State Basketball Roundup: Skiles to retun for a fifth season

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Milwaukee Bucks’ coach Scott Skiles will return for a fifth season. He met with owner Herb Kohl and general manager John Hammond over the past few days – and he was allowed to coach in the final year of his contract, with no guarantee of an extension. Skiles and Hammond have both been with the Bucks for four years, and both their contracts expire after next season after they were extended in 2010 – the last time the Bucks made the playoffs. Skiles is normally stubborn on defense. But he got away from that philosophy this season when injuries and trades made the Bucks a smaller team. They had the N-B-A’s fifth-highest scoring offense, with 99 points a game this past season. And they were third in assists. But Milwaukee’s defense gave up 98-point-seven points a night, among the lower-third in the league. Skiles said the good teams don’t take short-cuts on defense, and the Bucks took too many of them. Hammond says he’ll try to get a bigger roster for the fall, but Skiles says his current players will need to renew their defensive approach. He expects the Bucks to be a better team with a full 82-game schedule – something they didn’t have this year due to the N-B-A lockout. They won 31 games in a compressed 66-game regular season.

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Junior college point guard Jordan Aaron has signed a letter-of-intent to play at U-W Milwaukee for his final two seasons. The 5-10 Aaron comes from Southeastern Community College in West Burlington Iowa. He averaged 14 points, four assists, four rebounds, and one-and-a-half steals last season. Aaron increased his scoring average by almost five points from his freshman year. U-W-M coach Rob Jeter calls Aaron a fast point guard with good shooting and decision-making abilities. He’s expected to replace outgoing senior Kaylon Williams, who set a Milwaukee school record for assists last season with 215.

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Former Wisconsin men’s basketball forward Jarrod Uthoff has decided not to appeal the latest restrictions on his voluntary transfer. At first, coach Bo Ryan prohibited the freshman from getting scholarships at over two dozen schools. But after meeting with U-W officials last month, they decided only to bar a transfer to other Big Ten schools. There was some talk that Uthoff would appeal the decision, because he had asked for permission to consider Iowa and Indiana. Apparently, that’s out now after Uthoff let a deadline pass yesterday without filing an appeal. Uthoff has visited Creighton, and he plans to visit Iowa State.

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