The 47th meeting between Iowa State and Northern Iowa is Wednesday night in Hilton Coliseum and the Panthers will be looking for their third straight win in Ames. Both teams are 5-1 and both posted 4-0 records during the South Padre Island Invitational.
Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg says U.N.I. is one of the best coached teams in the country that does not make mistakes and makes you work for everything that you get. He says the Panthers will want to control the tempo and make it a game of execution. Hoiberg says they can’t rush into things and get hurried, as they did that last year and didn’t have good shot selection and didn’t rebound well.
Hoiberg says the Cyclones will need to be patient on defense as he says they think they know what the Panthers are going to do, but he says whether they can stop that is yet to be determined, as they do a good job of taking what the defense gives. He says they will have to keep their concentration for the whole 35 seconds of the shot clock.
Panther coach Ben Jacobson says the Cyclones are a tough team to defend, because everyone can score. Jacobson says all five guys can score and that makes them dangerous offensively. He says you have to pay attention to everyone on the floor and they also can bring guys off the bench who can score.
Jacobson says the Cyclones it will be the biggest test for the Panthers to date. He says a lot of them are new and it takes some time to jell together. Early in the year he says new guys take some time to adjust.
U.N.I. has won four of the last five meetings with the Cyclones.
By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls