Tiby And Johnson Earn Horizon League Postseason Honors

[IWB]

Christopher A Zills

Tiby And Johnson Earn Horizon League Postseason Honors

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (March 1, 2016) - Matt Tiby and Jordan Johnson of the Milwaukee men's basketball team were named to the All-Horizon League Team today when the league announced its postseason awards as voted on by league coaches, sports information directors and local media.

Tiby was selected as a first-team member, while Johnson earned a spot on the second team. This marks the second year in a row that Milwaukee has had two members of the 10-player squad. It also marks the first time it has had a first-team member since Anthony Hill in 2010-11.

Tiby, who was also named to the Preseason All-Horizon League squad, came through in his final season with career-highs in both scoring (15.6 ppg) and rebounding (8.3 rpg), both of which lead the team and rank highly among league leaders.

Tiby starts the postseason ranked No. 11 in program history with 1,303 points and the No. 6 rebounder with 718 boards. Just the 15th player to reach the combined 1,000 points/500 rebound level in a career, he has been a starter in all 96 games he has appeared in in his career. The team's emotional leader, Tiby was named a second-team all-league selection as a junior. His career high in points scored came earlier this season against South Dakota, when he went off for 31 on the night he became the 26th player in program history to reach 1,000 points.

Johnson has been nothing short of spectacular as Milwaukee's new point guard this season. He has been ranked No. 2 in both assists per game and total assists in the NCAA the entire season and has rewritten the Milwaukee record book when it comes to virtually any assist record.

Heading into postseason play, he is averaging 8.2 assists per game, well ahead of the school-record pace of 7.0 set by Marc Mitchell in 1992-93. Johnson adds 12.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game and earlier this year posted just the fourth triple-double in school history. His 254 assists broke the school record of 214 in a season and his nine games of 10-or-more assists snapped the school mark of six such outings earlier as well. In addition, he has eight double-doubles of the points/assists variety, extending his school mark past the former standard of five set in 1992-93. Lastly, in the regular-season finale, he broke the school record for assists in a game when he handed out 15 against the Flames.

All-League First Team
Kay Felder, Oakland
Alec Peters, Valparaiso
Paris Bass Detroit
Matt Tiby, Milwaukee
Carrington Love, Green Bay

All-League Second Team
Jalen Hayes, Oakland
Cameron Morse, Youngstown State
Jordan Fouse, Green Bay
Jordan Johnson, Milwaukee
Dikembe Dixson, UIC

All-Freshman Team
Dikembe Dixson, UIC
Drew McDonald, Northern Kentucky
Rob Edwards, Cleveland State
Josh McFolley, Detroit
Jordan Andrews, Youngstown State

All-Defensive Team
Vashil Fernandez, Valparaiso
Jordan Fouse, Green Bay
Tai Odiase, UIC
Joe Thomasson, Wright State
Carrington Love, Green Bay

Player of the Year: Kay Felder, Oakland
Coach of the Year: Bryce Drew, Valparaiso
Freshman of the Year: Dikembe Dixson, UIC
Defensive Player of the Year: Vashil Fernandez, Valparaiso
Sixth Man of the Year: Max Hooper, Oakland

[Jimmy Lemke]

This team has coughed up an incredible amount of games. This team is 19-12 and only three of those games were by more than four points. Of the losses by 4 or fewer points:

- Place([H]ome/[N]eutral/[A]way)-Winning team (margin). Notes.

- N-Murray State (3). Jordan Johnson's tying three-pointer at the buzzer is waved off as a fraction of a second too late.
- N-*Duquesne (4). Panthers miss final 3 shots, commit 2 turnovers in final 90 seconds to give up late 4-point lead.
- H-**South Dakota (1). Panthers have last 3 shots of regulation, miss all three. Up 91-90 in 2OT, Matt Tiby catches defensive rebound, knocked to ground, called for travel.
- H-*Wright State (2). Michael Karena commits 4th foul with 3 minutes left in regulation, never fouls out; Panthers miss two threes in final 20 seconds of overtime.
- H-Oakland (3). Akeem Springs misses game with knee injury, Panthers miss two threes on last possession before Tiby gets too-late-layup.
- A-Wright State (1). Cody Wichmann called for phantom technical with 7:37 left; Joe Thomasson directs throat-slash gesture to MKE bench in front of ref at 0:34 left, no call.
- A-Northern Kentucky (4). Panthers give up double-digit lead at 10-minute mark, lose lead at 3:14 left. NKU biggest lead of 4 comes at 0:09 left in game.
- A-Green Bay (2). Panthers were losing by as much as 14 in 2nd half; freshman Brock Stull misses potential game-winning three-pointer with 0:08 left.
- H-*Valpo (4). Jordan Johnson steals, passes to Springs who misses game-winning runner to end regulation; Crusaders' hot shooting gives them just enough margin in OT.

* - Overtime (number of stars = number of overtime periods)

Other losses: @Notre Dame (8), @Valpo (12), @Detroit (14).

This team is so close. Jordan Johnson's shot is before the buzzer, Panthers ride momentum to beat Murray State in OT. Panthers make any of several field goals down the stretch or even protect the ball instead of turning it over, hold off Duquesne. Tiby comes down with the rebound, gets knocked to the ground and the correct call of a foul is made against South Dakota, Tiby seals it. Panthers make either of their threes at the end of regulation to beat WSU, or get Karena fouled out and own the paint in OT, beat WSU. Springs plays against Oakland, Panthers win going away. Joe Thomasson gestures a throat slash at the Panthers' bench, called for a technical. Panthers, then down one, make two free throws and get the ball with a chance to expand lead at the end. Panthers make one shot, here or there, survive at NKU. Brock Stull makes three-pointer from the corner, mobbed as the conquering hero at archrival Green Bay. Springs' runner is just an inch, maybe two to the left, banks in and Panthers beat Valpo in thriller at the Arena.

We're not talking about a whole lot of bad plays dooming a team. We're not talking about a series of decisions, or a bunch of mistakes, or a few bad calls going the other way in each game.

We're talking about one, at most two plays going just slightly different in each of these games, changing the whole trajectory of the season.

Nine games, each of them as agonizingly close as the last. Nine games, each of them with around 80 possessions, with one or at most two being the difference.

This team is nine 50/50 moments going our way from being 28-3.

28-3.

28-3.

28-3.

TWENTY-EIGHT AND THREE.

[MU/Panther]

102-249 from three is Max Hooper. Has not attempted a 2 point shot all year. That is the most unbelievable stat I've ever seen.

[Jimmy Lemke]

If you had talked to someone at the beginning of the 2015-16 season about what are the benchmarks of a Rob Jeter Milwaukee team, they'd say several things - marginal free throw shooting, a tendency to chuck dozens of threes, a lack of cohesive offense, average-at-best turnovers - but one I think they'd say more than anything is that no matter how good the Panthers are, they get blown out - a lot.

The Panthers of this season are none of those things - well, they still shoot far too many threes - but what's remarkable is that not only have the Panthers not lost a single game by 15 or more, only three losses are what we'd call "definite" losses, all on the road. Notre Dame is 6th out of 15 ACC teams. Valparaiso is the runaway conference champ. Detroit is, well, who knows what the hell happened there.

The point is this: these Panthers are agonizingly close to being one of the best teams in the country. Nine of the 12 losses could have going the other way if one, or at most two plays went the other way.

This is incredible. It's insane. It's also why I think we have more than a puncher's chance to win this effing tournament.