U.N.I. is coming off of a pair of tight victories that have the Panthers climbing the Missouri Valley Conference standings. Despite losing some close games early in the conference season, the Panthers have the chance to even their league record at 7-7 as they travel to face conference co-leader Wichita State tonight.

U.N.I. coach Ben Jacobson has been impressed by the way his team reacted to those early struggles.

“Our guys have done a terrific job of staying together, a terrific job of preparing themselves in light of losing a couple of close games in league play, and they deserve a lot of credit for that,” Jacobson says. He says it would have been easy to split up and not stay on the same page with those type of loses.

Wichita State is tied with Creighton at the top of the Valley standings. The Shockers boast one of the top post players in the league in seven-footer Garrett Stutz, who Jacobson says is a rare talent in the Valley. Jacobson says Stutz is playing at a very high level right now and they will try a lot of different things to try and slow him down.

Beside Stutz at 7 feet, Jacobson says that Wichita brings a lot of size at all positions. The Shockers won the earlier meeting against the Panthers by a 71-68 tally.

By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls

U.N.I. freshman point guard Deon Mitchell has come into his own over the past couple games. Mitchell led the Panthers with a career high 17 points in their win over Southern Illinois, then followed that up with a 12 point, five rebound performance in a U.N.I. win over Creighton on Saturday.

U.N.I. coach Ben Jacobson talks about Mitchell’s ability to spark the Panther offense. “He’s much more confident in what he’s doing, he’s got enough experience now, on his side of it, he’s always known that he can get himself into the paint,” Jacobson says.

Jacobson says that Mitchell and fellow freshman Seth Tuttle have both grown into their roles as the season has moved along. He says from a team standpoint as they learn about each other, they both can add to the offense and they are trying to put them in spots to do it.

The Panthers are currently tied for 5th in the Missouri Valley with a 6-7 league record. They can even that mark on Wednesday when they travel to conference co-leader Wichita State. The Shockers won the first matchup with the Panthers in Cedar Falls.

Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall says he’s sure the Panthers will be looking to “exact revenge” after getting the big win against Creighton.

By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls

Northern Iowa tries to end a two-game conference losing skid as they host Southern Illinois tonight in Cedar Falls. The Panthers have struggled in conference play after getting off to a good start to the season.

Coach Ben Jacobson says the problem recently has been scoring enough points. Jacobson says they were not good enough offensively against Indiana State and Missouri State in the past two games.

“Prior to those two, I felt we really had played good basketball, but we didn’t win a couple of close games,” Jaconson said.

The Salukis and Panthers have an identical 4-7 conference marks. “Southern’s playing a lot of guys, getting 10 and 11 guys double figure minutes, they’re playing extremely hard and doing a good job or rebounding the basketball at both ends of the floor,” Jacobson says.

U.N.I. comes in at 14-9 overall while S.I.U. is 7-15. Game time is seven p.m.

It’s been nearly three years since the U.N.I. basketball team has won a game within the borders of the state of Indiana, but the Panthers will look to reverse that trend tonight as they travel to face Indiana State.

 The Panthers blew the Sycamores out 65-48 in their meeting in Cedar Falls earlier this month, but U.N.I. coach Ben Jacobson says that Indiana State is not a team to take lightly.

“We’d better prepare really well, it’s a team that’s gonna have a couple guys that can really play, and for the most part a group of guys who have had some success,” Jacobson says.

The last time these two teams met, U.N.I. held Indiana State’s leading scorer Jake Odum to just six points. Jacobson says the best word to describe Odum’s game is “creative,” and he is fun to watch when you are not playing against him.

Jacobson says that containing Odum will be job number one for the Panther, but says the senior guard is not Indiana State’s only weapon.

He says they’ve got a group of seniors who have played a lot and had a lot of success and can score.

The Panthers can even their conference record at 5-5 with a win in Terre Haute.

By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls

The Drake Bulldogs have played well at home this season and this will be the biggest week of the season in the Knapp Center as they host the two teams tied at the top of the Missouri Valley Conference standings. It begins on on Wednesday night with a game against 15th ranked Creighton.

The Blue Jays won the first matchup in convincing fashion and Drake coach Mark Phelps says the Bulldogs will need a better start this time. Phelps says you can’t afford a bad start against “one of the most prolific offensive teams in the country.” He says you have to consistently score to keep up with Creighton, because they will score no matter how well you play defense.

Creighton sophomore Doug McDermott is third in the country in scoring at just over 23 points per game and he leads a Blue Jay that Phelps says is difficult to guard. Phelps says they have to try and limit the things Creighton tries to do and says they have a lot of options beyond McDermott.

The top scoring duo of Ben Simons and Rayvonte Rice struggled in a Sunday night loss at U.N.I. and Phelps says they will need a big effort against Creighton. He says they didn’t play well against the Panthers, but he believes in them and says they will have more better games than not.

Creighton coach Greg McDermott says the Bulldogs are a better team than the first time they played. “This is a dangerous team, a very talented team, there’s a reason they are tied for third in the league,” McDermott says.

McDermott expects a much tough test this time as he says it will be more difficult to get off to the 11-0 start on the road than it was at home.

Creighton is 18-2 overall. Drake is 12-8.

For the third time in their last four games, the U.N.I. basketball team let a second half lead slip away in their loss to conference co-leader Wichita State at the McLeod Center last night. The Panthers led for much of the second half, but the Shockers closed the game on a 12-4 run to claim a 71-68 victory.

Wichita State switched to a zone defense late in the game, but Shockers coach Gregg Marshall says that was based more on necessity than strategy. He says for awhile they couldn’t guard the Panthers and couldn’t keep them off the foul line or out of the paint.

The Panthers fall to 3-5 in the conference with the loss. U.N.I. coach Ben Jacobson says he’s still happy with the way his team is playing, but they just aren’t getting the one or two plays to get over the hump. “We make two plays go our way in maybe all five of our leagues losses right now, make two plays go our way in the last 90 seconds and our record looks a lot different,” Jacobsen says.

Jacobson says if the Panthers continue to play hard, those difference-making plays will take care of themselves eventually. He says other than 15 minutes at Bradley, they have played good basketball and the key is to move on to the next game and “play your tail off” and things will start going your way.

U.N.I. forward Seth Tuttle went 6-6 from the field to lead the Panthers with 15 points. He says that coming so close to beating the top teams in the conference and missing is frustrating. “It’s encouraging to know that we’re right there, we are doing exactly what we need to do, we just need to finish at the end,” Tuttle said.

U.N.I. starts their second turn through the conference on Sunday when they host Drake. The Panthers beat the Bulldogs 83-68 in Des Moines two weeks ago.

By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls