UNI Ends MVC Skid
The Panthers finally picked up their first conference win earlier today.
The Northern Iowa Panthers will probably never live down last season's epic collapse in last year's NCAA Tournament. After all, who could've expected that they would blow such a massive lead with so little time left to Texas A&M? Negative feelings from this utterly demoralizing loss combined with lots of roster turnover has contributed to this year's Panthers squad having a hard time picking up wins. They'd only picked up 5 in a total of 15 attempts and were sitting in the Missouri Valley basement winless.
Fortunately, they finally returned to winning ways with a convincing win at home in the McLeod Center against Drake. The Panthers started off hot out of the gate and translated this fast-paced start into a 45-25 halftime lead. They didn't let off the gas any in the second half either as they managed to win by 19 points. They shot a very solid 57% from the field, and benefitted from the fact that their opposition only could manage 38%. They assisted just under 50% of their made field goals having dished 14 dimes. They also topped Drake in the steals and blocks categories with 9 and 3, respectively.
While this win will no doubt boost the confidence of this team, they still face a huge uphill battle to make it back to the upper echelons of the Missouri Valley. They still sit at the bottom of the conference standings, tied with the Drake team that they just beat as well as Evansville. Even if they gain a lot of momentum and begin to rise up the league order, it will be tough to catch up to teams like Illinois State (6-0), Wichita State (5-1) and Southern Illinois (4-2). The Panthers may have dug themselves too great a hole to top these teams in the remaining regular season games. However, come conference tournament time, this team could be a very dangerous #4 or #5 seed if they can manage to climb up that far. If all goes to plan, hopefully they can return to the Big Dance and can avoid another unfortunate collapse like last year.
