UNI's Eglseder needs to come up big against UNLV

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Some asked it at the time, and some may still ask it now. Did Ben Jacobson go too easy on Jordan Eglseder last month?

On Feb. 14, Eglseder was arrested in Cedar Falls for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Eglseder got an immediate three-game suspension by Northern Iowa men's basketball coach Jacobson, who cited UNI's code of conduct for student-athletes.

The penalty for such a situation under that code is a suspension for 10 percent of the student's sports season, which translated to three games. Which is what Jacobson gave Eglseder. Some voices in the state and around the country called it a slap on the wrist. They said Jacobson needed Eglseder if the Panthers were to make a run at postseason success.

Jacobson maintained Eglseder had a good personal record through three-and-a-half years at the school, and had worked to make himself a better student along the way. Jacobson had the option to add to the punishment, but three games it was.

Since Jacobson has run a no-nonsense, no-headaches program in his four years as head coach, he had probably accumulated some trust on campus.

The 7-footer's absence was an obstacle for his teammates, but could have been a worse deal for them had Eglseder sulked or gone into a funk. Or, if he had insulted his teammates and society by shrugging off the seriousness of what happened instead of being contrite.

“I don't think it was a disruption,” said Panthers senior guard Ali Farokhmanesh. “The first chance he had, he talked to all of us as a team, and also individually.”

“He's worked hard to make sure to not just hope that it gets put behind him,” Jacobson said, “but to make sure he's taken the responsibility to learn from it and move forward. I think there's a real difference.”

UNI forward Adam Koch is a classmate and four-year friend to Eglseder. He didn't mince words Wednesday in the Ford Center when asked about the incident.

“It was tough,” Koch said. “It was a pretty big mistake that he can't take back.”

But, Koch added, “Jordan did a good job talking to us, letting us know he regretted doing it. It would have been easy for it to be a detrimental thing to the team, but the way Jordan approached it, it kind of brought us together a little bit.”

The Panthers coalesced without Eglseder in the lineup. For a while, anyhow. They knocked off Creighton and fellow NCAA tournament team Old Dominion at home. But then they went to Evansville, the Missouri Valley Conference's last-place team, and lost, 55-54.

Even after winning the next four games including the three in the MVC's tournament in St. Louis, you have to think that Evansville defeat cost the Panthers in the NCAA seedings. UNI is a No. 9 seed.

If Eglseder, the team-leader with 12.0 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, had played, his team would have beaten Evansville.

“I'm not sure about that,” Eglseder said with a sad smile Wednesday, then conceded “I know I could have brought some stuff we didn't have.”

Eglseder watched the game on his computer in Cedar Falls. Presumably, he stayed home afterward.

Wednesday, on the eve of UNI's first-round NCAA tournament game against Nevada-Las Vegas here, he didn't duck questions about his arrest. Nor, understandably, did he seem to embrace them. He did say one of the hardest things for him was “when some little kids asked me why I wasn't playing.”

During his suspension, Eglseder literally became the Panthers' biggest fan. He cheered his teammates on during the game, giving particularly enthusiastic support to the player who normally is his backup, Lucas O'Rear.

“That was the best thing he could do for his team at that point,” Jacobson said. “Obviously, he understood that he let himself down, he let his team down, as well as our program and our fans.

“At that point, you either dwell on those things or you start to do the things that are going to help your team win, which was practice hard, work real hard to stay in good shape, and also be supportive on game-night. And we saw that.”

Eglseder has been a presence ever since, though. He played well enough in St. Louis to be on the MVC's all-tourney team.

UNLV has a lot of good players, but it doesn't have a 7-foot, 285-pound counter to Eglseder. If the big guy establishes himself today in the Ford Center, the Panthers can win and advance.

“This is huge,” Eglseder said.

He's lucky to have this chance. He appears to know it.