Ex-Iowa basketball player Brennan Cougill is doing a nice job for Kirkwood

I'm told Northern Iowa men's basketball coach Ben Jacobson attended Wednesday night's Kirkwood-Iowa Central junior college game in Fort Dodge.

Was the reason Brennan Cougill, former University of Iowa player? Probably.

Cougill, a sophomore had 18 points in Kirkwood's 69-50 win over Iowa Central. He is the Eagles' leading scorer (14.2 points per game) and rebounds (8.8), and averages about 30 minutes per game.

He is 6-foot-9 and 260 pounds. Maybe he could fill a big-man void at UNI or some other Midwestern D-I school next season. South Dakota State had an assistant coach at Wednesday's game.

Cougill played in 31 games for Iowa last season. He had 12 points and 10 rebounds against Iowa State. He was ruled academically ineligible at Iowa last June and went to Kirkwood. He was the state's prep "Mr. Basketball" in 2009 at Sioux City Heelan.

"Cougill is a tough player to defend," Iowa Central Coach Dennis Pilcher said in this Fort Dodge Messenger story, "and once he gets the ball in his hands, it's nearly impossible.

"The problem was we failed to keep him from getting ahold of it."

Kirkwood is 21-4 with six straight wins.