UNI men’s basketball focusing on positives while awaiting NIT bracket

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa men’s basketball players and coaches are sorting through their emotions as postseason basketball looms, but Coach Ben Jacobson is focused on the positives.

The Panthers, who fell 66-43 to Loyola-Chicago in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament semifinals last Saturday, wrapped up their regular season winning 15 of their last 19 games. They won a tightly-contested MVC regular season championship while averaging an MVC-best 75.3 points per game.

“For me, it’s all about the good stuff. That January, February (run) and those two games down (in St. Louis) these guys have just played great basketball,” Jacobson said. “The confidence grew. The trust grew. All the things that matter, kept getting better and better and better.

“It stings that we did not beat Loyola on Saturday. No question. (But) they’re well aware of what we created and accomplished over the last two months. So, that’s where we’re at and that’s where we’re going to be. So now it’s time to get on to the next good thing and that’s getting ready for the NIT.”

UNI won’t know its next opponent until the NIT selection show on Sunday (6:30 p.m./ESPNU) and Jacobson acknowledged a slow start to the season amid injuries ultimately cost the Panthers a shot at an NCAA tournament at-large bid.

Close losses in November and December to Nicholls State, Vermont, Richmond, Liberty and Wyoming were necessary wins to manufacture a resume that stood a chance with the tournament selection committee.

“Take this year as an example for our team, the schedule ended up being perfect,” Jacobson said. “Nicholls I believe is already in (the tournament) or the favorite to win theirs. Vermont lost four or five games. I think Vermont is already in. St. Bonaventure, Arkansas, Richmond, so the schedule ended up being perfect. We just needed to win some of them. That to me is more the deal. Can you get the right schedule put together in November and December? Which is getting more (difficult).”

Continuing to build schedules like this season’s will be critical moving forward, and also should be a little less difficult as UNI and its MVC peers stand to benefit from the additions of Murray State, Belmont and Illinois-Chicago.

Murray State (30-2, 18-0) already has punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament, winning the Ohio Valley Conference tournament Saturday. Belmont (25-7, 15-3), meanwhile, finished second in the OVC and is likely headed to the NIT with the Panthers.

Looking toward next year’s 12-team MVC, thoughts are the three new programs could catapult the conference back toward being an annual two-bid league that on occasion could get three in the NCAA Tournament.

“Now you take Loyola out of the mix, but with what Belmont and Murray have done for a long time now, that’s how you get the second team or the third team or the fourth team into the NCAA tournament is more teams that have the strong numbers,” Jacobson said. “Whether they’re NET, KenPom, RPI (or) the other ones people talk about.”

When it comes to preparing for the NIT, there’s little experience to lean on. UNI’s only appearance in the 32-team postseason tournament was in 2012 when it defeated Saint Joseph’s in round one before losing to Drexel in the second round. Both of those games were on the road and Jacobson said it’s likely they’ll once again have to be road warriors.

“I think we’ll be just on the outside of (hosting),” Jacobson said. “Just looking at the teams, I think those top-four seeds are going to get filled in before we get there. It just looks like we’ll be a six (seed), maybe a five, maybe a seven I suppose.”