{image1} Horizon League teams are mandated by the conference to play one league game in December each year. That game has matched UW-Milwaukee and its chief rival UI-Chicago in each of the last two years. And this past Saturday, UWM earned its second league-opening win in a row against the Flames.

The drama of these two games is heightened by several factors. First, of course, is the 14-year-old feud between UWM coach Bruce Pearl and UIC coach Jimmy Collins, which dates back to their days as Big Ten assistant coaches and Collins' alleged recruiting violations of Illinois star Deon Thomas. Pearl, who worked at Iowa at the time, taped a phone call with Thomas in which the recruit admitted Collins bribed him to attend Illinois.

Second, and more pertinently, both teams are very good mid-major basketball schools. UWM has played in consecutive post-season tournaments, and UIC beat UWM in the conference title game last year to earn an NCAA berth. Both are expected to fight for conference supremacy again this season.

The tight 75-67 Panthers victory on Saturday improved them to 5-0. It was also their first road win, coming in an arena where the Flames lost by just one point to No. 4 Georgia Tech earlier in November. It was also UWM's first win at the UIC Pavilion since Ric Cobb coached the team to victory there in 1999.

The Panthers, absent graduated star Dylan Page, are slowly emerging as the best hoops story in town. Early-season wins over Prairie View A&M and UW-Parkside didn't do much to convince anyone of UWM's worthiness, but a victory over Air Force (an NCAA tourney team a year ago) and the win at UIC are raising some eyebrows.

Senior guard Ed McCants is the leader of the up-tempo Panthers, who have returned to their running roots now that post anchor Page and his multi-talented offensive game have left campus. Pearl loves to press, and UWM is pressing again.

Oddly, slower tactics led to the victory over Air Force, which uses the Princeton-style, backdoor-cut offense. On the road last year, UWM played into the Falcons' hands by trying to run, and the result was a 22-point whipping. This year, Pearl and the Panthers slowed it down and beat Air Force at its own game, 50-45. "I just think the more aggressive you are, the better it makes them," Pearl said afterward.

For comparison's sake, Air Force also suffered an early-season loss to Marquette, 69-65, at the Bradley Center. In that game, MU's Travis Diener exploded for 34 points, a career-high effort that carried the Golden Eagles. Unlike UWM, MU decided to pick up the pace against the Falcons.

That's about as close as we're going to get to an honest comparison of Milwaukee's two undefeated college hoops teams for the moment. Though both teams play Wisconsin, they will not meet in the regular season.

Next up for UWM is Marquette's CUSA rival St. Louis (Tuesday night in Missouri). SLU is a disappointing 1-4 this season, but Brad Soderberg's team will provide another benchmark for Pearl. The Billikens have lost two one-point games and are a good home team. As modest as it appears, a victory in St. Louis would be a quality road win for the Panthers.

For UWM to excel on the road or otherwise, McCants will have to shake off a sub-par, five-point effort against UIC, and Joah Tucker (14.2 ppg) and Adrian Tigert (12.4 ppg, 8.2 rpg) will need to continue their solid inside play.

Tigert, now two seasons removed from a major knee injury, is putting together his best campaign. He already has two double-doubles, and his 2.6 assists per game and eight overall steals -- not bad for a 6-7 forward/center -- speak to his overall floor game. Tigert is also hitting 73 percent of his shots from the floor.

But perhaps Pearl's most pleasant surprise is the excellent play of his two-headed point guard, starter Boo Davis and "closer" (and ex-starter) Chris Hill. The tandem is averaging 18.2 points and 4.2 assists in five games. While Hill isn't ecstatic about his role as a bench player, it hasn't affected his play -- his 18 points in Chicago Saturday (11 in the second half) were a career-high.

UWM will be tested sternly over the rest of the month. After SLU, the Panthers travel to Valparaiso for a game against one of the traditionally better Mid-Continent Conference teams Saturday (Valpo is 0-4, but that record includes losses to Cincinnati and Duke). Then it's on to Madison to meet the Badgers next Wednesday. After that, only No. 2 Kansas and NCAA tourney regular Manhattan remain before conference play opens in January. Oh, and both those games are on the road, too.

If Pearl's squad can emerge with two or three wins in the next five, they'll be an even stronger favorite to earn their second straight Horizon League championship. And the intra-city debate between Panthers and Golden Eagles fans will likely grow louder.