That’s what the Milwaukee Panthers did, though, on opening night of college basketball season Nov. 2 and they suffered the sort of fate one might expect, a 95-63 loss to Southern California at the Galen Center in Los Angeles in the teams’ first meeting.
The Trojans, ranked 22nd in USA Today coaches poll, used a size advantage that included 7-foot freshmen Adonis and Darius Ratliff, sons of former NBA player Theo Ratliff, and pulled away with a 19-2 run in the first half.
“Anybody that wasn’t here live, you don’t understand is how much length and positional size they have,” UWM coach Bart Lundy said in his postgame radio interview. “It’s basically an NBA team. There’s gonna be five guys on that team that are gonna play in the NBA, and a couple might be really good NBA players.
“The combination of athleticism, size, and skill is pretty amazing. … That’s an unusual team. They’re better than 21st in the country.”
Adonis Ratliff led the Trojans with 25 points as well as six rebounds and went 5 of 7 from 3-point range. Sophomore guard Alijah Arenas, son of Gilbert Arenas, had 21 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
Freshman guard Amare Hereford was a bright spot for Milwaukee, which is looking to bounce back from an injury-plagued 12-20 season. The top scorer in Wisconsin high school basketball last season and Beloit Memorial’s all-time leader led the Panthers with 14 points in 26 minutes.
Marquette transfer guard Tre Norman added all 13 of his points in the second half for the Panthers and Isiah Dorceus, one of five returning Panthers, scored 10 in 15 points.
“Those three figured out they could get downhill and make plays for themselves and for others,” said Lundy, who began his fifth season at UWM. “And that’s what we’ve seen in practice.
“It’s just … we were in a huge deficit, and then the 3s. … I really thought for a little bit that we were going to make a comeback run.”
Jake Hansen, a Wauwatosa West graduate who played three games at Oklahoma last season, hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first half and scored eight points but was limited by foul trouble.
For UWM, USC marked the first of five nonconference opponents who are ranked or received votes in preseason polls. The Panthers stay in California for a Nov. 4 matchup at Santa Clara.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Young state star impresses in his UWM debut as the Panthers fall to USC