Austin Phyfe remains hopeful he’ll play for UNI men’s basketball again

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa forward Austin Phyfe said life on the sidelines as a player/coach is enjoyable, but bittersweet.

The sixth-year senior remains sidelined with blood clotting issues that zapped his cardiovascular strength a season ago, and limited him to only 12.1 minutes per game.

Despite his setbacks, the 2020-21 all-Missouri Valley Conference honoree remains focused on returning to the court, whether it’s this season or possibly next.

After recent discussions with UNI men’s basketball coach Ben Jacobson, Phyfe is entertaining what may become a path to apply for a medical hardship waiver and seek a seventh year of eligibility.

“I’m currently not medically cleared to play (and) my next appointment at Mayo (Clinic) is at the end of January,” Phyfe said. “We won’t have anything definite either way until after that appointment.”

If the appointment goes well, Phyfe could return this season and in time to help the Panthers at the MVC tournament. If doctors advise more time is necessary on blood thinning medication, applying for the waiver becomes feasible.

“I’ve been feeling great,” Phyfe said. “Able to do workouts, able to pick up my intensity in the weight room (and) get on the gun and shoot. It’s probably the best I’ve felt in a year-and-a-half. Different if I could take contact, (but) I’m not having that chest tightness I was having last year.”

In the meantime, he’s doing what he can to provide value to this year’s team as a coach, particularly with forwards Cole Henry, James Betz and Derek Krogmann.

With the Panthers having won their last two games after only three wins in their first 10 tries, Phyfe said the improvement has come in multiple areas.

“Everybody knows we’re young, we’re going to make mistakes, but our effort and playing hard has always been there,” Phyfe said. “In these past couple games I think everything just kind of came together.

“Guys are learning how to play with each other. Our assist-to-turnover ratio has been on the positive side. Everybody’s getting back on transition defense. So, I don’t think there’s one major thing, but I’d say there’s a lot of little things that we’ve been working on day in and day out that are starting to come together and really make sense to the guys as we play more games.”

Up next for coach Phyfe and UNI (5-7, 1-1) is a return to conference play for the remainder of the regular season. UNI hosts Missouri State (5-7, 1-1) Wednesday at 7 p.m. (KCRG 9.2/ESPN+).

“It’s definitely a tough league. All of our games are dogfights,” Phyfe said. “Everybody knows a lot about each other, so it’s not really the plays you run, it’s the skill that you have.

“We gotta toughen up a little bit, so, just getting that across to the guys that we might be a better team than (our opponent) but that doesn’t mean you’re going to win every game.”