Lohaus continues his championship streak at UNI

CEDAR FALLS - It may have been four seasons between trips up a ladder for Northern Iowa to cut nets down and celebrate a Missouri Valley Conference championship, but for one Panther, this was the fourth year in a row he did

get to cut down the nets.

OK, so maybe former Iowa City West and current UNI guard Wyatt Lohaus didn't actually get to physically cut down the nets at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines after the Trojans' last three titles from 2012-14, but you get the idea. Lohaus continued his championship streak on Sunday when the No. 10/11 Panthers beat Illinois State, 69-60, via a furious comeback to claim an MVC Tournament title.

And for the Coralville native, the feelings were actually pretty similar.

'There were a lot of similarities actually,” Lohaus said. 'We had to win three games in both of them to win the tournament, plus the fact that those three games happened in a short span of days.

'I talked about it a little bit with my mom, actually, during the weekend, about how playing in Scottrade Center was similar to playing in Wells Fargo and all that.”

The UNI freshman, of course, isn't the only Trojan on the Panther roster, just the one who's got a four-year streak of championships going. Former teammate and Gazette Athlete of the Year Jeremy Morgan has championships in three of the last four years, winning state titles at West in 2012 and 2013.

Lohaus said he and Morgan didn't talk specifically about getting to share another championship, but said it almost certainly crossed their minds while they were celebrating in St. Louis.

The biggest difference in the two experiences, he said, was in the obvious step up in competitiveness and caliber of athletes. As Wichita State found out against the Redbirds, an off night can send you home at Arch Madness. With the caliber of players the Trojans have had during their run, an off night hasn't always mattered.

'I think obviously the competition was a lot better because you're going against Division I players, where in high school you might play a team with only one Division I player. There's a lot more competition and a lot more balance,” Lohaus said. 'On any given night, a team at the MVC Tournament can beat you, whereas a lot of games in the high school state tournament, we wouldn't have to play a perfect game to win. We could beat teams without playing real well, or at least playing our best.”

Having won so much and so consistently in the last few years, the feeling of being on one of the teams favored to win has become commonplace for Lohaus, too.

But his last run to a title at West and the aforementioned knowledge of the upsets that can happen in March had he and the Panthers armed with a prove-yourself mentality.

'Us and Wichita State were probably the two favorites going into the MVC Tournament, if you asked most people, and that's something we had in high school as well. In that way it's similar,” Lohaus said. 'My senior year (at Iowa City West) I don't think a lot of people picked us and we were kind of underdogs the whole way in that.

'And I didn't feel like we were the clear-cut favorites or anything like that (against Illinois State). I thought we had to come in and play well and prove ourselves. There's similarities (to high school), but it's different too because we weren't the clear-cut favorite in the MVC Tournament.”

REST AND RECUPERATE

Fresh off bringing that trophy back to Cedar Falls, the Panthers will get a little time to both enjoy the MVC tournament crown and recharge their proverbial batteries.

With a possible 12-day layoff between games - depending on if they play either March 19 or 20 in their 2nd-round NCAA Tournament opener - there's time early this week for UNI to take some time off. Coach Ben Jacobson likes the idea of being able to get rest fresh off three games in three days in St. Louis.

'We'll take a couple days off, let them get away from each other a little bit,” Jacobson said after the Panthers' win Sunday. 'I would say probably two days off. And then get back in the gym this week. This week just do some things. We'll be in the weight room and do a little conditioning.”

The lighter load this week serves to give the guys a break and get back to 100 percent health-wise.

The Panthers have been lucky in the health department this season, with no major injuries and strictly-precautionary walking boots for Jeremy Morgan and Seth Tuttle in the early weeks of the season. With so much time, it made sense to Jacobson and his staff to wait for next week to return to the regular routine.

And the few days off also will give Jacobson time to recuperate himself. He missed his weekly media luncheon Monday after battling illness behind the scenes throughout the MVC Tournament.

'We won't do a lot of our take a charge drills, rebounding drills, a lot of the hard ones this week. This is a good week to let the guys get healed up just a little bit and mentally get freshened up just a little bit,” Jacobson said. 'As we get toward the end of the week, we'll start to go a little harder again, and then we'll see what comes our way on Sunday and then have our normal practices next week.”

SELECTION SUNDAY INFO

UNI is headed to its first NCAA Tournament since 2010, and the Panthers find out what seed they'll be when the Selection Sunday special airs on CBS at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Associate Director of Athletics Steve Schofield sent out a tweet Monday saying there will be a watch party for the team and fans at Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center on University Ave. in Cedar Falls. Admission is free and doors open to the public at 4:30 p.m.

As of Monday, in the major bracket predictions, ESPN's Joe Lunardi had UNI a 4-seed playing in Seattle against UC Davis, and CBS' Jerry Palm had UNI a 5-seed playing in Jacksonville against Wofford.

BACK IN THE TOP 10

The Panthers returned to No. 10 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, released Monday. The ranking matches the highest poll ranking in program history, which UNI reached two weeks ago in both the AP and USA Today Coaches polls.

UNI came in at No. 11 in Monday's Coaches poll.

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