Less than 11 months ago, the best men's college basketball team in the city of Milwaukee was easy to identify. Marquette was poised to win the Conference USA regular-season title and make a memorable Final Fun run. Meanwhile, UW-Milwaukee was finishing its best season, but the Panthers still lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Ours was Golden Eagles country.

Today, perhaps for the first time, determining the city's best basketball team is certainly a debatable topic.

Bruce Pearl's Panthers staged their most impressive win of the season at Detroit's Calihan Hall Saturday, shooting a blistering 59.2 percent to rout the Titans, 85-68. Before ending a long slide in Detroit last season, UWM had lost the previous seven road games to the Titans by an average of 23 points. Saturday, they looked right at home.

Two hours before that game, the Golden Eagles slogged through a difficult 70-62 victory over CUSA rival DePaul, thanks to the determined leadership of Travis Diener and the athletic play of freshman Dameon Mason. But the ugly win simply evened MU's conference record at 3-3; UWM improved its league mark to 8-0.

Against common opponents, the teams are 1-1. Both fell to UW in Madison (MU lost, 63-59; UWM fell, 89-71) and both defeated Valpo (MU won at home, 75-70; UWM won on the road, 86-82). MU is 12-5; UWM stands at 13-5. Think a Saturday afternoon game between them at the Bradley Center in February would draw much interest?

For now, their fans, students and alumni will have to make do with debate, but one thing is for certain: UWM is Milwaukee's team du jour.

The Panthers' rise can be attributed in part to players Bo Ryan left behind before heading to Madison -- Clay Tucker and Dylan Page led the Panthers' turnaround over the last two seasons. But the team is Pearl's now, and Page is now paired with another Tucker, not to mention a shooter named Ed.

Unless he stumbles badly or is hurt down the stretch, Page will be the Horizon League Player of the Year in a runaway. The 6'9" senior from Amherst scores 20.9 ppg, collects 6.9 rpg and makes nearly two 3-point shots a night. He's one of three Panthers starters scoring at least 13 PPG and shooting over 50 percent from the floor.

The other two are Nicolet's Joah Tucker (13.6, 56.2) and Ed McCants (18.1, 52.3). And don't sneer -- these aren't Shaq-esque shooting percentages built on dunks, lay-ups and two-foot baby hooks. Tucker is 6-5 and McCants is 6-3; yes, they're actually shooting the ball at that clip.

Tucker was 8-for-8 from the floor in UWM's Jan. 17 win at Green Bay, and he followed that up with a 10-for-13 effort against the Titans this week (OK, he was a mere 5-for-10 midweek at Cleveland State). Tucker likes to go to the hoop, but he's got a developing midrange game and a nice stroke from 3-point territory (7-for-13 on the year). He also frustrated Detroit's Elijah Warren into an inconsequential 8-point outing following his 37-point explosion earlier in the week against CSU. Better yet, he's just a sophomore.

McCants isn't as big of a surprise, but he is slightly more potent. Thanks to a brief stint at Northwestern before going to junior college in Texas, McCants needed little time to get accustomed to D-1 action. He's scored 18 or more points in 13 of the team's 18 games, and he's hitting 52.3 percent from the floor, very impressive considering he's just 6-3 and has taken 218 shots -- 128 of them from downtown.

McCants also has a little in common with Marquette's fabulous frosh Mason, he of the Dwyane Wade comparisons. As Saturday's game got out of hand in Detroit, McCants jumped a Detroit passing lane for a steal, raced down the court with two Titans in hot pursuit and threw down the best slam Calihan Hall has seen in some time. Were there annual basketball awards in the city, this particular dunk would likely claim the "Best Throwdown, Individual" category for 2003-04.

In short, the Panthers seem to possess Milwaukee's second hardwood "Big Three." And, of course, there is more to the Panthers than Page-Tucker-McCants. Big men Adrian Tigert and Nate Mielke are key role players; the 6-7 Tigert actually leads the team in assists with 3.4 per game. The two-headed point guard of Kalombo Kadima (back in the starting lineup) and Chris Hill (who scored a career-high 13 at Detroit) combine to dish out another 5.9 apg. And sophomore Mark Pancratz rounds out a solid eight-man rotation.

Eight is UWM's magic number at the moment. They're 8-0 in conference play with eight Horizon League games yet remaining (UWM will host a Bracket Buster Saturday game on February 21, as well). And there is little breathing room atop the standings -- Wright State is 7-1, UWGB is 6-2 and pre-season favorite UIC is still within 3-point distance at 4-4.

UWM has beaten the latter two but has yet to play Wright State. In fact, Tuesday night presents both the end of a four-game Panther road swing and the biggest Horizon League game of the year when UWM travels to Dayton to battle the second-place Raiders.

Wright State had a puzzling preseason, losing to the likes of Cedarville College, Morehead State and Toledo, but only Tod Kowalczyk's Phoenix have defeated them in league play. Still, the game feels like more of a proving ground for the Raiders than it does the Panthers.

Despite UWM's tough schedule (they lost to NC State, UW, SIU and Air Force in non-conference play), its only clear route to a second NCAA tourney berth is winning the conference tournament. In the RPI ratings released Sunday on collegerpi.com, the Panthers were 73rd (Marquette was 67th; UW 11th); that isn't likely to get it done on Selection Sunday. Though the selection committee is growing more lenient with mid-majors, they like a mid-60s RPI before handing out at-large bids to teams with dashes in their names.

Until that time, the Panthers will have to be content racking up the wins -- and gaining rapidly on the city's traditional college hoops powerhouse.