Personal ties make UNI 'more of a rivalry' for Iowa

IOWA CITY — It's an interesting thing, the lens through which college basketball players see the game.

Yeah, there are the time-honored 'every game is the same' and 'take things one game at a time' clichés, but these also are 19-22 year-old young men. They're on social media; they aren't robots. Who an opponent is matters.

When it comes to Saturday's game against Northern Iowa, it matters to the Iowa men's basketball team because, collectively, 17 of the 30 players are from Iowa. More than that, almost all of those 17 have played with or against each other at some point since middle school.

Familiarity like that is why multiple Hawkeye players said Wednesday they see UNI as more of a personal rival than even Iowa State. The Cy-Hawk Series is the state's rivalry, yeah. But Hawkeyes-Panthers is for the players.

'There's more of a rivalry between us and them than us and Iowa State because they have more in-state players,' Iowa senior Peter Jok said. 'We grew up playing against them. A lot of guys are looking forward to it. There's probably going to be a lot of trash talk. We're looking forward to that.'

There's the Mississippi Valley Conference connection that ties Jeremy Morgan, Wyatt and Tanner Lohaus, Luke McDonnell, Adam McDermott (redshirting) and Lincoln Conrey to Jordan Bohannon, Cordell Pemsl and Riley Till. Then there's the AAU connection, which ties everyone from the state to each other, but also throws in UNI freshman Juwan McCloud, a Wisconsin native who played against all the Iowa guys in AAU.

What will be the marquee matchup of the night, Morgan vs. Peter Jok, goes back to seventh grade — a friendship that formed out of love of the game and grew out of respect.

And if there's not a connection from before college hoops, all the Iowa and UNI players compete with and against each other in the Prime Time League each summer.

It's typical for an in-state game to carry some weight on a macro scale. That's true when Iowa and Iowa State face off. This one is micro.

'Iowa State is always going to be our main rivals, but this year especially, they don't have in-state players,' Jok said. 'It was a big game for the state of Iowa and the fans, but as in-state players, UNI has more and so do we. That's why I feel like it's more of a rivalry and guys are looking forward to it.'

Coach Fran McCaffery doesn't care much about it. To be clearer, it seems wholly irrelevant to the task at hand.

When asked about UNI being a rivalry and his players' views on it, McCaffery used 10 words in response.

'I look at them equally,' McCaffery said. 'We don't even address it.'

Pemsl joined his coach in trying to dismiss the amount of impact the rivalry factor has, saying Wednesday, 'I don't want myself thinking too much about that and getting away from what I want to do on the floor.'

McCaffery and his staff are more concerned with Morgan, McCloud, Haldeman, Lohaus, Klint Carlson, Bennett Koch and Co.

He's more concerned about Morgan dropping 38 points in a half again. Morgan told The Gazette on Wednesday that comments from Iowa players on the rivalry and McCaffery on the matchup, 'lets you know they're not taking the game lightly. That's good. It means they're going to be ready to play.'

The Ben Jacobson-led group plays the same style pack-line defense the Hawkeyes saw against Virginia and Iowa State, which Iowa had varying degrees of success against. More importantly, the Panthers have been in that system for a while, and have the concepts down.

So pardon McCaffery if he doesn't have time for rivalry talk.

'It's almost America's defense now. So people are going to be in the gaps, that's where they're going to be, and explode out and take 3-point shooters. You've got to move the ball and be intelligent with your screening, posting, and transition,' McCaffery said. 'They do it well. … Certain teams do it better than others. We played one (in) Virginia. They do it. UNI does it as well as they do, in my opinion.'

Whether Iowa sees UNI as a rival or not won't be the deciding factor in Saturday's game. Teams plan and practice based on what they expect them to run; certainly not solely knowing tendencies of individuals.

But sports have never been just about the game, and college basketball — for myriad reasons — has a current of emotion running through its center in part because of the way players interact.

Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena, that emotion and those connections will serve to simply add another interesting layer to a matchup that will test two teams in several ways.

'They'll probably throw some jabs at me for going to Iowa and my brother (Matt) going to UNI, but it's all in good fun,' Bohannon said. 'It's going to add another level to the game; it'll make it a lot of fun, just because we've played them so many times.

'They've done a good job of getting Iowa kids on that team, and they all play well together. … It's cool knowing all these Iowa kids are on the floor representing this state.'

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