Fun Facts: UNI-Iowa

It's the Big Four Classic. You need one thing to be a 'Classic.” That's someone to call it a classic.

That doesn't necessarily make it so, but it's up to you as independent thinkers to see through some of the nonsense. The rest of it is too much for people of average intelligence to comprehend.

On with the Northern Iowa-Iowa Fun Facts:

1. The Panthers and Hawkeyes have split their last 12 meetings.

2. Three of the teams in today's Big Four Classic are among the NCAA's top 16 in free throw-shooting. Iowa State is third at 77.5 percent. Drake is 14th at 76.3 percent, Iowa 16th at 76.0. Northern Iowa is 101st at 71.5, which is still among the top one-third in the nation.

3. Of all the players in Division I basketball who have averaged at least one 3-point try per game, UNI's Wes Washpun leads the nation at 80 percent (8-of-10).

4. Iowa's Mike Gesell's career-high is 23 points. That was against UNI in the 2012 Big Four Classic.

5. Northern Iowa has played four teams from Virginia - Richmond, Virginia Tech, George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth.

6. Nine players from the Mississippi Valley Conference are on these two teams. Iowa has Josh Oglesby (Cedar Rapids Washington), Okey Ukah (Iowa City West) and Jarrod Uthoff (Cedar Rapids Jefferson). UNI has Matt Bohannon (Linn-Mar), Wyatt Lohaus (Iowa City West), Max Martino (Cedar Rapids Kennedy), Jeremy Morgan (Iowa City West), Taylor Olson (Jefferson) and Washpun (Washington).

7. UNI is well on its way to its 12th-consecutive winning season. It hasn't had a losing record in the Missouri Valley Conference since 2003.

8. UNI's all-time leader in 3-point baskets is Ben Jacobson, with 203. The Panthers' basketball coach is Ben Jacobson. They are two different people.

9. Wayne Randazzo will do the play-by-play for Big Ten Network's telecast of this game. He does baseball play-by-play for the Kane County Cougars.

10. Center Point is 48 miles from Cedar Falls, 45 miles from Iowa City. Which makes its name sort of appropriate, no? Center Point is the home of Frostpark Skatepark.