NORTHERN IOWA @ SMC

[Trapped in CA]

I was sitting behind the UNI bench most of the game - they were gassed. SMC is, I think a better team than last year, though they are still sorting out their rotation. UNI's newer players are still adjusting to the speed of the college game. Unless something strange happens, they are 1-2 years away from being back as a legitimate contender in the MVC.

UNI has no post players, and it shows. You have Jake Koch, Chip Rank & Singleton playing on the blocks to make up for the lack of post players. Jake Koch is not a post player, and does not want to be a post player. Sooner Pehl is back, the better. That will allow Koch to spend 4-8 more minutes per game closer to the arc (until Pehl fouls out).

[Wufan]

Only saw the second half and the on ball defense was good. I saw ST Mary's go 2-8 from 3 on the wing in the second half with rediculously wide open looks. Drive and kick is an easy shot. AJ looked like a really bad version of DWill. At least he didn't look slow like the rest of the Panthers. One game early in the season with a tough time slot. My take away is that under those circumstances UNI is God awful. Hard to imagine they won't be better later in the season.

[strike00]

we'll see how much the time and travel thing affected them last night by how they play the next couple of weeks. I'm happy with the defense for most of the game. Definite lapse for a portion of the second half when they allowed open threes. Some of that might have been high risk, desperation defense to try and make something happen. UNI holding traditionally high scoring teams in the first two games to under 60 each is a good sign on that end. Something has to be figured out on offense though. Two games and 48 hours into the season, I'm not going to panic just yet.

[2livewu]

Thank God I don't have to watch that team all year. Painful doesn't even begin to describe how the Panthers have to play to be competitive.

Even when they win, it will be painful.

But they will never win against D1 competition when James doesn't score. They just don't have enough tools. Someone said UNI is a year or 2 away from being a legitimate contender in the Valley. That's true only if the Panthers get some new talent, or several other teams lose most of theirs.

Jacobson is a fantastic coach....but he's not that good. That the Panthers will still probably win more than they will lose is a testimony to how good a coach he is...but it doesn't change 2 facts. This is a team that doesn't have much athleticism or talent and very limited ways to score, and that's unlikely to change dramatically in the foreseeable future.

[strike00]

Disagree. UNI has two true freshmen starting, another playing a lot of minutes off the bench and a redshirt freshman playing a lot of minutes. That is a very young team who will have their struggles, especially early on. Deon Mitchell and Marvin Singleton are two freshman who are very athletic, just timid right now. UNI has more athleticism on this team than really any of the NCAA teams. A couple more are redshirting this year. How about we give the freshmen a few games before we write them off for their entire career?

You probably weren't around on Valleytalk when Doggystyle had a lot of the same complaints about UNI's sweet 16 team. Every UNI team the last half dozen years or so, no matter how good, have had games that left people scratching their heads. UNI laying an egg, especially early on is nothing new.

[FearDaTrees]

41 pts? Sad

[unipanther99]

Well, I couldn't stay awake for that. Hopefully the team can just put it behind them and move on. 3 months from now, nobody will care about how ugly it was. Starting this year off 1-1 isn't too bad considering how young the team is and how brutal the travel was.

[AndShock]

41 pts? Sad

41 points was an accomplishment. I turned it on the second half and didn't think they were gonna break 30.

[UNIFanSince1983]

And nothing has changed on this site.

It is not like we lost to a D2 team. St. Mary's is going to be good this year. That doesn't excuse the way we played, and I am just as embarrassed as anyone. But now everyone is jumping to conclusions about this team after 1 game. I guess I shouldn't have expected anything less coming on this site.

[uniftw]

2 games into the 2011-2012 season and people are writting UNI off for years to come? Doubting how good Coach Jake is? Really?

This UNI team will struggle, not one UNI fan has said they won't. The upside of this team (maybe not this year but in a year or two) is extremely high. This team is starting 2 true freshman, and playing a third....with two fFr seeing PT (and 3 more redshirting). There is one senior on this team.

As far as not being athletic....meh, we've heard that for years and still managed 5 or 6 NCAA appearances and a S16 in 8 or 9 years....including back to back conference regular season titles, back to back tourney titles, and another tourney title in that time frame. Most that know anything about this team would argue there is more athleticism on this team than any in school history.


Wushock doesn't think travel played a part of being fatigued?

Flying from Cedar Falls (probably Cedar Rapids, but still) to Norfolk, VA (about 1,100 miles) on Friday, playing a game Saturday night, flying from Norfolk, VA to Moraga, CA (SF/OAK bay area, about 2,500 miles) on Sunday morning/afternoon, playing 2 games in 2 different time zones (4 hours apart in time) in 3 days, and the second game starting at 1AM central (the time zones their bodies are accustomed too).

That type of travel in that short time would be hell for someone not playing college basketball games....

Had one of the games been at home I could understand people going "This team sucks" after that performance, but given the situation with travel and what not I'll take it. I'm not happy with last nights performance but am not giving up.