Pat Baldwin has been the head coach of the men’s basketball program at Milwaukee since the 2017-2018 season. In his first season in charge, the Panthers played almost average basketball, having a 16-17 record overall and 8-10 record in the Horizon League. That season, they seed fifth in the Horizon League and beat third-seed UIC in the quarterfinals before losing to Wright State in the semifinals.
In the end that is a pretty good season. However, the 2018-2019 season came.
The Panthers took a step back. They had an overall record of 9-22 and 4-14 record in the 2018-2019 season. They lost their last eleven games. On the good side, they are returning ten players from last year. That is including their leading scorer and passer from last season in Darius Roy and two of their best defenders in Amir Allen and DeAndre Abram.
With these tools, Milwaukee should be able to take a step back in the right direction. They have the majority of their coaching staff returning except for assistant Pat Monaghan. The players and the coaching staff should have enough familiarity with each other and the system to win some games again.
If they do not then, fingers might start to get pointed at Baldwin. In your third season in charge, you cannot take another step back. A record with nine wins or less will not be great, 10-12 might be shaky, 13-16 that is a nice step and if somehow, they go 17 or more wins, well then, they Baldwin and his players did one hell of a job.
But as of right now, Baldwin’s seat might start to heat up during this season. They need to get off to a good start and not look back.
