What’s holding UNI men’s basketball back this season? ‘Right now it’s just not consistent enough’

CEDAR FALLS — With just five-regular season games left, not enough has changed recently for the Northern Iowa men’s basketball team.

After being picked second in the Missouri Valley Conference’s preseason poll, UNI’s peak moments continue to be more fleeting than anticipated this season.

Most recently, the Panthers’ failure to recapture their best basketball dealt them a loss at Illinois-Chicago (10-16, 3-12 MVC) last Sunday.

“I’m always looking for where have we played our best (and) why have we played our best,” UNI (14-12, 8-7) coach Ben Jacobson said. “What do we need to do to just get reorganized a little bit so that we can start playing our best again? Part of that is being able to spend either none or as little as possible of our energy on the outside stuff.”

Third-year assistant coach Seth Tuttle told The Gazette that the 71-65 loss to the Flames was yet another reminder of the team’s need to consistently play more physically.

“When we play with a great level of physicality, a great level of fight (and) a great level of determination we’ve proven that we can be one heck of a basketball team,” Tuttle said. “Right now it’s just not consistent enough and that’s what we’re working on. We haven’t quite had the season that we all expected, or wished upon, but the season is not done and we’re going to work our tails off to the very end.”

The Panthers’ physicality and determination that didn’t show up in Chicago did once they went farther east to Valparaiso on Wednesday night.

UNI’s 86-67 win against the last-place Beacons was its largest margin of victory against a conference opponent this season, and it happened without leading scorer Nate Heise (ankle).

“We had a spirit about us just as a team that we’ve been talking and working on throughout this year,” Tuttle said. “Coach (Jacobson) talked about it going into the game that we’re going to play everybody, be ready to rock and roll, make the most of your minutes and our guys, for the most part, did that.”

Landon Wolf made the most of his 33 minutes off the bench against Valpo, scoring 16 points. However, after averaging 24 minutes per game a season ago, Wolf is averaging just 13.1 minutes this season on a deeper roster.

Despite having fewer minutes to make an impact, Tuttle said it’s been impressive how the redshirt sophomore guard has been able to stay ready whenever his number has been called.

“Landon had one of the best games of his career at Valpo,” Tuttle said. “He continues to get better at the play-making off the ball (and) with the ball in your hands. Landon’s minutes obviously have been up and down a little bit this year and that’s a hard spot to be in as a player.”

Tangled in a four-way tie for fourth place in the MVC, the margin for error is razor thin for UNI to capture the league’s fourth and final bye at next month’s conference tournament.

Heise practiced Friday and is poised to return Sunday against Bradley (18-8, 10-5), an opponent that has won its last four meetings against the Panthers.

“They’re really good defensively,” Tuttle said. “We’re going to have to make sure we do two things. One, play with a great level of physicality in terms of setting screens. Then, we’re really going to have to take care of the basketball.”