Arch Madness 2010 – Panthers With Funny Names

(St. Louis, MO) – Ben Jacobson’s Northern Iowa Panthers are starting to remind me of the Panthers from 2010. That team was filled with players’ names that were hard to pronounce and harder to cover. They were a veteran team with a lot of depth and came at you in waves.

This year’s team has won its last three games and five of its last six contests heading into ‘Arch Madness.’

But what about that 2010 team? That team played suffocating defense on its way to 30 regular season wins and 15 in Missouri Valley Conference play! Prior to this season’s Wichita State run that statement would have really impressed you!

But as a broadcaster, it was my 13^th straight MVC tournament as the primary radio voice of Arch Madness. I faced one of my biggest challenges.  How do you say Kwadzo Ahelegbe, Ali Farokhmanesh and Jordan Eglseder all in one offensive possession? And were Adam and Jake Koch, “cook” or “coke”? I can’t tell you how many other reporters and announcers were asking me for the correct pronunciations!

That team was deep, could shoot from deep and while playing well all season, they jelled in St. Louis and that momentum carried them into the NCAA’s ‘Sweet Sixteen’.

Adam Koch (“cook” by the way) was the league’s Player of the Year while averaging just 12 points and he and Ahelegbe (uh-hell-ig-buh) both made the Valley’s ‘all defense’ team. Oh and Kwadzo was pronounced ‘Kuh-Joe’ (of course it was!) In St. Louis no team shot over 33 % percent against them. They won by 15, 17 and 15 points in one of the most dominant displays I’ve seen in my 16 years court-side.

How balanced were they? Eglseder (eh-gul-cedar) was the only Panther to score in double figures in every game of the tournament and he had exactly 10 points in each game! Koch didn’t even score in in the final. Well, little brother Jake did. He had 13 off the bench for Jacobson.

Farokhmanesh (fuh-roke-mu-nesh) who would later become a national darling for his work in the NCAA tournament was held to six for 28 shooting during this early March action. Ahelegbe scored 24 in the championship game after scoring just 12 points in the first two rounds.

Jacobson would regularly send a second platoon in all at once and usually the ‘B-team’ would extend the lead! ‘Jake’ told me this past week that team chemistry and defense is what pushed his team to great success!

 

 

That squad went on to knock off UNLV (69-66) as Farokhmanesh hit five 3’s and then upset top seeded Kansas (69-67) as he hit that now famous three point shot from the wing. It was his fourth triple of that ‘Sweet Sixteen’ procuring win.

2010 was a fun tournament for this announcer and a great season for that special group, even if their names were hard to say!

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