UNI men’s basketball opens without Austin Phyfe

CEDAR FALLS — A new era began Monday as Northern Iowa men’s basketball coach Ben Jacobson and senior center Austin Phyfe met the media for the Panthers’ annual media day.

UNI’s new era, for now though, has as much to do with what’s departed as what remains.

Two-time Missouri Valley Conference player of the year AJ Green, all-MVC honorees Trae Berhow and Noah Carter, along with Tywhon Pickford and Antwan Kimmons either graduated, went pro or transferred after a 2021-22 season headlined by a regular-season Missouri Valley Conference championship.

And despite being the reigning conference champions, Jacobson admitted Monday his team won’t necessarily have the proverbial target on its backs.

“I think there will be plenty of people that feel like, ‘yeah they were champs last year, but they lost a bunch of good players,’” Jacobson said. “It doesn’t mean that we won’t have maybe somewhat of a target on our back at times, because we did win it last year.”

Most notably for this season’s team, though, was news Monday that all-MVC forward Phyfe remains ruled out of basketball activities due to blood clots from continued complications of long COVID.

“We are tremendously proud of Austin and always have been in terms of the way he’s handled all situations, and this one is different because of the magnitude of it being a health situation for him, but tremendously proud of how positive he’s been through it all,” Jacobson said. “Maybe this next two to three months his body responds really well to the new blood thinner and he gets a chance to crank it up, and if it doesn’t react that way and he doesn’t have the opportunity to get back on the practice floor and play again, he’s going to still have a tremendous impact on the players on this team and the way things turn out this year.”

Phyfe, limited to 12.1 minutes per game last season, had a checkup at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., last week and the best-case scenario is a three-month timeline to return. However, it sounds just as likely the Waverly native’s condition won’t improve in time for him to see the court again.

“I’m thankful in the sense that I’ve been able to have those great years here at UNI,” Phyfe said. “I know that, yes, it’s not the ultimate goal I wanted having (to deal) with these medical issues, but I’ve still achieved a lot of the goals I’ve wanted to achieve and if this is the end for me for basketball — it’s not how you want to go out — but I’m still very thankful for all the things I’ve accomplished.”

Looking beyond Phyfe, returnees Bowen Born and Nate Heise enter this season as the Panthers’ marked men most likely to appear atop opponents’ game plans.

Born, who earned the MVC’s sixth man of the year award last season, reenters Jacobson’s starting lineup this season as its unquestioned lead guard and primary ballhandler.

“I think the openness to new roles — there’s a lot of big changes that went on in the offseason — so the amount of time and effort that these guys have put in during the offseason has been really cool to see,” Born said. “It just makes me pretty confident about our group.”

Incoming freshmen Ege Peksari and Trey Campbell will be counted on right away in Jacobson’s lineup, and returnees Tytan Anderson, Cole Henry and James Betz all are currently making their case to be in the starting lineup, along with redshirt freshmen Michael Duax and Landon Wol.