HoriZone PC, Column #6: Kyle Rechlicz

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Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Athletics

Basketball fans, today marks the sixth week of the HoriZone PC series, which is a tribute to every current Horizon League coach in the style of video games.

This week, we are featuring Milwaukee’s Kyle Rechlicz, who is in her 13th season leading the Panthers program and is also the longest tenured active head women’s coach in the Horizon League. She’s the only female, as well as the third coach from Milwaukee following men’s assistant coaches Ben Walker and Jose Winston, to be featured in the series.

This column was inspired by Cleveland State women’s basketball columnist Kyle Rossi, who featured a tweet of mine in his September 4 edition of the #HLWBB Starting Five.

Rechlicz playing for North Central High School out of Indianapolis, photo courtesy of Washington Township Schools Foundation

High school days: Rechlicz grew up in Indianapolis and played basketball at North Central High School for head coach Alan Vickrey. As a senior, she was named as a 1998 Indiana All-Star and a Indiana Basketball Coaches Association Honorable Mention Academic All-State honoree. At the time of her graduation, she was was the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,423 career points and also the program’s all-time leader in field goals made, field goal percentage, three-pointers made, assists, and steals. 25 years later, she was honored by the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of its Silver Anniversary Team, which recognized star high school senior basketballers.

Rechlicz as a freshman at Wisconsin, photo courtesy of Wisconsin Athletics

Rechlicz, back then known as Kyle Black, eventually earned a full-ride scholarship to play for the University of Wisconsin under head coach Jane Albright and wore #32 just like the legendary Earvin “Magic” Johnson. As a freshman for the Badgers in the 1998-99 season, Rechlicz played in all 32 games (one start) and averaged 6.1 points per game all while making 35 percent of her 3-pointers (36-of-103) and 75 percent of her foul shots (30-of-40).

She had 5 games in which she scored double-figures, including a season-high of 18 against Western Kentucky on December 10, 1998. Her best all-around performance statistically was when she flirted with a triple-double against Northwestern on January 22, 1999, finishing with 5 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. Her best shooting performance came against Michigan on January 31, 1999 when she scored 12 points off the bench and hit 4-of-5 shots from downtown. That was followed up by another 14-point performance in the Big Ten Quarterfinals on February 27 against Ohio State in which she was 4-of-6 from beyond the arc.

The Badgers ended the season with an overall 18-14 record and were 9-7 in Big Ten play, tying the Buckeyes for 4th place in the standings. They made the 1999 Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) and lost to Arkansas 67-64 in the championship game.

Rechlicz as a sophomore at Wisconsin, photo courtesy of Wisconsin Athletics

Now we’re going to her sophomore season, and that’s where the fun starts in NCAA March Madness 2000 on PlayStation. In the 1999-2000 campaign, Rechlicz had a little bit of a sophomore slump. She played in 32 of the team’s 33 games (4 starts), averaging just 4.9 points per game while making a poor 28.4 percent of her 3-point tries (23-of-81), but she did hit a solid 73.9 percent of her free throws (17-of-23). But just like her freshman season, she still did manage to score in double-figures 5 times, with her best game coming on January 4, 2000 against Illinois in which she scored 14 points off bench and shot a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point territory.

Wisconsin improved from the year before and finished the 1999-2000 campaign with a decent 21-12 overall record while going 8-8 against conference opponents, which tied them with Michigan State for 5th place in the Big Ten. The Badgers went on to win the Women’s National Invitation Tournament after beating Florida 75-74 in the championship game.

Rechlicz’s ratings in NCAA March Madness 2000
• FG% (field goal percentage): 46
• FT% (free throw percentage): 74
• 3P% (3-point percentage): 36
• SPD (speed): 56
• AGL (agility): 62
• STM (stamina): 44
• AGR (aggressiveness): 36
• DNK (dunk): 36
• JMP (jump): 54
• PAS (pass): 52
• HDL (handles): 56
• STL (steal): 42
• BLK (block): 12
• OREB (offensive rebounds): 20
• DREB (defensive rebounds): 8
• OIQ (offensive IQ): 44
• DIQ (defensive IQ): 50

NCAA March Madness 2000

Now we are onto NCAA March Madness 2001 on PlayStation which features Rechlicz as a junior, and it’s also where she had the best season of her career to this point. In Rechlicz’s junior season as the starting shooting guard, she started all 28 games, averaging 9.1 points and 1.1 steals per game, and scored in double-figures 11 times. Her shooting improved drastically as she led the Big Ten with a 3-point percentage of 40.6 percent (54-of-133) and also made 73.1 percent of her free throws (34-of-46).

Rechlicz as a junior at Wisconsin, photo courtesy of Wisconsin Athletics

In the season opener against Oregon on November 18, 2000, Rechlicz recorded a career-high 5 steals to go along with her 9 points. Later on that season, she had another perfect game from 3-point range as she scored 14 points and went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc on January 4, 2001 in a blowout win at Michigan. Just 3 days later, Rechlicz had her breakout game on January 7 in an overtime loss at home against Green Bay, where she scored 23 points and hit 5-of-7 shots from 3-land.

That exact same season, Wisconsin finished an 18-10 overall record. However, they won 12 of their games against conference foes, allowing them to finish in a 2nd place tie in the standings with Big Ten Tournament Champion Iowa. The Badgers were also one of 5 Big Ten teams to make the NCAA Tournament where they lost to Missouri 71-68 in the 1st Round, but they still finished the season ranked 24th in the AP Poll.

Rechlicz’s ratings in NCAA March Madness 2001
• FG% (field goal percentage): 46
• FT% (free throw percentage): 78
• 3P% (3-point percentage): 32
• SPD (speed): 70
• AGL (agility): 70
• STM (stamina): 80
• AGR (aggressiveness): 70
• DNK (dunk): 0
• JMP (jump): 60
• PAS (pass): 70
• HDL (handles): 70
• STL (steal): 70
• BLK (block): 60
• OREB (offensive rebounds): 70
• DREB (defensive rebounds): 70
• OIQ (offensive IQ): 70
• DIQ (defensive IQ): 70

NCAA March Madness 2001

In Rechlicz’s senior season, she went out having the best year of her career. In the 2001-02 campaign, she started all 31 games for the Badgers, averaging a career-high of 11.1 points per game, shot 37.9 percent from downtown (78-of-206), made a career-best 85.1 percent of her shots at the charity stripe (40-of-47), and had 3 games of 20 or more points. Her career game came against Holy Cross on December 2, 2001, where she led all scorers with a career-high of 26 points and shot 7-of-11 on 3-pointers. Those 7 made threes, at that time, was a school record.

Rechlicz as a senior at Wisconsin, photo courtesy of Wisconsin Athletics

At one point during the season, the Badgers were ranked as high as 5th in the AP Poll after a 16-1 start, but they ended up on a 6-game losing streak and fell out of the rankings. They finished with an 19-12 overall record and 8-8 against conference opponents, allowing them to finish in a 3-way tie for 5th place in the standings with Ohio State and an unexpectedly surprising Big Ten Tournament Champion in Indiana. The Badgers were also one of 6 teams in that conference to make the NCAA Tournament that season and lost to Arizona State 71-68 in the 1st Round.

Rechlicz as an assistant coach for Wisconsin in 2011, photo courtesy of Wisconsin Athletics/Greg Anderson

Coaching career: After her playing career ended, Rechlicz stayed at Wisconsin for the 2002-03 as a graduate assistant under Albright before leaving there and eventually returning to Madison for the 2011-12 season as a regular assistant under 1st-year head coach Bobbie Kelsey.

After leaving Wisconsin the first time, Rechlicz spent 4 seasons as an assistant from 2003 through 2007 for fellow Horizon League school Cleveland State under Kate Peterson Abiad, who is the winningest head coach in the history of Vikings women’s basketball (206).

Rechlicz also spent 4 seasons at the University of Dayton from 2007 through 2011 as their Associate Head Coach under another Jim Jabir, who is the winningest head coach in that program’s history as well (260). With the Flyers, Rechlicz helped lead the squad to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2011 before she returned to Wisconsin.

In 2012, Rechlicz took over the head coaching job for Milwaukee. In season #13, Rechlicz has 184 wins, which is the 3rd-most in school history behind Sandy Botham (245) – whom Rechlicz succeeded – and M.A. Kelling (284).

Fun fact: Kyle’s daughter, Payton, plays for her mom at Milwaukee and is a 5-11 redshirt freshman who wears #5.

DVDs and videos: This past year, Rechlicz released a pair of videos called “Secrets of Successful Shooting: Proper Shot Mechanics, Competitive Shooting Drills & More Reps!” and “Creating Competitive Practices: Adding Competition to Drills to Push Energy & Effort to the Next Level”. You can buy both of those DVDs on the Championship Productions website: https://www.championshipproductions.com/cgi-bin/champ/auth/4062/Kyle-Rechlicz.html

She also has a video clinic on YouTube called “Practice Planning” courtesy of the Milwaukee Coaches Association (MCA):

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