Notebook: UNI forward Tuttle named MVC Player of the Week

CEDAR FALLS - The Northern Iowa men's basketball team is off to its best start since 1963-64 at 7-0, and a heap of the credit for that can go to the Panthers' leader and best player.

Forward Seth Tuttle garnered most of the attention headed into the season - rightfully so - and has backed that up through the first seven games, averaging 16.4 points and 6.7 rebounds. His performances in the past week against Virginia Tech, Northwestern (in Cancun) and Richmond garnered him the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week after he averaged 15.4 points and 6.0 rebounds.

His impact and experience helped guide the Panthers through a trying stretch with more games than practices.

'What Seth is doing right now for our basketball team, you see it right now on the floor during the game, but from a preparation standpoint, he has been just terrific in terms of making sure we're doing the right things,” said Coach Ben Jacobson. 'When you play that many that fast, obviously your practice time is very limited. Having an experienced team, I think, helped us the last two weeks.”

Tuttle shot 55.2 percent from the field and 75 percent from the free throw line in the last three games, two of which sealed the Panthers' Cancun Challenge championship. Tuttle was named the tournament's MVP before earning his fourth MVC POW award.

The senior has scored in double figures in all seven games this season, and has scored in double figures in 24 consecutive games.

ROOM TO IMPROVE

As happy as Jacobson was with the defensive effort against Richmond - the coach repeatedly called in their best of the year - he saw much more to be desired in rebounding.

Those two areas were what he hammered home most before the season and in between games so far. So while in one breath he praised the defense, his next called for much improvement on the glass.

'Our defense is much improved, it's a very different defense than it was a year ago, but there's still room for improvement. We can still do things better defensively, and rebounding has to take another step,” Jacobson said. 'We've out-rebounded either five or six of the seven opponents, but it's been by one, two or three. We need to make some strides in terms of our rebounding. That has to improve. We've got a good offensive team, and we're good in transition. To limit ourselves because we don't rebound well enough defensively, we're hurting ourselves on both sides.”

The Panthers have averaged 32.9 rebounds per game as a team, a plus-3.4 advantage against opponents. No UNI players are in double-digits in rebounds per game. Marvin Singleton leads the team at 7.3, followed by Tuttle at 6.7 and Paul Jesperson at 3.3.

CLOSE, BUT NOT QUITE

With back-to-back wins against power conference schools in Cancun - the only time that's happened in school history - plus the Richmond victory, there was a decent chance the Panthers would enter this week in the AP or Coaches' Poll.

UNI totaled 83 points in the AP Top 25, just five points behind No. 25 Utah's 88, leaving them 26th. The Panthers came in 30th in the Coaches' Poll with 33 points, 24 behind No. 25 Illinois.

Just before the polls were released, Jacobson said he hoped they'd be ranked because of the amount of work his team had done to accomplish as much as they have early in the season.

UP NEXT

Northern Iowa has all week to prepare for upcoming opponent George Mason, which comes to the McLeod Center on Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Panthers fell to the Patriots on the road last season, 76-70. Jacobson said at the weekly media luncheon he hadn't yet had a chance to scout George Mason, but that recent history lends itself to knowing Saturday night won't be a breeze.

'Obviously we played George Mason some recently. They beat us at their place last year. They've got a handful of those guys back,” Jacobson said. 'They always play the right way, if you will. They play hard, they run good stuff. I anticipate it being another hard game.”

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