-Milwaukee, Wis.
An embarrassed University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Athletic Director Andy Geiger announced the men’s basketball program will stumble back to the Klotsche Center, the school’s on-campus gymnasium, effective immediately.
“I am not going to spin this,” Geiger told the media after the June 26 announcement. “We are not big-time. As we watch attendance and accompanying revenue continue to wane, we have no business in an arena with a capacity over 10,000. Do you know how cavernous the MECCA looks with a thousand people?”
Wisconsin-Milwaukee has played at the Division I level since 1987. For the past decade they have been playing games at the U.S. Cellular Arena, originally known as the MECCA when it was home to the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks. When Milwaukee joined its first Division I conference in 1992, then-Mid-Continent Conference Commissioner Jerry A. Ippoliti cited the U.S. Cellular Arena as a big reason for including UWM.
“We were thoroughly impressed following our review visit,” the Milwaukee Sentinel quoted Ippoliti as saying in May of 1992, “We were particularly impressed by the MECCA (arena) and its fine organization.”
The Panthers are a long way from their peak following the 2004-05 season, when Head Coach Bruce Pearl led the team to its second NCAA Tournament, advancing to the Sweet 16 and finishing with a 26-6 record. Having compiled an 86-38 record at UWM, Pearl then left for the University of Tennessee where he would find great success on the court but eventually be fired in disgrace for numerous NCAA recruiting violations, and lying to the NCAA.
“We had to get a damn waiver from the Horizon League to play games on our practice court,” current Head Coach Rob Jeter scoffed, referring to the fact that UWM’s conference, the Horizon League, granted Wisconsin-Milwaukee a special waiver from the conference by-law requiring schools to play in a 5,000-seat venue, allowing them to play on campus in the Klotsche Center. Built in 1977, after minor renovations the multi-purpose arena will have a capacity of 3,400 for the 2012-13 season.
Geiger later admitted the team hopes to reunite with Pearl, but has had trouble arranging official negotiations with the out-of-work coach.
“I actually visited his house in Knoxville last week,” Geiger said. “His teenage daughter Leah answered the door and she wasn’t very helpful. Said she wasn’t sure where he was. Leah had a black eye and, with lips quivering, she mumbled something about Daddy drinking again.”
But University Chancellor Michael Lovell remains optimistic about Coach Pearl, and the basketball program. Lovell believes that so long as they can convince Pearl to “come home to Milwaukee,” the Panthers future is bright.
"Give [Pearl] plenty of money, and license to break every rule he needs to, in order to return us to the Sweet Sixteen," Lovell said. "Then we give local Miller Brewing Company a call, build a world-class, $100 million Miller Arena on campus. Next stop, Big Ten [Conference]."