UWM’s New Basketball Practice Facility Hopes to Increase Team Success and Panther Pride

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After facing months of delays, UWM’s new basketball practice facility is finally open for student-athlete use and is nearing full completion.

Though the facility has yet to “officially” open, UWM Panther athletes can use the new facility to get shots up and use the weight room. UWM expects to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony this summer. The men’s and women’s basketball teams will use the facility for practice this summer beginning in late June.

The $8.1 million project broke ground in August 2021 and construction was expected to be completed by Dec. 2, 2022.

“As we were approaching that, it was becoming pretty clear that wasn’t going to happen,” said Catherine Rossi, deputy director of athletics at UWM.

The delay was caused by supply chain issues from the pandemic. Some areas of the facility needed to be completed before work on others could begin, Rossi said.

“It’s just the way it worked out,” said Rossi. “It would have been nice to get in there a little earlier, but it’s such a nice addition for us that I think the student-athletes are just happy to be in there.”

Construction on the facility is now all but complete. Branding the facility with Panther logos and other UWM décor represents the finishing touches.

Initially, a hallway was planned to lead from the Klotsche Center atrium to the practice facility but was scrapped due to cost. Now, a skywalk leads from the locker room area directly to the top floor of the practice facility, into the main lounge area.

“It has nice synergy that [the players] are already going to their locker room space and it feeds right into the new facility,” said Rossi.

The facility is tightly packed with spacious lounge areas, a practice court, a treatment room, a weight room, and a stadium-seating film theater. Before the facility was constructed, all UWM sports teams shared and needed to reserve time to use a classroom in the Klotsche Center for film sessions.

“We were able to utilize every last inch of space,” said Rossi.

People inside the building, including the director of basketball operations and the head coaches for the men’s and women’s basketball teams, believe the new facility is a “game changer” for recruiting future Panthers.

“When recruits come in, they see that they have this dedicated facility, and it helps us get a higher-level student-athlete, and then, in turn, should help us be more successful on the court,” said Rossi.

In this way, UWM views the new facility as a sort of investment. Under new men’s basketball head coach Bart Lundy last season, the Panthers made it to the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament. The goal is a NCAA tournament appearance, and ultimately, a victory.

“When you make the NCAA tournament; the city, the institution, everyone gets a lot more excited about that,” said Rossi. “You see that in returns with enrollment increases, donations go up, there’s a lot more excitement about the institution as a whole.”

An NCAA tournament run can garner profit and attention. During the 2018 NCAA tournament, the 16th-seeded University of Maryland, Baltimore County defeated the No. 1 Virginia, the first time a 16th seed ever beat a 1st seed. UMBC’s website crashed from overwhelming traffic after the game.

“It’s hard to put a dollar figure on the exposure that you get from having success in the NCAA tournament,” said Rossi. “That’s our goal is to create more pride for the general student body, [for them] to want to wear their Panther gear in the gym rather than another school’s gear, and to get excited about supporting their fellow students and student-athletes at games.”

UWM’s new basketball practice facility will exclusively be open to student-athletes, but directors are open to the idea of some intramural championships being held in the new facility.

“The idea is that we’re moving a lot of activity that our student athletes are taking up in the current building,” said Rossi. “A lot of that is going to move [to the practice facility], and then UREC can do more intramural and club programming in that space.”