A team that hasn’t won three in a row since the last time they were in the NCAA tournament went on a tear.

The end of the semester in December brought the usual rush to students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. With everyone packing their things, cramming for finals and bombing them, saying goodbye to friends and preparing for a month with mom and dad, it was easy to lose track of other things.

If you paid attention to the men’s basketball team at the end of last semester, you would have noticed one thing: turmoil. Before the season even started, last year’s leading scorer, Avery Smith, and coach Rob Jeter mutually agreed that Smith would leave the program. This year’s leading scorer and rebounder, Torre Johnson, punched a woman at a party during exam week and got booted off the team. Roman Gentry, a shooting guard who started several games for the Panthers this season, got homesick and left UWM to be with his newborn daughter in Sioux City, Iowa.

That’s a lot for the average Panther fan to deal with, but that’s not all. Stud freshmen Tim Flowers and Kevin Johnson, long-time friends, have been on extended leaves of absence from the team. While Flowers has been a fan favorite, especially among students, Johnson has been an end-of-the-bench player whose upside seems to be years down the road.

Although the team cites “family reasons” for their absences, both of them were suspended during the Central Michigan game on Dec. 19 and left at the same time.

The two players who were expected to be Milwaukee’s leaders were gone. A starting guard was gone, along with the starting center, whose return is still unsure. His friend, who had promised to take UWM to a Final Four, was gone. And how did the team respond? With a six-game winning streak.

That’s right: A team that hasn’t won three in a row since the last time they were in the NCAA tournament went on a tear. UWM was 3-7 at the end of the fall semester. In their first seven games during break, the Panthers went 6-1, with their lone defeat last Saturday coming at the hands of No. 12 Butler.

Not only has the team reacted in the best possible way to roster devastation, but so have the fans. Following the 61-39 drubbing by the University of Wisconsin halfway through December, the atmosphere at the official post-game sports bar, Major Goolsby’s, was somber. The fans weren’t peppy, and those on the team who had made the walk across the street to the bar were even less so. But oh, how winning changes things.

A couple of weeks ago, UWM hosted defending conference champion Wright State — the team that had beaten Butler three times in the last season-and-a-half — and beat the ever-loving crap out of them.

Wright State never had a chance. After that, Major Goolsby’s was a completely different world; you’d have thought the Packers had won a playoff game.

Every single player, from star Paige Paulsen to Kaylan Anderson, got a raucous round of applause from the Panther faithful as they entered the bar. The post-game show, which can usually be heard on the prominent speakers, was drowned out by the cheering that accompanied the radio show. If they’d turned up the volume, they would have heard themselves.

The team is not more talented than the old lineup, by any means. But there is something magical going on at 4th and Kilbourne. Everyone who makes up the program — coaches, players, trainers and managers, athletic department, students, alumni, casual fans — sees something truly special happening on the hardwood in the House that Kareem Built.

On Thursday, when UWM plays their first home game of the spring semester at the Cell, be sure that you’re in attendance; you might catch some of that Milwaukee Magic.

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