(St. Louis, MO) – When you beat nationally ranked teams, and win your conference tournament championship in back-to-back seasons, you start believing you can defeat any foe, and that’s the scenario for the Northern Iowa Panthers. They’ll need that confidence Friday night when they take on the Big 12’s Texas Longhorns.
Northern Iowa has won 12 of their last 13 games and have three wins over three top 25 teams this season. The Missouri Valley Conference’s tournament champs had to win three tight games at Arch Madness 2016, and have three battle tested seniors at the core of their attack.
Head Coach Ben Jacobson believes those early season wins have made his team a confident group.
Northern Iowa hit a midseason rut and had to fight their way out of it. Jacobson says his trio of seniors, Wes Washpun, Matt Bohannon and Paul Jesperson refused to let the Panthers’ season continue down a negative path.
UNI faces Texas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers and Longhorns play very different styles of basketball and the Longhorns are a much taller team. ‘Jake the Giant Killer’ knows his team has a difficult challenge.
UNI is 4 and 7 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, and three and three under Jacobson.
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