Titans To Play Exhibition Games Against Division I Badgers
The UW-Oshkosh men’s and women’s basketball teams will play exhibition contests at NCAA Division I University of Wisconsin during the span of three days in November.
The UW-Oshkosh men will travel to Madison on Nov. 2 (Friday) for a 7 p.m. game while the Titan women will journey to the state’s capital city on Nov. 4 (Sunday) for a 2 p.m. contest. Both games will be held at the Kohl Center.
The exhibition contests will be the second for both UW-Oshkosh teams against University of Wisconsin. The UW-Oshkosh men lost a 96-44 decision to the Badgers on Nov. 7, 2012, while the Titan women dropped a 106-39 result to the Badgers on Nov. 8, 2009.
The UW-Oshkosh women’s squad will be playing an exhibition contest against a Division I program for the fourth time in the last 10 years. The Titans also traveled to UW-Green Bay twice, falling to the Phoenix by scores of 61-34 on Nov. 6, 2014, and 79-35 on Oct. 29, 2016.
The UW-Oshkosh men’s team is coming off the most successful season in school history. Last season the Titans compiled a 25-8 record and reached the NCAA Division III Championship title game for the first time in program history. UW-Oshkosh, which matched the school record for wins, suffered a 78-72 setback to Nebraska Wesleyan University in the national championship game after winning five straight NCAA postseason games on the road or on a neutral court.
The Titan men, who have reached the national postseason each of the past three seasons, return all but four players from last year’s squad. First-year interim head coach Matt Lewis will guide the 2018-19 team after head coach Pat Juckem left the UW-Oshkosh program in May to become the head coach at Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.). Lewis assisted Juckem in coaching the Titans to a 95-73 record from 2013-18.
Last season UW-Oshkosh established program records for points (2,482) and 3-pointers (301) while ranking seventh nationally with a +8.4 average rebounding margin.
Headlining the returning UW-Oshkosh men are senior NCAA Division III All-Central Region First Team guard Ben Boots and junior All-WIAC selections in center Jack Flynn and forward Adam Fravert.
Boots led the Titans last season with 16 points, 4.4 assists and 1.4 steal per game. He averaged 19.7 points per contest during the team’s postseason run a year ago. Boots paced the WIAC with 145 assists and a 2.20 assist-to-turnover ratio, ranked second in the league with an .856 free throw percentage and 45 steals, and listed third with 76 made 3-pointers.
Flynn was eighth in the conference last season with 12.8 points per game while Fravert ranked 11th at 12.3 per contest. The duo finished among the top three rebounders and shot blockers in the WIAC as Fravert pulled down a league-leading 7.5 boards and rejected a conference-best 39 shots. Flynn was third with 7.0 rebounds per game and 23 blocks.
UW-Oshkosh senior guard Brett Wittchow is also back after averaging 10.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
The University of Wisconsin men’s team brings back nearly 95 percent of its points from last season for fourth-year head coach Greg Gard. Each of the squad’s top eight scorers return from last season as the Badgers seek a return trip to the NCAA Division I postseason after a one-year absence.
The Badgers, one of five teams to have appeared in 19 of the last 20 Division I Championships, are led by preseason All-American Ethan Happ. The senior forward averaged 17.9 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game last season while collecting his second All-Big Ten First Team honor.
University of Wisconsin also welcomes back seven other players who averaged better than five points per contest last season, including sophomore guard Brad Davison at 12.1, sophomore guard D’Mitrik Trice at 9.4, junior guard Brevin Pritzl at 8.9 and senior forward Khalil Iverson at 8.6.
The UW-Oshkosh women’s team is coming off a 21-6 season – its sixth straight 20-win season under seventh-year head coach Brad Fischer. The Titans have compiled a 139-33 record and four Division III postseason appearances during Fischer’s tenure. Fischer’s .808 winning percentage ranks fourth all-time among WIAC women’s coaches with at least 70 victories.
Last season the Titans led all Division III women’s programs by committing just 11 turnovers per game. UW-Oshkosh ranked sixth in the country with a 1.25 assist-to-turnover ratio and 10th with a +19.7 average scoring margin. The Titans also led the WIAC in scoring (70.5), scoring defense (50.9), field goal percentage (.436), rebounding margin (+7.9) and blocks (107).
UW-Oshkosh, which has finished first or second in the WIAC standings each of the past six seasons, looks to return to the NCAA postseason for the fifth time in six years. The Titans won at least one national tournament game from 2014-17, reaching the Sweet 16 in both 2015 and 2017.
The Titans must replace four of their top six scorers from last season, including three-time All-WIAC First Team performer Eliza Campbell, who led the team with 12.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game a year ago.
Leading the UW-Oshkosh returners are guards Chloe Pustina and Olivia Campbell, and senior forwards Isabella Samuels and Melanie Schneider.
Pustina, a senior, and Olivia Campbell, a junior, started each of the Titans’ 27 games last season, averaging 5.1 points and 3.6 points per game, respectively. Campbell ranked second in the WIAC with 75 assists while Pustina was fifth with 73. Campbell garnered All-WIAC Defensive Team honors after recording a team-leading 47 steals.
Samuels and Schneider were both received All-WIAC honorable mention recognition last season. Samuels, who had a WIAC-best .618 field goal percentage last season, is the top returning scorer for the Titans, averaging 9.6 points to go along with 5.2 rebounds per contest. Schneider produced 8.4 points per game and a team-high .771 free throw percentage and 29 steals in a reserve role last year.
Third-year University of Wisconsin women’s head coach Jonathan Tsipis welcomes back all but one starter from last year’s team that went 9-21 last season, including a 13th-place 2-14 mark in the Big Ten.
Badgers senior forward Marsha Howard returns after finishing second on the squad with 12.4 points per game. She also had a team-leading 207 rebounds a year ago.
Back for the Badgers are junior guard Suzanne Gilreath, junior forwards Courtney Fredrickson and Abby Laszewski, and sophomore guard Niya Beverley.
Gilreath was third on last year’s squad with 9.0 points per game, followed by Fredrickson at 8.9, Laszewski at 5.7 and Beverley at 4.6. Gilreath made a team-leading 70 3-pointers last season while Beverley and Laszewski led with 106 assists and 29 blocks, respectively.
The UW-Oshkosh and University of Wisconsin women were once rivals as original members of the Wisconsin Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WWIAC). The Badgers won four of the five conference matchups before leaving the league prior to the 1979-80 season. University of Wisconsin claimed its lone WWIAC title in 1978.
Prior to its exhibition game with the University of Wisconsin in 2012, the UW-Oshkosh men lost regular-season contests of 30-21 and 17-7 to the Badgers during the 1905-06 and 1919-20 campaigns, respectively.
The University of Wisconsin men’s team has hosted a WIAC program for an exhibition game in all but one season since 2005 while the Badger women have welcomed a WIAC team for exhibitions during each of the past 14 seasons.
UW-Oshkosh Men’s Basketball Results vs. University of Wisconsin
30-21 loss on Dec. 16, 1905 (Oshkosh)
17-7 loss on Dec. 20, 1919 (Oshkosh)
96-44 loss on Nov. 7, 2012 (Exhibition in Madison)
UW-Oshkosh Women’s Basketball Results vs. University of Wisconsin
67-58 win on Feb. 19, 1977 (Madison)
80-72 loss on Jan. 31, 1978 (Oshkosh)
75-68 loss on March 4, 1978 (Eau Claire)
85-75 loss on Jan. 16, 1979 (Madison)
78-65 loss on March 2, 1979 (Oshkosh)
106-39 loss on Nov. 8, 2009 (Exhibition in Madison)
UW-Oshkosh Men's Basketball Website
UW-Oshkosh Women's Basketball Website
University of Wisconsin Men's Basketball Website
University of Wisconsin Women's Basketball Website