Jacobson: UNI’s cohesion enabled winning ugly

CEDAR FALLS — Winning ugly is still winning.

That was, essentially, the message from a smiling Ben Jacobson on Monday at his weekly press luncheon in Cedar Falls. The Northern Iowa men's basketball team wore out then-No. 24 Wichita State for a 53-50 win in which the teams combined to shoot 40 of 114 (35.1 percent) from the field and 12 of 48 (25 percent) from 3-point range.

But as ugly as it might've been, the beauty came in the fact that the Panthers were at their best defensively on the road against a ranked team — and did it by rallying around each other.

That's the kind of win a coach and team take plenty of pride in, Jacobson said.

'I wish we had a few more ugly wins this year, as our guys do too. I don't know that it comes up (specifically) very often, but from a player standpoint, you could just see a different look,' Jacobson said. 'They had it after the Wichita State game because they knew they had to earn it. It wasn't one of those where we shot 65 percent and made a bunch of (3s) and it just kind of went your way.

'This one had to be earned in every way, shape and form. And you can see that in your guys, you can see it in their response; you can feel it in the locker room after the game. No question.'

UNI (16-11, 8-6 Missouri Valley Conference) held Wichita State to 0.833 points per possession, which was the lowest such mark for the Shockers this season. It had to be that way for the Panthers, because they were out-rebounded by 21, and WSU had nearly as many offensive boards (20) as UNI had total (27).

Even Monday, Jacobson still could only really laugh and shake his head at what it took defensively.

'The last 10 minutes felt more like a game we would've played against Southern Illinois about 10 years ago — in the best possible way. Defensively, boy, there wasn't anybody giving anything,' Jacobson said. 'To get a rebound, you were going to have to fight off a couple people to get your hands on it. That made for a fun last 10 minutes.'

The Panthers held the Shockers to six points in the final 11:32 of game time, and got just their second win against a ranked opponent on the road — with the first also coming at Wichita State in 2006, Jacobson's first season at the helm.

That made it easy for Jacobson — who doesn't normally go too deep into ranking all-time wins — to say Saturday's win was the best UNI has had among its three ranked wins (No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2/5 Iowa State).

'It's the best of the three. People will debate which one was more exciting and which one was more important, I suppose, but I would tell you it's the best of the three,' Jacobson said. 'We're playing our best basketball right now. We all know how hard it is to have success at Wichita. It had been 1,000-plus days since anyone had done it. In league play, it's been hard to get them home or away.

'For us to continue to keep getting better and keep playing well — the confidence of our basketball team and everything that was going on in that game — that makes it the best of the three.'

Whether it's winning ugly or winning by 20 and making 15 3-pointers, the Panthers have been winners for nearly a month straight. UNI has done it in every manner possible — big wins, nearly flawless and hanging on by a fingernail.

The big win and climb back up the MVC standings has happened through cohesion. Teams don't win ugly — or, really, win at all — if they aren't on the same page, Jacobson said.

'The confidence of the entire group is more on the same page now. Because that has happened, our defense has finally gotten pretty good,' Jacobson said. 'Guys are touching the ball a little more, moving better and I think all those things have contributed to a group of guys being more on the same page.

'Prior to that, it wasn't for a lack of wanting to be on the same page. We've all been a part of groups. Sometimes they function great, sometimes they don't. It's just taken a little while.'

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