MILWAUKEE (SPECTRUM NEWS) - As the Bucks charge toward the playoffs with the NBA’s best record, another basketball team in Milwaukee is chasing a championship. Milwaukee Area Technical College is the top-ranked men’s team in Division II of junior college hoops.
When you watch the Stormers play, you notice the team loves to run. At least, they love it now. Last summer the MATC players went through a grueling conditioning program, including one infamous workout on Milwaukee’s Bradford Beach.
“I think we went up the hill like 17 times, then we went right to the sand after that and were jumping over little hurdles,” sophomore guard Jason Webb Jr. said. “It was a lot of hard work. We just knew we had to get prepared for this big season coming up.”
That hard work has paid off. MATC is 30-1, and the Stormers take a 23-game win streak into their regional championship game against Prairie State College Saturday in Palos Hills, Ill.
The stamina built up through head coach Randy Casey’s conditioning tests has allowed the Stormers to wear opponents down and dominate late in the first half and at the end of games. They force the second-most turnovers in the country and pour in 103 points per game, third in NJCAA D-II.
“After you’re doing it so much and you’re having so much fun, everybody’s sharing the ball, it just gets us in our flow,” sophomore Melvin Lee III said.
Milwaukee natives Lee and Webb are the fresh legs in the backcourt for MATC’s second unit. The Stormers reserves have capitalized on the starters’ ability to drain their opponents’ energy, allowing the deep bench to run them out of the gym.
“We just tire out teams. Teams get tired,” Lee said during practice Wednesday. “They can’t hold the first five, then the second five, then the third five.”
Speaking of fives, Lee stands just 5-foot-5. He says opponents have always underestimated his skills because of his height. But as a high schoolers in 2016, Lee sent the Milwaukee Riverside crowd (and the internet) into a frenzy when he soared above two defenders for a rim-rocking dunk. He was on ESPN’s SportsCenter that night, and millions of people worldwide have seen his high-flying jam.
“They were like, ‘Mel! Your dunk is viral! It’s crazy!’ he said. “I was on my way home and it was already viral like 30 minutes after it happened.”
Lee said that was just the second time he’d ever dunked on a 10-foot rim.
Making national news was great, but four years later, a national championship would be even sweeter. Lee and the Stormers are in the best shape of their lives, and they say they’re ready to make a run for their program’s first national championship.