UNI’s Jacobson honored with MVC Coach of the Year

ST. LOUIS - On any given night throughout No. 11/12 Northern Iowa's season, Coach Ben Jacobson and his players are invariably asked about the game performance - of the players.

How did the players react to this or that? How did the players execute? How do the players look forward to the next game?

But on Thursday in St. Louis, it was the players' turn to get asked - and gush - about the coach they've always respected and have come to love. Jacobson was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year at the annual MVC awards luncheon.

Each of the five seniors at the news conference before their practice at Scottrade Center offered their congratulations, sure. But to a man, each also talked about what Jacobson has meant to them off the court, too.

'He's a phenomenal coach, but more than that, he makes us better men,” said senior and Cedar Rapids Kennedy grad Max Martino. 'He wants us to be all-around great people. So not just on the floor, but off the floor, he pushes us to be the best self we can be - academically, socially, with our family. Really, he wants us to be the best we can be. I couldn't ask for anything else.”

As with any 17 or 18 year-old athlete, when many of the current Panthers stepped on campus, they were just kids trying to find their way.

The off-court influence Jacobson carries with his players certainly extends to helping them into adulthood. Sometimes that help falls on deaf ears, other times the players accept that help and run with it.

'When I first got here, I didn't realize how much growing up I had to do until I met Coach Jake and went to our first practice,” said forward Nate Buss. 'He made me (realize) quickly, but I respect him for helping me make that transition from being a boy to really becoming a man. He's helped me out in all aspects - on the court and off the court. I really respect him for that and I'll always be thankful for that.”

As grateful as his players are for his help off the court, he obviously had a hand in what they are on the court.

Jacobson put a lot of heat on himself for the Panthers taking their focus away from defense in the 2013-14 season, and has talked repeatedly about the switch for this year. The results speak for themselves with a 27-3 overall and 16-2 conference record. The style and system he coaches have brought the most out in several of his players, and they know that better than anyone.

'When we look back on it, we're going to be appreciative of that,” said MVC Player of the Year Seth Tuttle. 'On the floor, our success goes right back to Coach Jake, his mindset and how he's helped us change our mindset towards the game. Obviously we have a lot to be thankful for to have him as our head coach.”

The MVC Coach of the Year honor is the third Jacobson has earned as head coach of the Panthers - the first two coming in 2009 and 2010, and breaks a string of three straight by Wichita State's Greg Marshall.

He's never been one to praise himself or really take any credit at all. In his acceptance speech for the award, he pushed the credit to the athletic department, the university and the players. He thanked his fellow coaches, athletic director Troy Dannen and his 'two favorite players by far” in his two sons and then the men who run out on the court for him each night of the season.

'When you're riding along with five seniors and three juniors that are living their dreams and every single day they're bringing it so we can come with something spectacular - as the guys have done this season - it really doesn't get any better than that for me as a head coach,” Jacobson said. 'From my standpoint, having been through it a couple times, you couldn't ask for anything more than guys that just want to keep going and keep finding things to get done. It's been very enjoyable.”

GETTING BACK TO A 2010 LEVEL

The magical Sweet 16 run of 2010 may only have been five years ago, but the feeling fans and people around the program felt with that high has made the intervening time feel a lot longer.

Four years of one-and-done trips to St. Louis for the MVC Tournament and no NCAA Tournament appearances have driven the current Panthers into 'wanting more.” As the 2015 team heads into this year's Arch Madness, the weight of what came before doesn't hang over their heads, it motivates them.

'I wouldn't say we were haunted by (2010's success). Obviously our fans and supporters around Cedar Falls and all over the place, they've been waiting for another trip like they had in 2010,” Tuttle said Thursday. 'Obviously I've wanted to experience it and you'll see pictures (of those moments) on our walls in the team lounge. Those teams got to experience it and for myself, it wasn't a haunting - it was more a motivation to be able to run over to the middle of the court and hug Deon and chest-bump Nate. Just to experience it with these guys and the rest of our team and have a memory that those guys got to share.”

Jacobson put it to the players before this season, with the potential he knew they had, about what they wanted to be.

The heights they reached this season weren't a prediction anyone had, but the goals they have every year have become more realistic because of how they've performed.

'One thing Coach jake talked about at the beginning of the season that stood out to me was this team, he asked us, ‘How do you want to be remembered?'” said forward Marvin Singleton. 'Not by what last year's team did, or the year before that, but this year's team. This group of five seniors, we just want to go out there and play our hardest to be victorious and get a championship.”

Expectations can be a double-edged sword, and Jacobson knows that as well as anyone.

Being the No. 11/12 team in the country and No. 2 seed behind the No. 8 team in the country in Wichita State carries with it a bar the Panthers are trying desperately to reach for a variety of reasons. It's not easy, but it should be the goal, Jacobson said.

And they won't shy away from it.

'Sometimes people feel like because it's been done it should just happen every year. You just go out and do it and get to go to the Sweet 16. That's a hard thing to do - to get to the NCAA Tournament, to win a championship in our league,” Jacobson said. 'In saying that, it doesn't mean we shy away from that as our expectation. I'm really proud of the program we have and the foundation we have, and we should be in the hunt every single year.

'We don't shy away from those expectations. At no time does it haunt us in any way. That's what this is about. If you're going to get up in the morning and you're going to be striving for a championship. That's what these guys have done so well.”

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