UNI men’s basketball aiming to get better

CEDAR FALLS — The calendar has turned to February and Northern Iowa still is searching for its best basketball.

It’s not as bad as it may sound, though, as the Panthers (12-10, 6-5) sit in fourth-place in the Missouri Valley Conference’s men’s standings.

Fourth-place is a spot in the MVC standings that carries much more weight nowadays as expansion to 12 teams a season ago provoked a reconfigured conference tournament bracket in which the league’s top-four teams — instead of top-eight — receive first round byes.

“We have talked about it,” UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said of the importance of a top-four conference finish. “You want to play three games instead of four. There hasn’t been a team to come out of Thursday and win four games in St. Louis. We talked about it four or five days ago. It’s something that you want to get done.”

When it comes to playing its best basketball, it’s something Jacobson feels could be right around the corner for his team.

After a stretch that included nine wins in 10 games, UNI has lost its last two games. Both were on the road and against teams ahead of the Panthers in the MVC standings — Drake and Bradley.

And whether it was coming up short against the Bulldogs or Braves, or not being at its best in a win against Evansville, the errors standing between UNI and the MVC’s top teams are correctable.

“You always want to get to playing your best basketball as fast as you can,” Jacobson said. “We saw it with our team at Murray (State), at Belmont (and) in some of the game against Southern Illinois. We’re close (and) our guys feel the same way — that we can play even a little bit better than we played at Murray (State) and Belmont.

“Our consistency with that high level of play — we’re still searching for that part of it.”

Next up for the Panthers is a home game Saturday afternoon against Murray State (8-14, 5-6).

While Jacobson pointed out the road win against the Racers being one of the best performances of the season, a rematch at home is far from a sure thing.

“Their backcourt with (JaCobi) Wood and (Rob) Perry is really good,” Jacobson said. “Their guy that’s starting at the center spot for them — (Nick) Ellington — is a really, really good player. He gave us a hard time.

“They’ve had some bad luck with two of (their) home games. A very good team. A very dangerous team.”

The game tips off at 1 p.m. (CBSSN).