Panthers ready for early-morning tip

CEDAR FALLS - A few years ago, ESPN started a yearly college basketball tradition with its College Hoops Tipoff Marathon, which features 24 straight hours of basketball on its family of networks.

The Northern Iowa men's basketball team has taken part a few times - playing in the middle of the night on one occasion - and will again Tuesday morning on the road against Stephen F. Austin.

At 8 a.m.

'It's a little early, but I'm excited for it,” said a smiling Wes Washpun on Saturday after the Panthers' 64-52 win against North Dakota.

The Panthers arrived in Texas on Monday to prepare for their second regular season game, and the players said the off-season and early part of this season has been dedicated to preparing them for playing a game that early.

'We've been doing everything all off season and everything this season has been at 6 in the morning, getting us ready for the early morning shoot around and getting us ready for the game,” Washpun said.

The early mornings and subsequent early tip may have prompted a little sarcasm on the 'excited” front from Washpun, but teammate Seth Tuttle joked he'd get him in line if he needed to.

An unusual tip time in Nacogdoches, Texas will be accompanied by a closed-down campus and business district, with the intention of getting more fans to the game.

Coach Ben Jacobson told his players about that plan in the locker room Saturday, and that fact alone was enough to get Tuttle fired up for the game.

'I'm excited. Wes is excited too, and he'll be excited that morning, I promise. If he's not, I'll make sure he's excited,” Tuttle said through laughter. 'Coach told us in the locker room, they're closing down classes until the game is over, they're closing all the businesses down in that town until the game's over, so that place is going to be packed. There's nothing you can't be excited about for that. It's early, but coach has been waking us up super early for lifting. Hopefully that ends after this 8 o'clock game, but who knows.

'We'll be ready to go. It's just another game against a really good team at their place. So we better be excited.”

The Panthers and Lumberjacks tip off at 8 a.m. on ESPN 2. UNI returns to the McLeod Center on Thursday at 7 p.m. to take on Morgan State.

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