Pearl: Improve Iowa facilities

Bruce Pearl said “I'm going to be at Tennessee” but spoke highly of the open Iowa men's basketball coaching job.

“It's a very attractive job nationally, a great job,” Pearl said after his team's practice Thursday in the Edward Jones Dome. Tennessee plays Ohio State here tonight in the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16.

“Iowa City's a phenomenal community,” Pearl said. “Just look what they're doing in football. Look what Kirk's done, look what Hayden did. They've managed to keep it going.”

For Hawkeye basketball to succeed again, Pearl said, ”Just continue to plug into that formula. The formula is they've got great, great fans. And, obviously, they need to continue to improve facilities as the rest of the Big Ten grows. Keep recruiting better and better players.”

Pearl was an Iowa assistant coach from 1986 to 1992.

“Once you're a Hawkeye, you're always a Hawkeye,” he said. “I've got great, great, great memories, still have some great friends there. I know Tom (Davis) still lives there. I still stay in touch with Tom.

“I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Iowa, Tom Davis and the development of my career.”

New deal

Northern Iowa Coach Ben Jacobson appeared to have removed speculation he might be considered for jobs elsewhere this year by agreeing to a contract Wednesday that will run through 2020 and increase his pay to $450,000 next year, with $25,000 raises each year after that.

“I'm excited, thrilled, to be able to get that done and know that I'm going to be able to be at Northern Iowa,” Jacobson said here Thursday.

“Personally, the University of Northern Iowa has been a great fit for my wife and me. Our boys are 4 and 6 years old, and we're just getting started with our family. So it was a very short conversation with my wife (about staying at UNI).

“We've got tremendous support from our president and from our administration. This basketball program has moved forward in the nine years that I've been on campus (the last four as head coach), because of the support.”

“Right now he signed a memorandum of understanding,” UNI Athletics Director Troy Dannen told the Waterloo Courier. “The contract will be done within 30 days. The memo is binding for both parties.”

An intriguing incentive written into Jacobson's new deal? The coach earns a $100,000 bonus for a Final Four appearance - an incentive that could be triggered as early as next week.

Warner in touch

St. Louis knows Northern Iowa. Kurt Warner, a UNI alum, became one of the city's all-time favorite athletes when he quarterbacked the Rams.

And Warner knows the UNI men's basketball team. He phoned Jacobson last Saturday after the Panthers' win over Kansas in Oklahoma City.

“I had the opportunity to visit with him for five or six minutes,” Jacobson said.

“And when I got that call and passed it along to the guys, they lit up about as much as they did following that basketball game. I mean, it had a real impact on the guys.

“It was really a special phone call for our program.”