After the depths to which the program had sunk over the past two seasons, nobody in their right minds would have predicted the Green Bay Phoenix men’s basketball team would be sitting in first place in the Horizon League standings with the calendar flipping to February.

But that is exactly where the Phoenix find themselves two thirds of the way through the conference regular season following a 79-56 thumping of IUPUI on Thursday to improve to 10-3 during conference play this season. 

However, it was the last of four games against two of the worst teams in the conference (and the country) – perennial bottom-feeder IUPUI and winless Detroit Mercy.  There are no more “gimmie” games left on Green Bay’s schedule.

While it’s true that the Phoenix have already played twice against two of the better teams in the league in Oakland and Wright State, splitting with the former and sweeping the latter, with seven games still to play Green Bay’s schedule still includes two games against Youngstown State – the current favorites to win the league according to BartTorvik.com.  Green Bay must also travel to Cleveland State, who has been borderline unstoppable at home the past two years and until last week boasted an 18-game home winning streak.

Later this month, the Phoenix will host Northern Kentucky and Purdue Fort Wayne, which account for two of the team’s three losses this season, and finish the regular season with the always unpredictable rivalry game against Milwaukee at UWM Panther Arena.

Overall, Torvik’s site lists Green Bay’s conference schedule so far as the “easiest” of the 11-teams in the league and the strength of schedule for the Phoenix remaining games ranks as the toughest in the conference.

Before that though, the Phoenix will have a full week off before taking on Robert Morris next Thursday night. 

It is part of a weird scheduling stretch that will see Green Bay have six days off, followed by three games in seven days, and then another eight days off.

So with the team on a three-game winning streak and having won ten of their last twelve games, does a week off of game action come at a good time?

“I think you can look at it multiple different ways,” assistant coach Pat Monaghan told Brian Kuklinski on the Phoenix Sports Network postgame show following the IUPUI game. “For us, it’s an opportunity for us to continue to get better on the practice floor with how we want to do things, continue to teach through film.”

“It’s about continuing to just get better with ourselves and what we want to hone in on here the last three weeks of the season heading into postseason. So for us, the practice time and recovery time should be good.”

While the wins keep piling up, the analytics sites still aren’t sold on the Phoenix being in the conference championship conversation.  On Torvik’s site, for example, Green Bay is favored to win just two of its remaining seven games.  Haslametrics.com similarly has the Phoenix favored to win just three of their final seven.

It’s a good reminder that yes, the Phoenix sit in first place currently and will be at the end of the weekend as well – though Oakland and Youngstown State can both match Green Bay’s 10-3 record this weekend – there is still a long way to go and plenty of tough games to come.

“We have to continue to get better and it starts obviously in practice,” Monaghan said. “Not just get caught up in what our record is, if we’ve won this many games in the row, we’ve just got to continue to appraise the process which is getting better daily – if that’s through film, skill development, practice time – and hopefully then it can start to carry over here down the stretch.”

The stretch run starts Thursday night at Robert Morris, a place Green Bay is 0-2 since the Colonials joined the Horizon League during the 2020/2021 season.  The Phoenix will then have a quick turnaround and face Youngstown State for the first time this season on Saturday afternoon at the Beeghly Center, which has boasted some of the best home court environments in the league this season. 

After that road trip, Green Bay returns home for a Valentines Day re-match with NKU – who demolished the Phoenix, 74-52, back on January 20^th – in what will be the final regular season home game at the Resch Center this season.  Then, after eight days off, the Phoenix finish up with two games at the Kress Center – vs Purdue Fort Wayne (2/23) and Youngstown State (2/25) before hitting the road for the final two at Cleveland State (2/28) and at Milwaukee (3/2).

“Robert Morris is playing extremely well right now, obviously Youngstown is as well,” Monaghan said. “For us, we just have to continue to get better every single day.  We’ll obviously start prep for those guys here probably in a few days.”

“Look forward to staying connected on another road trip here. This time of year when you’re on the road, it gets this late in the season – I really like the connectivity of our guys.”

“To have another opportunity to spend four days on the road, continue to stay connected here to towards the end of the season is something we can continue to take advantage of too.”

Photo via gbphoenixmbb / Instagram