UNI takes tough lessons to heart in win vs Drake

CEDAR FALLS — Sometimes it takes getting stung to wake up.

That's the message Northern Iowa men's basketball coach Ben Jacobson had after his Panthers ran away from Drake, 77-44, at home Saturday night.

After losses on the road to Southern Illinois and Missouri State — by a combined three points — and looking and feeling stagnant on both ends, UNI returned to Cedar Falls and re-evaluated how they'd gotten to this point, and where things went awry.

Even in the positive glow of a dominant victory, there was introspection about the energy and leadership it takes for the Panthers to play like they did against Drake consistently.

'It wasn't that we weren't tuned in on Wednesday and it wasn't that there wasn't effort on Wednesday, but when you get stung like that, you find a different level of those things. That showed up tonight,' Jacobson said. 'You hope you don't go through this too many times during the course of a season. When you do, you hope you learn a little bit, and we have. Now it's got to stick. The things I think about, the things my staff thinks about, the way we present them to the players, how they approach things; the lesson needs to stick. We need to build on what we did (against Drake).'

UNI (10-7, 2-2 Missouri Valley Conference) looked like the aggressive, assertive team that UNI fans and followers had gotten used to seeing against Drake (5-11, 0-4).

Jacobson opened up the offense, switching from Wes Washpun being the lone ballhandler and running out of the high ball-screen exclusively to moving the ball screen around the perimeter. Paul Jesperson, Matt Bohannon and Jeremy Morgan each got multiple looks at the rim via that ball screen and, by design, it changed where Washpun was on the floor.

All of the above kept the Bulldogs moving — and in the process behind.

Bohannon led with 21 points on 7 of 11 shooting from the field and six rebounds, while Jesperson added 11 points and five rebounds, and Washpun had 12 points, five rebounds and four assists. The three seniors led the way on both ends — Washpun and Jesperson also combined for five steals — and rose to a level they set for themselves.

After those losses, the seniors got together to discuss the role they've played in UNI's roller-coaster midseason. They vowed a change was coming, and took a step in that direction against Drake.

'After the game at Missouri State, me, Bo and Wes had talked and we felt like we had to take more on our own shoulders,' Jesperson said. 'We felt like part of the reason we didn't have great energy was because of ourselves. Being the three seniors, three leaders on the team, we understand it's going to start with us on the court. We didn't have great energy from ourselves — at least enough where it would've trickled down a little bit more. It's something we wanted to take advantage of and really capitalize on the rest of the season.'

Both Jesperson and Bohannon said in postgame interviews practice was where all that starts.

They didn't practice the way they needed to going into the last few games, and it showed up in the losses. After the Missouri State loss, Jacobson said the team had to take ownership of a few things, and the message seems to have stuck.

Jacobson also had a message for UNI fans — one he delivered to a few in person before Saturday's game, then reiterated in his press conference: there's no need to worry about the leadership or effort of this team.

'I talked before the game with a group of our fans and told them they don't need to worry about our leadership that we're getting from Paul, Bo and Wes. They don't need to worry about how much the guys care. We'll work hard to change the results, but we don't need to be concerned about leadership,' Jacobson said. 'What we talked about (Friday) was taking responsibility for making things better. It's easy when it's not going well to blame somebody or feel like someone has to be at fault — so I'm going to put the blame on somebody, either myself or someone else — when the reality is we need to spend our time figuring out how to take the responsibility just to make it better.

'It's fun when you see your guys, at that age, listen to a message that's a little bigger than playing basketball.'

More than anything, the sting of the last few weeks has weighed on the seniors because they know time is running out — and banking on the 14 remaining conference games being a ton of time is a risky proposition.

As Jacobson and his players said, time will tell if the lessons turn into results.

'We don't have too many games left, and we have to start making our run now,' Bohannon said. 'We did a good job of pushing our foot forward tonight. We've got to build on this game. We have to understand how much effort and enthusiasm we played with tonight and keep going from there.'

UNI next heads to Terre Haute, Ind., to face Indiana State on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

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