Meet Rob Jeter
- Experience: Ninth season
- College: UW-Platteville ’91, '01
- Career record: 129-127 (75-63 Horizon League)
2013-14 Season Outlook
- In the Horizon League Preseason Poll, the Panthers are predicted to finish ninth-place.
- After posting a 20-14 (11-7 Horizon League) record during the 2011-12 season, the Panthers finished the 2012-13 season with an 8-24 (3-13 Horizon League) record.
Career Background
- Led Milwauke to a 22-9 record in his first season at the helm, leading the Panthers to a Horizon League Championship and an NCAA Tournament win over Oklahoma.
- Led the Panthers to a pair of 20-win seasons in the past four years and two postseason berths in the last three seasons.
- During the 2010-11 season, Jeter took home Horizon League Coach of the Year honors as well as being named the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Division I Coach of the Year.
- Member of the coaching staffs at UW-Platteville (1994-98), Marquette (1998-99), Milwaukee (1999-2001) and Wisconsin (2001-05).
- Jeter worked under current Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan for 10 of his 11 years as an assistant coach.
- Returned to Milwaukee as the 20th head coach in the school's history after serving for four years as an assistant coach and associate head coach at Wisconsin.
You are one of just two coaches in program history to post three postseason berths and three 20-win seasons. What’s it going to take to get the Panthers’ back to prominence that saw it win the Horizon League crown in 2004-06, 2011?
For us right now, we have a lot of new faces. I don’t like to use the word ‘rebuild’ I like to use the world ‘reload.’ With all the new faces we just need guys to really buy in to Milwaukee basketball. When we get those things to happen and with some leadership I think we can definitely have a chance to compete. But right now it’s a matter of getting those news faces and to buy in.
Your late father Bob Jeter is a member of the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame. Your uncle Tony Jeter was a member of the Pittsburg Steelers. You also had two cousins play Division I college football. How did you get into basketball with such a rich family tradition in football?
Football is in our blood. I think that toughness carries over to basketball; it’s just that we don’t wear helmets, we’re a little smarter than those guys and the temperature is always 70 degrees for us (laughs). For me and my brother (Carlton), we gravitated towards basketball. My father played basketball and he said he was good. I have proof on the football end; I don’t have proof on the basketball end. But we just really enjoyed the game, growing up in Chicago and being around the (Chicago) Bulls we just really gravitated towards basketball.
Growing up in the Chicago area and having a father play for both the Green Bay Packers (1963-1970) and the Chicago Bears (1971-73) can be difficult from a cheering standpoint. Where does that leave Rob Jeter; Packers or Bears fan?
My dad played for both the Packers and Bears; but won a Championship with the Packers. I have to lean towards the Packers since I lived in Wisconsin for such a long time. But I got to tell you; growing up in Chicago in ’85 I was a Bears fan all the way. Having spent all this time in and my wife being from Wisconsin, it’s made me grow closer to the Packers.
You had a very successful playing career at UW-Platteville under current Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan. You later coached on Ryan’s staff at Platteville, Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Talk about your relationship with Bo Ryan.
When I met Bo he really taught me the game of basketball. It was the first time a coach really got the best out of myself and my brother (Carlton) playing basketball. When I had a chance to come back and work for him it was a no-brainer for me. I never really thought I’d go into coaching, but he saw something in me that I didn’t see. I said I’d give it a few years and see how it works, and it’s been 20-plus years I’ve been in coaching. The respect I can pay him back is having my teams do things as well as the way he taught me.
How difficult was it to leaves Ryan's staff in 2005 when you were presented the opportunity to lead the Milwaukee program?
It’s a safe environment, you know Bo is going to win. You can get five guys and he can figure out a way to get the best of them. But at the same time I always thought there is an honor in leaving a person like Bo and trying to build another branch of his tree somewhere else. It was difficult for me but I thought I was ready to see if some of those principles he taught me worked for myself.
Last season the team played on campus at the Klotsche Center. This season the squad is back to the U.S. Cellular Arena in downtown Milwaukee. At the time you said it is “the right thing for our program.” Why is this venue the right thing for Panther basketball?
So much tradition, history in that building not only for our program but the community. We won championships there. I go back to what was taught to me, if something isn’t broke you don’t need to fix it. I really felt comfortable being down at the Cell, I think our teams have always felt comfortable there, and I think our fans really felt comfortable there. It’s a mission of ours at Milwaukee to be a part of the community; being downtown is no better way to be a part of the community.
You’ve had the opportunity to take your coaching talents to an international level. Most recently, you spent time as an assistant coach for Team USA in the World University Games in 2009. Talk about the thrill it is to coach for your Country?
It was awesome. To represent the United States and get to train at the training facility in Colorado Springs and be around all the great coaches and the whole USA Basketball organization is very humbling. It makes you understand the importance of the game and what you really respresnet. To get to go to Sibera and play and to leave your comfort in the United States and go over there and represent the United States is something I’ll always cherish.
You played overseas in in 1992-93 and led the Portuguese League in scoring. Talk about the experiences of playing basketball professionally overseas?
I was a Division III athlete playing in Europe which probably wasn’t something that was supposed to happen. I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to do that and played pretty well. The decision I’ve always made is based on the people I can surround myself and I could have made a career out of it, but I had this desire to come back home and start a career and that’s when Bo gave me the opportunity to coach.
What’s the one thing you enjoy doing when you’re off the court?
I have four kids so I’m pretty busy there. If I’m not watching ESPN or a game I’m probably watching HGTV. I like to tinker with things, and change things. Or I’m on my lawn mower -- I know it’s a weird thing-- but I love to cut my grass. There is peace on that lawn mower. You come to my yard, I can rival some of the sports arenas with the striping and I stripe it up. In my neighborhood I got the best lawn, I can tell you that (laughs).
If you weren’t coaching basketball, what would your profession be?
There have been so many things I’ve thought of, I thought about being an attorney at one point, an architect, obviously this thing with HGTV I could see myself as a builder or a developer. Who knows! I know it would be something that would be hands on where I can work with others .
