GREEN BAY (NBC 26) \u2014 UW\u2013Green Bay enters Horizon League play riding a three-game win streak as the Phoenix prepare for Thursday night\u2019s matchup with defending conference champion Robert Morris.<\/p>\n
Head Coach Doug Gottlieb said he likes the direction of his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel really encouraged on progress,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cThe only thing you can focus on is not results, but on getting better \u2014 and it feels like we\u2019re getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomore guard CJ O\u2019Hara echoed that message, noting a stronger bond after the team’s trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just more connected \u2014 guys uplifting each other,\u201d O\u2019Hara said. \u201cWe go into every game confident, believing we can win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phoenix are coming off of a strong showing at the Paradise Jam, winning two of three games and falling to Yale by single digits. Gottlieb said last year\u2019s team sometimes got pushed around, but this year\u2019s group is playing with greater physicality and intensity.<\/p>\n
\u201cYale is really good \u2014 older, physical and smart \u2014 and we were probably more physical than them,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cMy goal is when you walk away from playing Green Bay, you\u2019re like, \u2018those guys are tough and they play together.\u2019 The score will take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
A major boost has come from Division III transfer Justin Allen, who scored a combined 48 points in back-to-back games while Marcus Hall was sidelined with an injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody knows Justin can score,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cIt\u2019s the other stuff he had to learn. He got his opportunity and he took advantage of it. Ultimately, the construct of the team is him and Marcus together \u2014 I think that forms a lethal weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green Bay will need that firepower Thursday against Robert Morris, also entering the game on a three-game win streak.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a very good rebounding team, a very good interior scoring team and an excellent three-point shooting team,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cThose are the areas we\u2019ve had to improve defensively. Now we\u2019ll see how it plays out in a Horizon League game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY (NBC 26) \u2014 UW\u2013Green Bay enters Horizon League play riding a three-game win streak as the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":421700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,144141,5994,129017,15193,196893,1589,15009,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,196894,196895],"class_list":{"0":"post-421699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-college-hoops","12":"tag-green-bay","13":"tag-horizon-league","14":"tag-mens-basketball","15":"tag-nbc-26","16":"tag-phoenix","17":"tag-robert-morris","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-uwgb","25":"tag-wgba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115655434911116754","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}