GREEN BAY – The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball team lost its 10th straight game Sunday in an 83-67 loss to Purdue Fort Wayne.
The Phoenix are now 2-13, but no one can say it hasn’t been an eventful season.
It took another interesting twist when the match against PFW was supposed to be played at the Resch Center but had to be transferred to the Kress Center due to a power outage before the alert.
The 1 p.m. start was initially pushed back 20 minutes, but it soon became apparent that the arena would not be in working condition to play the game.
The PFW players boarded their bus and the UWGB players boarded their vehicles to drive the 11.7 miles across town to Kress for a game that was delayed an hour and 45 minutes .
UWGB had previously changed the game time from 4 p.m. to 1 p.m. after Green Bay Packers and the Minnesota Vikings were moved from the noon start to the 3:25 p.m. slot.
The hope of allowing Phoenix fans to attend the basketball game and return home for the start of the football game didn’t work out very well.
“It must be tough for them, they came in on the bus last night,” UWGB coach Doug Gottlieb said of PFW. “We shifted the playing time on them six days ago. I don’t think (PFW coach) Jon (Coffman) was happy about it. They had a charter to take.
“It’s crazy, but at this level of college basketball, things are going to go wrong.”
UWGB took a 5-0 lead, PFW responded by scoring the next 15 and the Phoenix never led again. He trailed by 26 points with 8 minutes, 11 seconds remaining.
The Phoenix outshot the Mastodons 57.1% to 47.5% and outshot them 30-26. But it was UWGB’s 17 turnovers that led to 26 points and a 15-of-27 3-point performance by PFW that helped shape the lopsided finale.
“The biggest problem with our team is how we handle adversity, how we handle races, how we handle communication issues, how we handle travel issues going wrong,” said Gottlieb, whose team will play seven of the next 10 games on the road. “We just didn’t handle it well. It was a crazy day. You plan everything. You’re like, “OK, we’ll shoot early in the morning.” » Try to wake them up. Go for it. Everyone was in tune. A good crowd at the Resch, which was really very impressive.
“I just keep telling our guys we have good fans, we need to give them a better product. They keep showing up and believe we will get there eventually, which is indeed the case. But today was a difficult day.
Is Isaiah Miranda’s time at UWGB over?
It appears the 7-foot-1 second-year center’s career with Phoenix might be over.
Gottlieb paused for 18 seconds when asked if Miranda had been fired from the team.
“Let me just go over the process before we speak,” he said.
Miranda last played on December 18 in a loss to Michigan Tech, a game in which he received a technical foul.
He averages 4 points and has appeared in seven games, playing a total of 58 minutes.
Miranda, a former four-star recruit, joined UWGB after Gottlieb was hired in May. He spent part of last season at Oklahoma State, playing in three games before leaving the program in mid-January.
He previously redshirted his freshman season at North Carolina State and entered the NBA draft before withdrawing from the draft process and signing with OSU.
If Miranda finished his studies at UWGB, there’s always a chance he could find another team. It’s a safe bet that Gottlieb would help him in this process. They knew each other before this season and both had ties to OSU, and Gottlieb has love for him.
Gottlieb’s former high school coach, Andy Ground, was in Green Bay last week and was honest in his assessment of his former student. Gottlieb also brought in other coaches this season, including legendary former Phoenix coach Dick Bennett.
“It’s not specific to Isaiah or anyone else,” Gottlieb said. “But of the things we did, we probably had too many guys (with an 18-man roster). What happens when you have too many guys, they all think they can play and want to play. I am a very positive and confidence-building person. I want them to believe that they can all play.
“At the end of the day, I only get to play against five guys. When guys aren’t playing and you start losing, adversity can affect some players. We can’t let guys drag us down, anchor us down. Whether it’s with attitude, grades or whatever. The guys I’m going to play are the guys around us. Not about themselves. We just have to find the right combination of guys who want to compete.
Anthony Roy remains absent
UWGB has played without star guard Anthony Roy since the senior suffered a lower-body injury in a game at UC Santa Barbara on Dec. 14.
Roy is the nation’s leading scorer at 25.7 points per game, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be back anytime soon.
“Anthony Roy is a badass,” Gottlieb said. “He will play for the Phoenix later this year. I don’t know when.
The local preparation star makes his return
Former guard of Ashwaubenon and Kaukauna Chris Morgan is in his second season at PFW and played in front of family and friends on Sunday.
The 6-2 guard scored 6 points in 16 minutes and shot 2 for 3 from 3-point range.
Morgan’s parents, Brian and Jackie, were among those in attendance. His brother, James, a former Ashwaubenon star quarterback and NFL draft pick, was in attendance, as was his sister, Katelyn, who is a former standout athlete at Green Bay Notre Dame.
“It’s amazing,” Morgan said. “There’s nothing like the energy these guys have, when you walk into the gym and you hear them all cheering. It was a great experience. Nothing but love for Green Bay and really grateful to have all these people here.
Morgan averaged 0.5 points in four games last season and took another step forward this season. He appeared in 12 games, averaging 2.6 points and shooting 50% in 8.2 minutes per game for a team that was picked with UW-Milwaukee as the league’s preseason favorite Horizon.
“The people are fantastic,” Morgan said. “First and foremost, the most important thing I gained throughout my time there was the great relationships with the coaches, with the staff, with the players, with the other students. I can’t say enough about the greatness of the organization and the school itself, as well as the greatness of the people.
Former Appleton North star Maximus Nelson also plays for PFW. He scored 9 points in 20 minutes against UWGB.
This article originally appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette: UWGB men lose 10th place in a row after power outage forces venue change
