ESPN Men's Basketball

The biggest difference can be found at the airport.

That, in the eyes of Rob Jeter, is the biggest change between the time he was hired as an assistant coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and when he became the Panthers' head coach this spring.

You can buy a lot of things in the shops at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport. Need a piece of foam cheese to wear on your head? You can get one there. You can find a seemingly endless supply of Green Bay Packers clothing. You can get some Harley-Davidson gear, straight from the hometown of the motorcycle company. You can buy a shirt and tie at Brooks Brothers. Need to kill time before a flight? There's also a used book store.

And now -- some might say finally -- you can also buy a Wisconsin-Milwaukee T-shirt.

Maybe that isn't asking too much, but it wasn't always the case. You could always find Wisconsin and Marquette T-shirts, but the Panthers didn't exactly have a high profile in their own town.

"You get people coming up to you saying, 'You're the new coach, aren't you?'" Jeter said. "That never happened before."

That's because things are a little different now than when Jeter first arrived on the Milwaukee campus as an assistant coach to Bo Ryan in 1999.

A program that won only eight games the season before Ryan's two-year tenure reached the NCAA Tournament two of the past three seasons under Bruce Pearl. While the Panthers' near upset of Notre Dame in 2003 brought credibility within the basketball community, last season's run to the Sweet 16 -- one that included tournament victories over Alabama and Boston College -- made Wisconsin-Milwaukee much more of a household name than ever before.

When Pearl left Milwaukee for Tennessee in March, it didn't take long for Panthers officials to make Jeter their new coach. It's a hire that makes sense on a lot of levels.

First, Jeter has spent nearly a decade working for and with Ryan, including the past four years as Ryan's assistant and associate head coach at Wisconsin.

Ryan simply wins. He won at an astonishing pace at Division III Wisconsin-Platteville; he made Wisconsin-Milwaukee competitive, laying the foundation for the Panthers' recent success; and in four seasons at Wisconsin, he has led the Badgers to a pair of Big Ten titles and within a game of the Final Four in March (falling to eventual national champion North Carolina).

Second, Jeter is a perfect fit geographically. The reality is, like almost all mid-major programs, the Panthers have to recruit on a regional level. They have to keep kids from the Milwaukee area at home -- or get them on the rebound after they begin their college careers elsewhere. They have to get players from the rest of the state. And Wisconsin-Milwaukee needs to slide into Chicago or Minneapolis and grab a player or two.

How does Jeter fit into this mix? Pretty much perfectly. He grew up in Chicago, he played for Ryan at Platteville and he's been very successful recruiting the state and the surrounding area, both in his first stint at UWM and for the Badgers. If that isn't Wisconsin enough for you, this will be: His father, Bob Jeter, played for the Green Bay Packers during 1963-70, was on a pair of Super Bowl championship teams and is in the team's hall of fame.

Because of his background, Jeter said the transition hasn't been terribly difficult so far. He knew many people in the athletic department from his stint as an assistant, he actually recruited some of the seniors on the roster, and he's still recruiting many of the same areas he has recruited for nearly a decade. And, not surprisingly, high school players seem more interested in the Panthers than in the past.

"We're playing our games at the U.S. Cellular Arena instead of the Klotsche Center," Jeter said. "When we came in [1999], we were fighting to get a new locker room for our guys. Now they're adding onto the building. We have season-ticket holders now. People in Milwaukee are excited."

And for good reason. While Milwaukee loses Ed McCants to graduation, the Panthers return seven of their top nine scorers from a year ago. Jeter inherits a team that features forward Joah Tucker -- he lit up Illinois for 32 points in the NCAA Tournament -- and a total of seven seniors.

In other words, there will be expectations for the Panthers. A return to the Sweet 16 might not be expected, but a Horizon League title and a return to the tournament (the real one, not the three-letter one) are expected.

This isn't exactly the kind of situation most first-time head coaches walk into. "Most of the time you get a team that hasn't won, you get a team that hasn't been successful," Jeter said. "You get a team that's down in the dumps."

Jeter expects the Panthers will look fairly similar to how they looked a year ago, but there will be some tweaks, the biggest of which Jeter hopes will be better half-court defense and more trips to the free-throw line.

If there was a criticism of the way Milwaukee played a year ago it was that if the Panthers didn't get a steal off of their full-court press, they didn't always seem committed to getting a stop in the half-court. The Panthers are still going to press, but Jeter is still a guy who worked for Ryan, a coach who is very concerned with defense.

On the other end of the floor, Milwaukee's offense might have a little more structure to it. The Panthers won't turn into Princeton, but they might not shoot quite as many 3-pointers.

"I'm not used to the idea of coming down and shooting a 3 right away," Jeter said. "I like to play fast, but you have to come down and at least get a touch inside. I want to get the ball inside and get to the free-throw line."

Since taking the job in April, Jeter has been pleased with the attitude of the returning Panthers. The easy thing after the March run would have been to relax and spend the spring relishing their success. That, Jeter said, hasn't been the case.

"We've got seven seniors, and they were chomping at the bit to get back to work," Jeter said. "They haven't been satisfied. They want to get better and get back now that they've had a taste of it."

It won't take the Panthers long to see where they stand. Wisconsin-Milwaukee was invited to play in the Preseason NIT (a good thing), but Jeter's team will open with a first-round game at Memphis. It's not exactly a great draw, but it's also a game Wisconsin-Milwaukee will have a legitimate chance of winning.

If there is a rub for Jeter when it comes to inheriting a team with talent and experience, it's those immediate expectations. Jeter, still waiting for his first game as a head coach, will be compared with Pearl and will be expected to win.

"I don't look at it that way," said Jeter, who was on Ryan's staff when Wisconsin-Platteville went 31-0 in 1995. "It's something I've always been a part of. How do you top an undefeated season? You just go and try to do it again. I've been fortunate to be around that."

Expectations, after all, aren't that bad. It's a price that has to be paid for getting your T-shirts in the airport.

Good signs: While Wisconsin-Milwaukee certainly is the favorite, Detroit has a chance to be good, too.

Like the Panthers, Detroit returns nearly everyone from a year ago and will have five seniors. The Titans, who lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee by a single point in the Horizon League title game, return 10 of their top 11 players. Most importantly, coach Perry Watson's team will have leading scorer Brandon Cotton for the entire season. Cotton, a transfer from Michigan State, wasn't eligible until midway through last season.

If Detroit wants to be a true factor, it can't be as up and down as last season. The Titans had four bad road losses in December, falling at Chicago State, Youngstown State, Cleveland State and Butler.

Red flag: On one hand, there are reasons for optimism at Wright State. With a roster filled with freshmen and sophomores, Wright State improved greatly as last season went along.

But at the same time, there is reason for concern. What, after all, is going to happen to coach Paul Biancardi? Biancardi has been accused of serious NCAA violations from when he was an assistant to Jim O'Brien at Ohio State. The NCAA says Biancardi transferred a $6,700 cash payment in 1998 from O'Brien that was meant for recruit Aleksandar Radojevic. The NCAA also says Biancardi had "knowledge and involvement" of extra benefits received by Boban Savovic, a former player.

Biancardi has repeatedly denied any involvement with the alleged violations at Ohio State. Still, pretty much anything can happen when the NCAA's committee on infractions gets involved. It's possible that Biancardi could be cleared, but it's also possible he could be penalized. Because the time frame for a decision is unknown, this is a story that likely will linger into the season.

Worth watching: Butler. After finishing first in the Horizon League for four consecutive seasons between 2000 and 2003 and winning at least 21 games per season in that span, Butler has slipped backward the past two seasons.

In 2004, the Bulldogs finished 16-14 overall and sixth in the Horizon League. Last season, Butler was 13-15 overall and seventh in league play. Butler does return everyone from last season's team, so improvement is certainly possible. How much will Butler improve? And where will that leave the Bulldogs in the Horizon League race?

Maybe he bought a T-shirt at the Milwaukee airport? Our resident Bracketologist Joe Lunardi agrees that Wisconsin-Milwaukee will make a repeat journey to the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

2006 Bracketology

2004-05 Standings
Team	League record	Overall record
Wisc.-Milwaukee*	14-2	26-6
Wisc.-Green Bay	10-6	17-11
Detroit	9-7	14-16
Ill.-Chicago	8-8	15-14
Wright St.	8-8	15-15
Loyola-Chi.	8-8	13-17
Butler	7-9	13-15
Cleveland St.	6-10	9-17
Youngstown St.	2-14	5-23

* -- NCAA Tournament

Leading returning scorers
Player (Team)	2004-05 PPG
Blake Schilb (Loyola-Chi.)	17.9
Joah Tucker (UWM)	16.2
DaShaun Wood (Wright St.)	15.2
Quin Humphrey (Youngstown St.)	14.4
Brandon Polk (Butler)	13.6

Jeff Shelman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (www.startribune.com) is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.