From Iowa to Milwaukee, Tiby’s Roots in Basketball

Matt Tiby, a senior forward on the men’s basketball team at UW-Milwaukee, certainly has not had the easiest road to playing Division I hoops.

Despite averaging 19 points and 13 rebounds in his senior year at Urbandale High School in Urbandale, Iowa, Tiby did not have any offers from Division I schools.  Not wanting to settle for anything less, Tiby went to Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for one season to boost his profile for an offer.  He cites his relationship with one of the assistant coaches as his pipeline to UWM.

“I established a good relationship with Coach (Chad) Boudreau here, but didn’t pull the trigger the first time I came on campus,” he said.  “However, some things went down at junior college and me and my head coach parted ways so, Boudreau was still there and I’m happy that he still wanted me, even though I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger earlier that year.”

Tiby’s basketball background is rich.  Growing up in Urbandale, his father was a teacher and women’s basketball coach in the same school district that he grew up in, and his mother volunteered as his statistician while working at Pioneer Hi-Bred, a corn crop production company.  He credits his mother with teaching him many of the basketball skills he has today.  In addition, his older sister was a basketball player.

“I’ve been on the bench since I was a month old,” he said.

Despite the heavy hoops tradition in his family, Tiby’s first love was baseball.  However, his skills at basketball improved at a much higher pace than they did baseball, and his family’s affinity for the former swayed him to choose it.  He decided to quit baseball after his fourth game of his sophomore season in high school to focus more attention on improving in basketball.  He, like any other basketball player, has a dream of playing professionally.

“It’s always the goal, to hold myself to an NBA standard,” he said.  “I don’t want to settle myself for anything less.  My goal is, right now, to focus on the team and if the opportunities come, the opportunities come.”

Tiby, who is six feet and eight inches tall, was always the tallest kid in his class growing up.  As a matter of fact, the first time he ever experienced not being the tallest was when he got to UWM.

Finally, Tiby has a great relationship with head coach Rob Jeter.

“Me and him are, you know, perfect,” he said.  “We feed off each other, feed off each other’s energy, and being here for two years, we have a better understanding for ourselves.  I’m always trying to do the right things on the court.  I’m glad that he yells at me because it means that he cares when I make a mistake.  He’s more like a father figure right now, trying to guide me to do the right things on and off the court.”

Tiby is a preseason first-team all-Horizon League selection, and his interior presence will be vital to the Panthers’ success this season.