UNI finds lessons in ‘unexpected’ defensive performance

CEDAR FALLS - When Northern Iowa men's basketball coach Ben Jacobson talked about this being a new-look Panther team, the version that showed up Saturday at McLeod Center was not what he meant or envisioned.

At least on one end of the floor, anyway.

A team that allowed just 54.6 points per game to opponents, 0.944 points per possession and used pack line defense to smother opponents looked out of sorts. UNI allowed Colorado State to drive to the basket with relative ease throughout the game, play with great efficiency at 1.167 points per possession and make open shots.

The Panthers were dealt an 84-78 season-opening loss, in an 'unexpected” defensive performance.

'We've spent a lot of time over the last six weeks guarding the basketball, making rotations and we didn't do that even close to well enough today,” Jacobson said. 'That side of the basketball was very unexpected and it's going to have to get a lot better and really fast.”

The Rams (1-0) shot better (48.4 percent to 48.3 percent), outscored the Panthers (0-1), 36-22, in the paint, 15-10 off turnovers, 9-7 in second-chance points, 6-0 on fast breaks and 18-13 in bench points.

It's unfair to try to compare this version of UNI to last season, but those measurements are ones Jacobson and his staff hammer home as things to focus on - and have been for the entirety of his time as head coach of the Panthers.

The biggest negative shift UNI saw was in how it guarded the dribble. The pack line defense requires intense on-ball defense, and the Panthers struggled against CSU - which matched UNI going small for much of the game. The Rams' 36 points in the paint were almost exclusively on drives from the perimeter.

'They've got a number of guys who can drive it, as we saw today, and we did not do a good enough job of simply guarding the dribble and keeping the ball in front of us,” Jacobson said. 'We knew they were going to make some 3s, and they did, but to give up 36 points in the paint and the majority is on the dribble drive, that's hard to play that way. We didn't do a good job guarding the basketball.”

The Larry Eustachy-led Rams fit his prototypical style.

Eustachy lauded a solid offensive performance by the Panthers, who also went 11 of 30 (36.7 percent) from 3-point range, and their ability to never let CSU get out too far. But his teams have slashed to the basket, traditionally, and that worked.

'That's kind of who we are. We've always been that way. Our best was when we had Jamaal Tinsley, Mike Nurse and Kantrail Horton. We were hard to guard,” Eustachy said. 'We've always tried to penetrate, kick and penetrate. Second penetration is hard to guard. As good as Northern Iowa is at shooting, we may be second but we're a close second. We shoot the ball as well as any team I've had. We showed that tonight.”

UNI can't spend too much time worrying about what didn't happen Saturday, as they have a 7 a.m. matchup in McLeod with Stephen F. Austin - a team that will be hungry to avenge a 42-point loss to Baylor in its opener - on Tuesday.

Players and coaches said after Saturday's loss it comes down to pride. Jacobson said 'they don't need to spend their time thinking about offense,” and the players agreed. The schedule doesn't get easier, so they must learn quickly.

'We didn't do a very good job of taking pride in getting stops. Letting a team come in and get (84) points on your home floor is not something we're proud of and not something we want to ever happen again. We're disappointed in that,” said Matt Bohannon, who had 17 points. 'Our defense is a pack defense and we want to start off by guarding the dribble. That's something we really take pride in. Last year we really took a lot of pride in that. If we guard the dribble, our defense is in pretty good shape. Today we gave up a lot of drives that we usually don't. It's something we're going to have to learn from.”

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