UNI basketball team focusing on rebounding in offseason

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa men's basketball coach Ben Jacobson entered the 2016-17 season averaging 22 wins per season.

After the Panthers finished 14-16 last season, there was little doubt an offseason of hard work was ahead for a team that would look largely the same in 2017-18.

The Panthers had eight players see game action for the first time in their careers and a common theme throughout the struggles was an inability to be competitive rebounders. Winning the rebounding battle isn't a requirement for the Panthers to have success, but it's an issue the coaching staff has emphasized this offseason.

'It really started in the spring,' assistant coach Kyle Green said Tuesday, filling in for a vacationing Jacobson during a Missouri Valley Conference teleconference. '(We) always re-evaluate. What did we do well? What do we want to do better? And certainly (rebounding) was an area we needed to improve upon.'

While the Panthers have focused on particular individual and team rebounding drills, Green said more than anything the ability to compete for rebounds is a mind-set.

'Really it's a mentality, and we've talked a lot about it,' he said. 'We've started to do some workouts and in those workouts we've certainly emphasized rebounding. Individual rebounding. Team rebounding. So, beyond emphasizing it, talking about it and drilling it, those have been the keys as we've gone into the summer so far.'

LOHAUS UPDATE

Iowa City West alum Wyatt Lohaus enters the 2017-18 season as a junior after being granted a medical redshirt for the previous season which saw him miss 26 of 30 games with an ankle injury.

Lohaus was a full participant in this past Sunday's Prime Time League opener in North Liberty, scoring 18 points in his first organized action since the injury. Green said Lohaus has looked good in workouts and has been completely cleared for basketball activities for nearly three weeks.

'He's back at it,' Green said. 'It's been really fun to watch him. (He's) getting back to the old Wyatt. He's really looked good in our workouts.

'Physically and mentally you're really starting to see the old Wyatt and that's been fun and fun for his teammates to see him back. He's in the gym daily, which has (always) been his routine, it's what makes him a great player.'