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