Hometown Flavor: Three Out-of-State College Basketball Teams with Strong Milwaukee Connections

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Milwaukee has become a hotbed recently for producing and exporting high school basketball talent, as Tyler Herro, Brandin Podziemski and Jordan Poole are just a few of these notable area hoopers. All three are in the NBA now, and more importantly, none of them played their college ball in the Badger State.

With local products spread across the country, this season, three out-of-state schools—Virginia, Grambling State and Southern Utah—have a particularly distinct contingent of Milwaukee-based talent on their roster. It is no coincidence that all three programs have head coaches with significant connections to Wisconsin. 

At Grambling State, head coach Donte Jackson is a Milwaukee native who attended Milwaukee Hamilton High School and played a year of basketball at UWM.

Virginia head coach Tony Bennett is the son of famous basketball coach Dick Bennett, who had successful tenures at UW-Stevens Point, UW-Green Bay and Wisconsin. Tony grew up in the state and attended UWGB (he is the NCAA all-time leader in three-point field goal accuracy) before starting his coaching career at Wisconsin under his father, Dick.

Finally, there is Southern Utah coach Rob Jeter. Jeter attended UW-Platteville, began coaching at his alma mater, and was an assistant at Marquette, UWM, and Wisconsin before spending more than a decade at the helm of Milwaukee. 

Consider this a rooting guide for those local players who are often forgotten once they leave state lines.

Virginia

No power conference school in the country has a lineup with more Milwaukee-based talent than Tony Bennett’s Virginia. 

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The long-time Cream City standout in Charlottesville is point guard Reece Beekman. Now entering his fourth season with the Cavaliers, Beekman grew up in Milwaukee before moving to Louisiana when he was 13. The Virginia floor general was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 and Preseason All-ACC First Team this season.

Flanking him in the backcourt is Brookfield Central product, Andrew Rohde. Rohde led the Lancers to a pair of WIAA State Tournaments, including a Division 1 state title in 2019. He spent his first collegiate season at St. Thomas (MN), where he was 2022-23 All-Summit League First Team and Freshman of the Year, averaging 17.1 PPG. The sophomore transfer is already starting in his first season for the Cavaliers.

The third Wisconsinite in the Virginia rotation is wing Leon Bond III. Bond has experience winning high school state titles and defeating Andrew Rohde. As a junior in 2021, Bond’s Wauwatosa East Red Raiders topped Rohde’s Brookfield Central Lancers in a classic sectional final, as Tosa East went on to win state that year. The athletic wing redshirted last season but has been an impactful, energetic player off the bench this year.

Grambling State

The Milwaukee area has frequently produced DI basketball players over the years, but few collegiate programs — in-state or otherwise — can boast a trio of graduates from the Milwaukee Public School system.

Grambling State has Terrence Lewis, a Riverside High School grad, plus Quinton Murrell and Payton Parish, who were teammates at Rufus King High School. This trio is entering its third season together in Grambling, LA. 

Terrence Lewis is the senior member of this bunch and one of the oldest players in college basketball. The 25-year-old was a two-time Milwaukee City Conference Player of the Year and began his career with three seasons at Iowa State. He transferred to South Alabama, sitting out 2020-21 per NCAA rules before transferring again to Grambling State for 2021-22. 

Injuries limited Lewis to three games in two seasons for Grambling, but he projects to be a key contributor for Donte Jackson’s team this year.

Fellow Milwaukee native Quinton Murrell was a consistent presence off the bench as a sophomore last year, averaging 3.3 PPG and 1.2 RPG while playing 10 minutes per contest. As for Payton Parish, the junior played just six minutes last season.

The Tigers also have a pair of players who played college basketball in Milwaukee a season ago. Forward Jalen Johnson was a sixth man for UWM, and guard Mikale Stevenson was a starter on the MATC team that won the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II championship.

Southern Utah

The UWM Men’s Basketball team fell on tough times after the school fired head coach Rob Jeter in 2016. As for Jeter, he spent time as an assistant at UNLV and Minnesota before engineering an impressive turn-around at Western Illinois.

Now entering his first season at Southern Utah, the former Bo Ryan disciple is building a squad with a sizeable Milwaukee presence. 

The centerpiece of this rebuilding Thunderbirds team is Jamari Sibley. Sibley led Nicolet High School to the Division 2 state title as a senior in 2019, then spent a prep year at the famous Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. He played his freshman year at Georgetown before transferring and spending two seasons at The University of Texas at El Paso. At UTEP, Sibley averaged 4.5 PPG across 64 games played.

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SUU’s second Milwaukee transfer is Mason Johnson. Johnson teamed with Mikale Stevenson (now at Grambling State) to lead MATC to the NJCAA DII championship last year. Johnson attended Golda Meir High School in Milwaukee, where he led the state as a senior with 18.7 rebounds per game.

The Thunderbirds also boast Jamir Simpson, who spent the last two years at DII Wisconsin-Parkside, and Donavhan Cain, a Beloit native—further boosting a squad with a strong Wisconsin presence.