competitiveness when we hit Green Bay week.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it’s fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great part about it is that I don’t want Green Bay to change. I want them to still be as great as they are. I just want to continue to elevate our program to reach that level. If we can have two Horizon League teams playing at that level, how much better is our conference?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hungry for success<\/h3>\n
Rechlicz said her players’ goals for the season don’t include a certain number of victories. Though 20 has become the program benchmark, it will be a challenge to reach that total for the third consecutive year because the Panthers are young and the nonconference schedule is filled with quality teams.<\/p>\n
But if there’s one thing the coach doesn’t worry about, it’s her players’ resolve.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you talk about being one, this group is the closest I’ve ever had to that,\u201d she said. \u201cThey really are fighting for the same thing and that is continue what we’ve started, to continue to make it to postseason play. It’s been three years in a row now and their goal is to make it four.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they’re extremely hungry for the next step. They all want to play in the NCAA Tournament. Every single one of them has a dream of that. And they’re not going to stop until they reach that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It took some time, but Kyle Rechlicz has led a turnaround in the women\u2019s basketball program \u2014 both on the court and in the classroom \u2014 by focusing on character and accountability. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40008,"featured_media":66460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[250],"section":[122,126],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[167],"class_list":["post-66459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-student-success","section-campus-community","section-campus-news","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-alumni-association"],"yoast_head":"\n