UW-Milwaukee head coach Bart Lundy did not hold back in his postgame radio interview with Scott Warras on the Black and Gold Network following his team’s 95-84 victory over Green Bay in the Horizon League Tournament quarterfinals at the Kress Center on Thursday night.

It was the second time in less than a week his Panthers put up 90+ points on the Phoenix, which entered the conference tournament as the Horizon League’s leader in scoring defense and had previously not allowed an opponent to reach 90 points in a game all season long.

“I guess they’re not that good at defense, are they?” Lundy said. “We walked to the rim every time.”

But the Panthers coach took it further from there.   

Lundy, who claimed he was “assaulted” on his way to the postgame interview, accused Green Bay of gamesmanship in the hours prior to tip off and even apparently involved the commissioner’s office.

“I hope some people are listening because they tried everything – they tried not to give us practice yesterday, tried to switch the shootaround before the game at 4:00 PM today,” Lundy said.  “We had to get the commissioner involved twice.”

“They diminished the league.  They diminished the league today and I don’t think it’s right. I’m going to make my voice heard on this.”

The game itself was almost a mirror image from Saturday’s, a tight contest for around 30-minutes before a big UWM run – this time a 13-0 burst vs a 17-0 run on Saturday – put the game out of reach.  There was plenty of smack talk on the court, especially between the two stars Noah Reynolds and BJ Freeman, who were finally able to share the court together after each missing one of the previous matchups.  Both put on a show but it was Freeman and the Panthers who had the last laugh.

“We are a classy group,” Lundy continued. “We’ve got some guys that will chirp but especially my coaching staff, my coaching staff is a professional, classy group.  We would never – I don’t care who practices when, we’ll give our practice time up for our opponents.”

Lundy and his classy group were not without incident, however, as camera equipment inside the Kress Center was reportedly damaged by the Panthers prior to the game.  It is not the first time he and his staff have been accused of damaging cameras in an opponent’s venue.

There was also a pre-game skirmish between the two coaching staffs – including some reports that punches were thrown – that required the two sides to be separated. 

Taking all these things into account, ultimately – according to Lundy – a Horizon League official decided prior to tip off that there would be no postgame handshake line.

“I did not see [the pregame incident] but an official from the league was behind me and that was their decision,” Lundy said in the postgame press conference.  “I’ll give you my opinion, I don’t think there should ever be handshake lines. You get a rivalry game, why spoil what happened on the court with something that could happen in the handshake line.”

“It’s tradition, yeah, but it doesn’t mean anything.  Sunny and I shook hands just fine.”

With both programs now seemingly back on solid footing, the I-43 rivalry has kicked up a notch.  Green Bay had dominated the rivalry from 2013-2020 (with a few exceptions) going 14-5 against the Panthers during that stretch.  UWM returned the favor winning the next 5 straight against the Phoenix before Green Bay’s improbable victory in Milwaukee last season that ultimately cost the Panthers a regular season title. 

With the two teams splitting their regular season meetings this year and the Panthers taking the rubber match, both teams will have the two matchups circled on the calendar next year. It could be the beginning of a return to the Bruce Pearl / Tod Kowalcyk era where there was certainly no love lost between the two programs.

“There are ways to do things and there are ways to not do things, and over the last two days it’s been very clear that here at Green Bay – who played three ineligible players against us last year – do not know how to do things,” Lundy said.