Hlas: UNI Panthers too good not to snip nets

ST. LOUIS - Their postgame body language said 'confident champions,” not 'guys drenched in flop sweat who had to crawl out of a deep hole to avoid an upset loss in the Missouri Valley Conference title game.”

You don't do what Northern Iowa has done this season in men's basketball and not get a championship of some sort. Life is full of injustices, but teams that bring 29-3 records to their league's tournament final usually get at least one set of title T-shirts and banners out of the deal.

Down 33-15 late in the first half and 36-22 at halftime to an Illinois State team full of vinegar from a win over 8th-ranked Wichita State the day before, UNI played the second half like it was, well, UNI.

The Panthers overwhelmed the Redbirds 47-22 in the second half, and won 69-60 in a display of what they've been about this season. They've been about tightening the defensive screws, about getting 3-pointers from a variety of shooters, and about being happy to take the offense through Seth Tuttle to bend opponents' wills.

OK, it wasn't the typical UNI brand of jumping on a foe early and staying on it. But that wouldn't have had any dramatic value for the CBS audience.

It was halftime, and all the bracketology bozos from Bangor to Burbank were all atwitter the MVC could get a third NCAA tourney team in Illinois State and increase the nervousness for all the power conferences' bubble teams.

Meanwhile in the Panthers' Scottrade Center dressing room, it was business as usual for UNI Coach Ben Jacobson

'He was calm,” said Tuttle, the MVC's Player of the Year and its tournament's Most Outstanding Player. 'He told us at halftime ‘Guys, I still think it's our game. I still think those nets hanging up there are ours.'

'He believes that. He was the reason we all believed it.”

An hour later, the Panthers were wearing those T-shirts, holding those banners, snipping those nets.

UNI didn't get a regular-season championship because it lost the deciding league game at Wichita State eight days earlier. But at this neutral-site tourney, the Shockers fell by the wayside while the Panthers dug in their heels and dug out a title trophy.

UNI is 30-3. Who knows what kind of draw it will get in the NCAAs next Sunday or what kind of bounces the ball may take in the big tournament? Forget that for a moment, and dwell on 30-3. Jacobson said he would.

'I've enjoyed this for four months tremendously,” he said.

Jacobson is stone-faced on the sideline, but he knows if you can't enjoy and appreciate a 30-3 ride, it's time to hop off. Because seasons like this are rare for almost everyone.

Not to go all provincial, but … Tuttle is from tiny Sheffield, Iowa. He is one of the 15 finalists for the John R. Wooden Award, for the nation's top player. He had 10 points and three assists in the second half. He is a treat to watch.

Nate Buss, an all-tournament selectee, is from Charles City. He scored 47 points over the three wins here. Matt Bohannon, who stuck a pair of 3-pointers in the second-half blitz, is from Linn-Mar High. Jeremy Morgan of Iowa City West was huge in the second half with three 3-pointers and a pair of steals. Wes Washpun of Cedar Rapids Washington was the point guard on the court as UNI snatched the lead with 13:33 left after trailing all game.

All arrived at UNI with talent, but also the right inside stuff that was needed after the Panthers had made only seven of their 30 shots in the first half. The shots weren't awful, they just didn't fall.

Good shooters keep taking good shots. Good shooters are made, not born.

'The most important thing and the best place that that can come from is putting time in every day,” Jacobson said.

'It's through hard work. That's the only way you get there.”

Bohannon and Morgan made nothing in the first half. Tuttle had been bottled about as well as a team bottles him. Jacobson told them the nets were still theirs. So they went back out and put a lot of shots through them.

'We've got a lot of guts and fight,” Tuttle said. 'Those things and the coaching staff having been there (to the NCAAs), I think we've got a special group this year.”

Sunday was special. So is this championship season.

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