What do you think about the UNI men's basketball team?

First, I'll tell you what I think. That seems to be how it goes here. But you get the last word (as long as it's civil), so that's better.

I think Northern Iowa basketball is a good story. Winning the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title (again), returning to the NCAA tournament in all likelihood ... good stuff. Valley Player of the Year Adam Koch? Good story. Ali Farokhmanesh? Good story. Valley Sixth Man of the Year Lucas O'Rear? Good story.

But, I don't do so well traffic-wise when I write about UNI. That's not going to stop me from going to St. Louis this week for the Missouri Valley Conference tournament to cover the Panthers. A good story is a good story. What I'd like to know is, how interested are you in this UNI team, and why. Here's a chance for Panther fans to stand up and announce what it is you like best about this squad. For others, say why you've gravitated to this team or why it doesn't interest you. It would be interesting to see what non-Panther people say a couple weeks from now if the Panthers won a game or two in the NCAA tournament. In the interim, it would behoove UNI to win two or three games in St. Louis. They seem to be slotted as a No. 8 NCAA seed by the seed-spitting sages in various publications. A No. 8 seed is no ticket to the Sweet 16, not with a No. 1 staring you in the face in Round 2 if you do win the coin-flip game against the ninth seed. If the Panthers won their second-straight Valley tournament, that's a 28-4 record and a lift above the 8/9 matchup, maybe all the way to a 6/11. That would work.