With the departure of men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl and men’s soccer coach Louis Bennett in successive years, many University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee fans believed the Golden Age of Panther athletics to be over.

Guess what. Like the Reel Big Fish song, we’ve got a good thing going.

The McCafferty Trophy, the award given by the Horizon League to the school that excels in all conference sports, is decided at the end of every school year. Guess who is in the lead.

At 40.0 points, Milwaukee is significantly ahead of current runner-up Butler at 31. The award is decided by how each team finishes in all 19 conference sports. Milwaukee competes in 13 of those sports.

The Panthers mounted this large lead by playing extremely well in the conference season in all sports. Women’s soccer and volleyball have both racked up regular season conference championships. Both sports suffered crushing defeats in the conference tournament, with volleyball being upset by newcomer Valparaiso in the semifinals. Soccer lost a heartbreaker on penalty kicks to Loyola.

Thanks to the finish of those teams, 27 of Milwaukee’s points have come from women’s sports. Solid second-place finishes by men’s soccer and women’s basketball have only added to the Panthers’ dominance.

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