UNI basketball gets the Sports Illustrated treatment

It isn't just some blurb in the weekly college basketball notes. Sports Illustrated has given the Northern Iowa men's basketball team four pages in this week's issue.

"Iowa's Got a Secret" is the title of Albert Chen's story. The subhead, as we call it in the biz, is "Methodical on offense and suffocating at the other end, Northern Iowa quietly has developed into a program that should be taken seriously come tournament time."

At 16-1 overall and 7-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference, eyes are pointing to Cedar Falls. I write this hours before the Panthers play at Wichita State, the Valley's second-place team. So UNI's No. 20 ranking in the latest Associated Press poll could take a hit just one day after the Panthers attained it.

No matter. To get this kind of recognition in SI is a rare gift for a mid-major and should be savored. Here's a brief passage from Chen's story:

"No Panther has made a bigger leap than (Jordan) Eglseder, the gentle giant whose teammates howl like Chewbacca when he enters a room and who endearingly is called Sasquatch. . . . After a game earlier this year an assistant from an opposing team told (UNI Coach Ben) Jacobson he was blown away by how much Eglseder had improved. He reminds me of (former Central Michigan center and current Los Angeles Clippers center) Chris Kaman, how much better he got in his last year and a half," Jacobson recalls the assistant saying. "Kaman runs a little bit better, but he's not as big as Jordan is."

It's a nice story, with several terrific photos of players, Jacobson, and one that will give the UNI student section particular pleasure.

Good for the Panthers. Now they need to do what UNI guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe talks about in the story. He says:

"If we're fortunate enough to be in the (NCAA) tournament again, trust me, we won't be happy just to be there. We'll be ready."