Northern Iowa Playing Bigger

(St. Louis, MO) – Will bigger be better for the Northern Iowa Panthers? If size matters, UNI will have another successful season.

Picked to finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll, the Panthers will have a very different look this season. The old look was just fine, but graduation brings about a change in personnel and head coach Ben Jacobson, is changing with the new make up of his squad.

Gone are standout guards Wes Washpun and Matt Bohannon and undersized power forward Paul Jesperson who were deadly perimeter players. During the two seasons while those players filled prominent roles, the Panthers won 54 games and two MVC tournament championships.

UNI led the Valley three-point-baskets and were second in 3-point percentage. Bohannon (1^st) and Jesperson (3^rd) were superior from deep. Who can forget Jesperson’s half-court bomb against Texas in the NCAA Tournament?

This season will be a little different.

No, Jacobson will not abandon the three, but with those departures and the emergence of legit power forward Clint Carlson, he will shift the offensive focus from the perimeter to the paint. The 6’7 Carlson and 6’10 Bennett Koch each averaged over seven points and over three rebounds per game during their sophomore ‘understudy’ seasons.

Koch started most of the season and gave Jacobson some solid play all year, but Carlson’s play over the final seven games has Jacobson and Panther fans excited about the talented Waverly, Iowa native. Carlson averaged 11.4 ppg over the last seven and 12.4 in five postseason games. Carlson netted a career high 17 points in the Arch Madness championship game, 11 in the NCAA Tournament win over Texas and 17 again in the double-overtime lose to Texas A&M.

His head coach says it was all about Carlson gaining confidence.

 

 

Jacobson says his current Panther team will utilize their size on both ends of the floor.

 

 

MVC preseason Player of the Year Jeremy (Captain) Morgan will play multiple positions this season and Jacobson is expecting MVP type of play from his senior, but Morgan believes the young post players will be true difference-makers.

 

 

In Jacobson’s ten years in Cedar Falls, the Panthers have won two conference titles, four tournament titles, and have averaged 22 wins per season. They have won with ‘bigs’ like Grant Stout, Seth Tuttle, Adam Koch, Jordan Eglseder and Eric Coleman, and they’ve been successful with smaller, more perimeter players like last year’s squad and previous players like Ben Jacobson (different player than the coach), Kwadzo Ahelegbe, Deon Mitchell, Johnny Moran and of course Ali Farokhmanesh.

UNI will have another outstanding schedule with the likes of Xavier, Arizona State, Iowa and North Carolina on the docket.

Do Good

Editor: Headline photo courtesy of unipanthers.com