Morgan's maturation helping guide UNI basketball

CEDAR FALLS — Jeremy Morgan isn't the player he used to be.

The former Iowa City West standout and Gazette Athlete of the Year was far from assertive in his early days at Northern Iowa. His talent was never a question. The way he handled adversity, took criticism and responded to it was.

But as his junior year hits its stride, there's a noticeable difference in how Morgan carries himself.

He's become the player Coach Ben Jacobson hoped he would.

'I was expecting him to be a very different guy than what we saw at the beginning of last year, and we've seen that. As good as I felt about him (before the season), he's maybe even a notch ahead of that,' Jacobson said Monday. 'I just love how confident he is right now. I know he feels good about how he's prepared himself and obviously he feels good about how he's playing. He's just grown as a young man.

'We see it in his game, but he's starting to grow up. He's got a better toughness about him, he's got more confidence about him, his leadership is better and he's playing great.'

As a freshman, and then to begin the season as a sophomore, Morgan — and many others on the team — didn't handle Jacobson's corrections well. He would hang his head and shrink from criticism.

There's a maturation process that has to happen in his players that Jacobson can't do by hand-holding. There are few specific conversations. He hasn't changed the way he coaches, and players either figure it out or they don't. When they discover those lessons are for their own good, it clicks quickly.

'When I was younger and he got on me, I'd take it a little bit more personally — just being young and not really being used to having him yell at you,' Morgan said. 'Now, being here a few years, when he yells at you, you know he's only trying to help you out and help the team out. I've definitely grown in that aspect.

'A lot of those things he used to yell at me for, those stupid mistakes, when the young guys make those same mistakes, I actually want to go over there and help them out and teach them.'

His teammates see that, and can because they went through it, too.

'We figured out, '(Jacobson)'s not yelling at us, he's telling us this is the way it needs to be done or it's going to turn out bad,'' said Matt Bohannon. 'J, for example, he did a 180 degree turn. He understood he's a good player and Coach isn't getting mad just to get mad. He took it and will play harder or play faster. It's something he's really shown.'

There were specific moments that have led to where Morgan is now.

Most publicly, anyway, was when Jacobson benched Morgan in the second half of an early-season game last year against North Dakota. Jacobson said at the time, the then-sophomore's head wasn't in the game.

Morgan got the message.

'Early last year I sat him for the second half of the North Dakota game. We talked about that in the spring (after the 2014-15 season) so he knew exactly why, what my thoughts were. He knows,' Jacobson said. 'The last month and a half, two months (of '14-15), he was locked in and determined. He was doing everything he's well-capable of doing. But for a year and early on last year, his discipline and being focused came and went a little bit. He needed to change that, and he has.'

Through three games in 2015-16, there's no doubting that.

He's averaging 14.7 points per game, 4.7 rebounds and 2 steals per game. He also only has two turnovers all season, and is shooting 60 percent from the field. His court presence commands respect from his teammates — older and younger. He carries himself like a player who is supremely confident in his talent.

Morgan is the defensive leader, and has made a habit of making big plays at big moments. His was the death nail in the coffin for then-No. 1 North Carolina, when he intercepted a cross-court pass from the Tar Heels' Joel Berry with less than 20 seconds to go.

It was Morgan who had the ball in his hands when the buzzer sounded, and Morgan who launched it high into the rafters in celebration.

'He certainly gained an understanding that he's good enough to excel at this level. I think he feels the best about that right now than at any point in his playing career,' Jacobson said. 'He's extremely confident in who he is. That's a different feeling than when you're 18 and figuring everything out off the floor and on the floor.

'Now so many of those things are in order and in place; he's got confidence in what he's doing on the floor and off the floor. That's the biggest thing. You get yourself more prepared for it and then you don't make as many mistakes, so coach doesn't get on you as much. It's pretty simple, right?'

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