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Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the zenith for UW-Milwaukee men’s basketball, its first and only game in the Sweet 16.
The players, although scattered by opportunities, family and time, remain brothers for life, linked by those 32 basketball games and countless sweaty practices before and between.
The anniversary season gave them more opportunity to reminisce with reminders of putting a scare into second-ranked Kansas in December or winning the Horizon League tournament or beating Alabama and Boston College to open the NCAA tournament before the heartbreaking loss to Illinois.
It also added emphasis to the question of whether it could ever happen again, especially in this new era of revolving door recruitment and elite college athletes marketing their name, image and likeness for pay.
One key member of that Panthers Sweet 16 team has taken it upon himself to try to give his alma mater a fighting chance to enjoy another flash of the March Madness spotlight.
Joah Tucker was an instrumental part of that 2004-05 team, a Milwaukee native who graduated from Nicolet High School, returned from Bradley and as a 6-foot-5 junior forward averaged 16.2 points and 5.7 rebounds on UWM’s most successful team.
Two decades later, as much as he cherishes the memories and relationships, they’re not enough for Tucker. He’s a successful real estate investor and self-described “serial entrepreneur” who feels a responsibility to basketball, his alma mater and his community.
“I was sitting in the gym when all this NIL and transfer (portal) and all these things started, and I thought of UWM, because I want to see UWM surpass us,” Tucker said. “I’m a super modest, humble guy, and what we did was phenomenal. It was great, but it was 20 years ago.
“There should be another Joah Tucker, there should be another Ed McCants. … So I look forward to a time where the Sweet 16 team is not one of the biggest stories. I want to see them do what we did, plus more.”
So he decided to help, launching the Panther Future Fund, the modest NIL collective vital to giving UWM at least some chance.
Tucker spoke candidly in a recent hourlong conversation about the fund’s value to the program, the need for more investment and what the fund does beyond simply funneling money to athletes.
“My first thought was a student athlete, I do think it’s awesome for them to be able to put some money in their pocket and capitalize on their name, image and likeness,” Tucker said. “Then my second thought was as a school and a program, you can’t build a program if every year your two best players are leaving.
“And then you think about the community.”
Sports fans have heard the term “name, image and likeness” and its abbreviation “NIL” for years.
In general, the terms refer to college athletes having the ability to be compensated by third parties for use of their brand, rights that were granted in 2021. Athletes can leverage their popularity, whereas previously only their schools could while the students maintained amateur standing.
By extension, independent organizations can raise money collectively for athletes from a particular school and provide marketing support.
Rumors are far more plentiful than hard numbers, but one example of the sort of money at stake came to light when Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said last summer that football players had received about $20 million in NIL over the previous years.
At the same time NIL came into the picture, transfer rules also changed, no longer requiring athletes to sit out a year – the way McCants, the leading scorer on the 2004-05 team, and Tucker did – before becoming eligible at their new school.
“Everything changed,” current UWM basketball coach Bart Lundy said.
While few athletes land mid-seven-figure NIL deals the way Colorado quarterback Shadeur Sanders or Duke freshman forward Cooper Flagg reportedly have, through the collectives at least there’s a little money to sprinkle around to those not signed by the likes of Nike or Red Bull or Gatorade.
The key word there is little.
“At UWM, the goal was to raise $100,000 in year one, and we got pretty close to that goal,” Tucker said.
Compare that number to the mid to high six figures that took 2023-24 star guard/forward BJ Freeman from UWM to Arizona State – Lundy is on record saying it was closer to a million than not – or whatever Panthers 2024-25 rebounding machine Jamichael Stillwell will get somewhere next season.
“If we say $100,000 is a good year to raise money at the UWM level, BJ went and got high six figures, so he got five, six times our entire budget,” Tucker said.
“So we’re really low level. But I do think that we have a big effect.”
Lundy agrees wholeheartedly.
“There’s still kids who worry about style and fit and academics and the things that they should worry about,” Lundy said. “But for a lot of players now, the overriding factor is the NIL package.
“We’ve got to have enough to get that door open just to have the conversation.”
Tucker would like to see the Panther Future Fund’s annual budget double before long.
Even $200,000 doesn’t seem like a lot, but Lundy believes that could be a difference maker in the Horizon League.
UWM finished the 2024-25 season with a record of 21-11 overall and 14-6 in the conference, tied with Cleveland State for second behind Robert Morris. The Panthers lost to Oakland in the Horizon tournament, which was subsequently won by Robert Morris.
“Youngstown and Robert Morris are the by far the top of our league in terms of how much NIL they have,” Lundy said.
“If you look at the league, Robert Morris wins the league this year. They were picked ninth, basically because they traditionally have not been that good, but their AD went out and raised all this NIL money. Youngstown won it two years ago. … When you go and you stack your roster with proven guys, you’re gonna have a pretty good team.”
That said, there is no transparency to the system. Lundy doesn’t necessarily know what any player might have received, only what sort of package may have been in play at UWM before the athlete chose a rival.
And even those numbers are generalities when discussing opportunities with a recruit.
“The rules are insane,” Lundy said. “‘So … you’re a power forward, and we think that you’re an all-league caliber player. Well, the power forwards you know, that have played for us, or the package that we can get to you is somewhere in this range.’ That's how we have to do it.
“We can’t tell them, you’re going to get this (amount), because that’s pay for play. And somehow the NCAA still thinks that they don't have pay for play going on. So it's a little strange.”
Tucker makes it clear that while the Panther Future Fund is vital to getting high-quality athletes into the program, it’s also about more than simply paying young men to play basketball. His vision is that it should be an offshoot of UWM’s mission of education.
Freeman was the first athlete supported by the fund, and in return he had six speaking engagements, Tucker said. The first was with an AAU basketball team and others were with schoolkids around the city.
“BJ sounds like these kids. BJ looks like these kids,” Tucker said. “They see BJ playing in front of the big lights. They can see him doing press conference and all these things.
“So BJ goes in, he tells (the group), this is the type of family I grew up in. These are the type of things that I’ve gone through. This is how I got to UWM. This is what my grades are like. This is what a normal day is like.”
So many high school kids aspire to be athletes, Tucker said, and these connections give them both a reality check and a look at the roadmap provided by someone who recently was in their shoes.
“And one part of it is getting BJ speaking in front of young people, where he’s working on his skills,” Tucker said. “So BJ is getting a chance do some public speaking, because when the ball stops bouncing … I want them to get transferable skills.
“He’s able to better himself, and then he’s also able to relate to the kids and community.”
Tucker is proud of what the Panther Future Fund is doing, but he and Lundy aren’t kidding themselves.
They know a project Tucker takes on in his spare time can’t compete with fulltime fundraisers and athletic departments hiring people dedicated to managing NIL packages and the transfer portal when it comes to keeping players like Freeman and Stillwell long term.
Mid-majors and lower mid-majors have always provided an opportunity for undervalued players to develop, perform and showcase themselves to be plucked away by larger programs, Lundy said; the movement is just easier and more lucrative now.
“Recruiting character has always been important, but now it becomes crucial,” Lundy said. “If you get guys that are one foot in, one foot out already, you know they’re not going to stick around. They have any success, they’re bouncing.
“The best case you can have is you have a mix of older and younger guys, and you try to recruit the highest character people that you can recruit and hope they stick around for a while.”
Tucker considers himself and optimist cut from the cloth of Bruce Pearl, the coach who convinced him more than 20 years ago that an exciting, overachieving UWM team could fill what is now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and not only get to the NCAA tournament but win there.
Tucker insists even in these vastly different times, as difficult as it might be, that is still possible.
“We should be the cream of the crop of the Horizon League,” he said. “We’re a team that should go to the tournament two or three times out of every five years. (In Milwaukee) we’ve got Bradford Beach, we’ve got the Bucks, we’ve got the Brewers, we’ve got a new practice facility.
“I don’t think there’s any reason why we can’t recruit great talent and win here.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW-Milwaukee basketball NIL explained by Sweet 16 team's Joah Tucker
Continue reading...
The players, although scattered by opportunities, family and time, remain brothers for life, linked by those 32 basketball games and countless sweaty practices before and between.
The anniversary season gave them more opportunity to reminisce with reminders of putting a scare into second-ranked Kansas in December or winning the Horizon League tournament or beating Alabama and Boston College to open the NCAA tournament before the heartbreaking loss to Illinois.
It also added emphasis to the question of whether it could ever happen again, especially in this new era of revolving door recruitment and elite college athletes marketing their name, image and likeness for pay.
One key member of that Panthers Sweet 16 team has taken it upon himself to try to give his alma mater a fighting chance to enjoy another flash of the March Madness spotlight.
You must be registered for see images attach
Joah Tucker, a star of 2005 Sweet 16 team, started UWM’s NIL collective
Joah Tucker was an instrumental part of that 2004-05 team, a Milwaukee native who graduated from Nicolet High School, returned from Bradley and as a 6-foot-5 junior forward averaged 16.2 points and 5.7 rebounds on UWM’s most successful team.
Two decades later, as much as he cherishes the memories and relationships, they’re not enough for Tucker. He’s a successful real estate investor and self-described “serial entrepreneur” who feels a responsibility to basketball, his alma mater and his community.
“I was sitting in the gym when all this NIL and transfer (portal) and all these things started, and I thought of UWM, because I want to see UWM surpass us,” Tucker said. “I’m a super modest, humble guy, and what we did was phenomenal. It was great, but it was 20 years ago.
“There should be another Joah Tucker, there should be another Ed McCants. … So I look forward to a time where the Sweet 16 team is not one of the biggest stories. I want to see them do what we did, plus more.”
So he decided to help, launching the Panther Future Fund, the modest NIL collective vital to giving UWM at least some chance.
Tucker spoke candidly in a recent hourlong conversation about the fund’s value to the program, the need for more investment and what the fund does beyond simply funneling money to athletes.
“My first thought was a student athlete, I do think it’s awesome for them to be able to put some money in their pocket and capitalize on their name, image and likeness,” Tucker said. “Then my second thought was as a school and a program, you can’t build a program if every year your two best players are leaving.
“And then you think about the community.”
You must be registered for see images attach
What is NIL?
Sports fans have heard the term “name, image and likeness” and its abbreviation “NIL” for years.
In general, the terms refer to college athletes having the ability to be compensated by third parties for use of their brand, rights that were granted in 2021. Athletes can leverage their popularity, whereas previously only their schools could while the students maintained amateur standing.
By extension, independent organizations can raise money collectively for athletes from a particular school and provide marketing support.
Rumors are far more plentiful than hard numbers, but one example of the sort of money at stake came to light when Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said last summer that football players had received about $20 million in NIL over the previous years.
At the same time NIL came into the picture, transfer rules also changed, no longer requiring athletes to sit out a year – the way McCants, the leading scorer on the 2004-05 team, and Tucker did – before becoming eligible at their new school.
“Everything changed,” current UWM basketball coach Bart Lundy said.
How much NIL money does UWM have?
While few athletes land mid-seven-figure NIL deals the way Colorado quarterback Shadeur Sanders or Duke freshman forward Cooper Flagg reportedly have, through the collectives at least there’s a little money to sprinkle around to those not signed by the likes of Nike or Red Bull or Gatorade.
The key word there is little.
“At UWM, the goal was to raise $100,000 in year one, and we got pretty close to that goal,” Tucker said.
Compare that number to the mid to high six figures that took 2023-24 star guard/forward BJ Freeman from UWM to Arizona State – Lundy is on record saying it was closer to a million than not – or whatever Panthers 2024-25 rebounding machine Jamichael Stillwell will get somewhere next season.
“If we say $100,000 is a good year to raise money at the UWM level, BJ went and got high six figures, so he got five, six times our entire budget,” Tucker said.
“So we’re really low level. But I do think that we have a big effect.”
Lundy agrees wholeheartedly.
“There’s still kids who worry about style and fit and academics and the things that they should worry about,” Lundy said. “But for a lot of players now, the overriding factor is the NIL package.
“We’ve got to have enough to get that door open just to have the conversation.”
You must be registered for see images attach
What would a $200,000 a year NIL budget do that $100,000 doesn’t for Milwaukee basketball?
Tucker would like to see the Panther Future Fund’s annual budget double before long.
Even $200,000 doesn’t seem like a lot, but Lundy believes that could be a difference maker in the Horizon League.
UWM finished the 2024-25 season with a record of 21-11 overall and 14-6 in the conference, tied with Cleveland State for second behind Robert Morris. The Panthers lost to Oakland in the Horizon tournament, which was subsequently won by Robert Morris.
“Youngstown and Robert Morris are the by far the top of our league in terms of how much NIL they have,” Lundy said.
“If you look at the league, Robert Morris wins the league this year. They were picked ninth, basically because they traditionally have not been that good, but their AD went out and raised all this NIL money. Youngstown won it two years ago. … When you go and you stack your roster with proven guys, you’re gonna have a pretty good team.”
That said, there is no transparency to the system. Lundy doesn’t necessarily know what any player might have received, only what sort of package may have been in play at UWM before the athlete chose a rival.
And even those numbers are generalities when discussing opportunities with a recruit.
“The rules are insane,” Lundy said. “‘So … you’re a power forward, and we think that you’re an all-league caliber player. Well, the power forwards you know, that have played for us, or the package that we can get to you is somewhere in this range.’ That's how we have to do it.
“We can’t tell them, you’re going to get this (amount), because that’s pay for play. And somehow the NCAA still thinks that they don't have pay for play going on. So it's a little strange.”
What do UWM athletes do – besides play basketball – in exchange for NIL money?
Tucker makes it clear that while the Panther Future Fund is vital to getting high-quality athletes into the program, it’s also about more than simply paying young men to play basketball. His vision is that it should be an offshoot of UWM’s mission of education.
Freeman was the first athlete supported by the fund, and in return he had six speaking engagements, Tucker said. The first was with an AAU basketball team and others were with schoolkids around the city.
“BJ sounds like these kids. BJ looks like these kids,” Tucker said. “They see BJ playing in front of the big lights. They can see him doing press conference and all these things.
“So BJ goes in, he tells (the group), this is the type of family I grew up in. These are the type of things that I’ve gone through. This is how I got to UWM. This is what my grades are like. This is what a normal day is like.”
So many high school kids aspire to be athletes, Tucker said, and these connections give them both a reality check and a look at the roadmap provided by someone who recently was in their shoes.
“And one part of it is getting BJ speaking in front of young people, where he’s working on his skills,” Tucker said. “So BJ is getting a chance do some public speaking, because when the ball stops bouncing … I want them to get transferable skills.
“He’s able to better himself, and then he’s also able to relate to the kids and community.”
You must be registered for see images
Could another UWM team make an NCAA tournament run?
Tucker is proud of what the Panther Future Fund is doing, but he and Lundy aren’t kidding themselves.
They know a project Tucker takes on in his spare time can’t compete with fulltime fundraisers and athletic departments hiring people dedicated to managing NIL packages and the transfer portal when it comes to keeping players like Freeman and Stillwell long term.
Mid-majors and lower mid-majors have always provided an opportunity for undervalued players to develop, perform and showcase themselves to be plucked away by larger programs, Lundy said; the movement is just easier and more lucrative now.
“Recruiting character has always been important, but now it becomes crucial,” Lundy said. “If you get guys that are one foot in, one foot out already, you know they’re not going to stick around. They have any success, they’re bouncing.
“The best case you can have is you have a mix of older and younger guys, and you try to recruit the highest character people that you can recruit and hope they stick around for a while.”
Tucker considers himself and optimist cut from the cloth of Bruce Pearl, the coach who convinced him more than 20 years ago that an exciting, overachieving UWM team could fill what is now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and not only get to the NCAA tournament but win there.
Tucker insists even in these vastly different times, as difficult as it might be, that is still possible.
“We should be the cream of the crop of the Horizon League,” he said. “We’re a team that should go to the tournament two or three times out of every five years. (In Milwaukee) we’ve got Bradford Beach, we’ve got the Bucks, we’ve got the Brewers, we’ve got a new practice facility.
“I don’t think there’s any reason why we can’t recruit great talent and win here.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW-Milwaukee basketball NIL explained by Sweet 16 team's Joah Tucker
Continue reading...
