UNI seeks offensive consistency as it tackles 8th-ranked North Carolina

CEDAR FALLS — Through 10 games, it has been simple.

If the Northern Iowa Panthers shoot 40 percent or better from the field, they win. Below that, they lose.

No exceptions.

Five times, they've hit the number, and five times, they haven't. The thing is they could shoot well Wednesday night and still not beat their opponent.

Eighth-ranked North Carolina (10-2) hosts UNI (5-5) at 7 p.m. It's a pretty good bet the Tar Heels remember last year's game, in which they were ranked No. 1 and lost at McLeod Center.

'Carolina is playing even better than they were when we saw them last year,' said UNI Coach Ben Jacobson. 'They've got almost all of the guys back from last year's team ... All the looks of a Final Four team and a national championship contender.'

Four Tar Heels average double figures in scoring, led by 6-foot-8 junior forward Justin Jackson (17.1). He had a career-high 36 this past Saturday in a 103-100 loss to Kentucky.

As you can tell, offense has not been an issue for Carolina. Northern Iowa, on the other hand ...

The Panthers shot 26.8 percent in losing to Iowa this past Saturday, 69-46. They wobbled to a 19.4-percent first half.

Jeremy Morgan has lived up to his billing as Missouri Valley Conference preseason player of the year. He's averaging 17.7 points per game.

Redshirt freshman guard Spencer Haldeman (10.2 ppg) has been better than many expected. Outside of those two, however, it has been a grab bag offensively.

'As I've talked about for the last couple of weeks, we've just got to find a little bit of rhythm to our offense,' Jacobson said. 'Get a couple guys going who are struggling a little bit with the way they're playing. They're struggling a little bit with their confidence. It's a group effort, and we've got to do a great job as coaches. We've got to find a way to get guys in better spots offensively.'

UNI has been overly reliant on the 3-point shot, with 48.5 percent of its overall shots coming from that range. But that goes back to not having anyone on the interior who has stepped up and become a threat.

'In some ways it's just simplifying it a little bit,' Jacobson said, of his offense. 'Hone in on a couple of things that we think will give the guys some direction, give the guys some confidence. I think that's probably the best place to start. We've bounced around quite a bit with what we're trying to do offensively. Sometimes that can go OK, until you find what you want. In this case, it has probably slowed us down a little bit. You do four, five, six things, and you don't get good enough at any of them to give the guys the kind of confidence they need in game action.

'We'll keep poking around and keep trying to find the right stuff. But, I think, simplifying it and just trying to get to the point where we're doing a couple of things in practice that we can carry over to game action is probably the best way to go.'

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