UWM's predecessor institutions have competed in basketball since the 19th century as the Milwaukee Normals and Milwaukee State Green Gulls. Milwaukee State's only undefeated season came in 1940 under head coach Guy Penwell as the Green Gulls finished the year 16-0 en route to their third Wisconsin State Conference championship. The team competed under the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee name for the first time for the 1956–57 season. In honor of joining the University of Wisconsin System, they sported the cardinal red and white colors and adopted "Cardinals" as their nickname. Three years later, the Cardinals made their first post-season appearance in the 1960 NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Tournament. Seeking to establish their own identity, Milwaukee adopted the colors of black and gold on September 1, 1965 and became known as the Panthers. They also left the Wisconsin State College Conference of which they'd been members since 1913, to form a conference with other urban public universities in the Great Lakes region such as the University of Illinois-Chicago and Cleveland State University. Such plans for a new conference never materialized, and the Panthers remained independent even as they moved from the NCAA College Division to the University Division in 1973. The team moved again to NCAA Division III in 1980. Between 1985 and 1987, Milwaukee competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. In 1987, the program moved to NCAA Division II where it won its regional in the 1989 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament, advancing to the contest's Elite Eight. Since 1990, Milwaukee Men's Basketball has competed in NCAA Division I. They played in the Mid-Continent Conference for one year in 1993-94 before joining the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, which became the Horizon League in 1999 and has been the Panthers' home ever since. Milwaukee reached new heights of success during the mid-2000s, making its first NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship appearance in 2003 under head coach Bruce Pearl, followed by a Sweet Sixteen appearance in 2005 and a second round appearance in 2006. Pearl left after 2005 and the school hired Rob Jeter. The Panthers won three straight regular-season Horizon League championships from 2004–2006 as well as the Horizon League Tournament championship in 2003, 2005, and 2006. The Panthers' most recent Horizon League regular season championship came in 2011. In 2014, the Panthers won the Horizon League tournament, making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2006. Just a few weeks later, UWM was handed a one-year postseason ban due to a low Academic Progress Rate. On March 17, 2016, Milwaukee fired head coach Rob Jeter after 11 seasons with the Panthers. On April 7, Milwaukee announced that Michigan assistant coach LaVall Jordan would be the new head coach. Less than one year later, on March 3, 2017, The Panthers made history by being the first 10 seed to win even one game in the Horizon League Tournament. They went on to place second overall in the tournament when they finally lost to Northern Kentucky University on March 7.
