No matter the style, UNI defense effective

CEDAR FALLS - The Northern Iowa men's basketball team reached its highest ranking in the Associated Press poll in school history Monday at No. 18, and it's gotten there primarily on its defense.

Before Sunday, though, it was on a man-to-man defense that was in the top 10 in points allowed per game - fully transformed from a woebegone season in 2013-14. But in the come-from-behind, 54-53 win at Illinois State, Coach Ben Jacobson threw out a monkey-wrench that had the Redbirds baffled in the form of a 3-2 zone.

It was the first time all season the Panthers (18-2, 7-1 Missouri Valley Conference) put it on the court, and led by guard Jeremy Morgan, it was the catalyst for victory.

'I just felt like we needed to do something,” Jacobson said at Monday's media luncheon. 'The guys played it as well as they could've considering the amount of time we had devoted to it, considering we hadn't played it in a game yet. They executed really well.”

With 10:48 to go, UNI trailed, 46-34 after an Illinois State layup. The Panthers answered with a 3-pointer from Nate Buss to cut the lead to 46-37 and allowed Jacobson to call timeout immediately with 10:34 to go.

It was in that timeout Jacobson decided to put in the zone.

From that point on, the new defense forced four turnovers - the Redbirds had just five in the previous 29:26 of game time - two of which came via steals from Morgan in two out of the first three possessions running the defense. The one in those first three he didn't get a steal, he nearly got one, but couldn't corral the ball before it went out of bounds.

The effort he put forth left Jacobson impressed, because his aggressiveness wasn't part of how the staff taught the defense. Morgan's ad-lib worked out, and Jacobson loved that he did it.

'He did some of that on his own. Even as we had practiced it, it isn't like we had him stretching out and getting deflections,” Jacobson said. 'He kind of just got going and was doing a lot of that on his own - in some ways, maybe kind of discovered some things that could help us, and I think that's important. I talked to the guys a lot the last 10 days to two weeks about making improvements, and part of that is being able to do some different things.”

Obviously the element of surprise played a significant factor in the effectiveness against Illinois State.

Jacobson said on Monday morning's Missouri Valley Conference coaches conference call that there was no way anyone could've predicted the Panthers would switch to a zone because it hadn't been run at all to that point in the season in a game.

Going forward, though, he doesn't expect it to catch anyone off guard so much with tape to watch.

'They'll have to spend some prep time on it, I'd imagine, so they're prepared for it,” Jacobson said of future opponents. 'There was no reason for Dan (Muller, Illinois State Coach) to have spent a lot of time preparing for it - we hadn't played it. Now going forward, teams will spend a little time, they'll get ready for it, they'll attack it with some reps in practice. It's going to be harder for that zone to be as effective as it was last night, simply because last night we hadn't played it prior to that.”

Between that fact and Jacobson's intense desire to make man-to-man defense and rebounding UNI's calling card, there should be no worry the Panthers are going to become a zone-first defense.

'For me, we need to continue to focus on our man-to-man defense and our rebounding. Our guys have to take so much pride in what we're doing in those two things,” Jacobson said. 'And the only way to do that is to spend time at it in practice so they know it's the most important thing in terms of what I feel for this team to be able to get better.”

JACOBSON MUM ON WICHITA STATE

Every coach in every sport across the country has, at one time or another, given the 'one game at a time” refrain any time they're asked about games left on their schedule.

That was no different Monday, as Ben Jacobson readies his team for a week that ends with a game against No. 12 Wichita State on Saturday in Cedar Falls. Jacobson was asked about it both on the weekly Missouri Valley Conference coaches conference call and at his weekly media luncheon, and he lightly deflected both times.

He had a little fun with UNI play-by-play announcer Gary Rima at the luncheon, who asked the question and prompted a wry smile.

'You're going to have to do a good job as the fan liaison in sending the message to our fans that we've got a game Wednesday at 7 (p.m.),” said Jacobson to laughter.

Earlier Monday morning in the conference call, Jacobson was asked how he's planning on avoiding the distraction of having the game Saturday with Wednesday's game against Southern Illinois in between.

'We won't do anything different than what we've done the entire season, and that's get ready,” Jacobson said. 'Today is an important preparation day, tomorrow's an important preparation day and we've got to do everything we can to go to Southern (Illinois) as prepared as we can possibly be. That's the way we've done it all year long, and that isn't going to change this week.”

TUTTLE MVC PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Northern Iowa forward Seth Tuttle earned his second Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week award on Monday after a week in which he averaged 18.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

The Sheffield native leads the Panthers in all three of those categories through their 20 games this season, and leads the MVC (in MVC games only) in scoring (17.1 points) and field goal percentage (59.5 percent).

Tuttle got his 19th career double-double in Sunday's 54-53 win at Illinois State, and also became the fifth MVC player in the last 20 years to reach 1,500 points and 800 rebounds in his career. He joined Doug McDermott (Creighton), Kyle Weems (Missouri State), Jackie Carmichael (Illinois State) and Eric Coleman (UNI).

UP NEXT

The Panthers stay on the road - and in Illinois - after their win at Illinois State, heading to Carbondale, Ill. to play Southern Illinois on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

UNI beat SIU, 55-39, on Jan. 7.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com