The UNI basketball team will look to move into the semifinal round of the CollegeInsider. com postseason tournament tonight when the Panthers host Bradley. UNI won both regular season meetings against the Braves, but Panther coach Ben Jacobson says Bradley has developed a much better inside game since the last meeting.
Jacobson says that taking away some of those inside looks will be a defensive key for UNI.”I think the one thing that we’ve got to work hard to do is to keep them out of the lane,” Jacobson says. He says they are tough to defend and when they are shooting the ball well, they are a really hard team to defend.
Jacobson says that in a perfect world, the Panthers would not be facing off against another Valley team just yet. He says he would have liked to go another round without a league opponent, but says with 3 teams from the league it was bound to happen. Jacobson says it does make it a little easier for the players as they know what to expect.
Jacobson says the fact that the game comes in a postseason tournament an “X-factor.” He says it’s a different setting and he doesn’t know how guys on both teams will play, but he says both teams want to keep playing and will play hard.
Tonight’s game tips off at 7:00 at the McLeod Center.
By Jesse Gavin KCNZ Cedar Falls