Crunching the Numbers: How UWM Panthers’ Player Losses Add up Statistically

How big of a deal statistically are the UWM Panthers’ losses over the past two months? Look at it this way: UW-Milwaukee will be without a majority of its statistical output from last season.

Using raw data from ESPN.com, Media Milwaukee calculated what percentage of four major categories (scoring, rebounding, assists, and three-point shooting) the Panthers will lose next season as a result of transfers and graduating seniors. Granted, other players will take the place of those lost, and they, too, will have contribute to the stats.

However, the numbers show the breadth of Panthers’ loss in talent in over just two months time since Athletic Director Amanda Braun fired coach Rob Jeter, starting an exodus of players leaving the team.

Calculations found that the team will lose players who accounted for approximately:

• 83.7% of scoring
• 74% of rebounding
• 86% of assists
• 80.1% of three shooting from last season. (Raw data used based on totals in each stat rather than per game averages.)

Wednesday night, the transfer of UW-Milwaukee guard Jordan Johnson to UNLV was widely reported, including by Media Milwaukee. Since former head coach Rob Jeter’s firing, four players requested release from the program, including Johnson. Two other players transferred as well, guard Akeem Springs (Minnesota) and forward Austin Arians (Wake Forest.) While Springs and Arians will be able to play immediately under NCAA graduate transfer rules, Johnson must sit out, or redshirt, for one season before he can play for the Runnin’ Rebels. You can read more about Johnson’s transfer in Tisia Muzinga’s story for Media Milwaukee.

Many questions still surround the basketball program at UWM, as well as the school’s Athletic Department. One of those questions is: how will the situation, and resulting transfers, affect next season’s team? The loss of Johnson, Arians and Springs, as well as graduating seniors Matt Tiby and J.J. Panoske, mean that every player in last year’s starting five is no longer a Panther.

Only one player who averaged over 15 minutes per game will be returning (forward Cody Wichmann.) In fact, Wichmann is the only player returning who scored more than 100 total points for the Panthers all of last season.

To put those numbers in perspective, it is important to look closer at how each category is affected. The first of those that many would look at is points. Last season, the Panthers as a team scored 2,618 points. Of those, 2,192 came from Johnson (414), Arians (377), Springs (423), Tiby (team-high 514), Panoske (345) and senior JeVon Lyle (119). Of the players who will be returning next season, only three scored over 50 points last season: Wichmann (157), guard JayQuan McCloud (95), and guard Brock Stull (77).

As three of the players lost next season are big men or forwards, rebounds will also be at a loss. The six players mentioned above grabbed 884 out of the team’s 1,194 boards last season. Three players recorded over 150 rebounds: Tiby (272), Panoske (172), and Springs (170). Next season’s team will be returning four players listed at 6’6” or taller: 6’7” Dan Studer and Scotty Tyler, and 6’9” brothers Alex and Brett Prahl.

Losing one of the most prolific playmakers and passers in school history in Johnson leaves a large hole at the guard position for the Panthers next year. Johnson tallied 267 assists last season, a UWM school record. His 8.1 assists per game average also ranked second in the nation, only trailing Oakland’s Kay Felder (9.3 APG.)

In fact, Johnson came just 7 assists short of matching the Division I state record for assists in a season, currently held by Marquette’s Tony Miller in the 1993-94 season. Only seven players in the country averaged more than 7 assists per game, and Johnson had a higher APG average than Associated Press Player of the Year Denzel Valentine of Michigan State.

Some of the Panthers’ most potent sharpshooters are also among the group of those not returning. The six players mentioned converted 245 of Milwaukee’s 306 makes from behind the arc last season, including 79 from Austin Arians. Of the players returning, only Wichmann (42) made more than 10.

In light of this, new UWM coach LaVall Jordan has been busy recruiting, bringing in several recruits, including August Haas, a guard out of Copenhagen, Denmark. Jordan was hired on April 7, becoming the program’s sixth coach since UWM moved to Division I in 1990.