Northern Iowa

[Rusty 54]

Are they for real? Conference wins @ Creighton, @ Southern @ Evansville, home wins against WSU and MSU, and a loss against ISUblue at home. Non-con wins against Auburn, Losses against Marquette, @ Iowa, and @ Wyoming.

[BradleyBrave]

Hard to argue against them, although a home loss to the Trees is perplexing. No doubt that UNI is right up there with BU as an early season surprise. Believe it or not, we need ISU to beat Drake tomorrow. We can't have Drake getting a win over there and going to 5-1.

[Chucky T's]

I think they might just be for real. With Eglseder in the middle and Lucas O'Rear at forward plus their newbies they will be in the race till the end IMO. If we go in there and play like we did tonight we will get our tails kicked.

[BradleyBrave]

UNI's win puts 6 MVC teams in the RPI top 100, although it seems according to some that the BCS fat cats have gotten their way and that the RPI is essentially useless nowadays.

[Bravesfan]

Hard to argue against them, although a home loss to the Trees is perplexing. No doubt that UNI is right up there with BU as an early season surprise. Believe it or not, we need ISU to beat Drake tomorrow. We can't have Drake getting a win over there and going to 5-1.

Well, we're better than UNI since we beat Indy St at their place!

Seriously though, if UNI keeps checking off road wins like they have been, the NCAA committee will probably dismiss that loss to Indy St as an off night. And they scare me now because of the two good teams they have knocked off on the road, especially Creighton. This is why a Bradley win at UNI next week would really be a statement win for our team this year! I don't know if it will be done, but that would be a huge win!

I also hope Ill St continues to win a lot of games so our win against them will carry more weight. Now that Evansville has been knocked down another peg, let's hope ISU can get rid of Drake tomorrow so we only have UNI to contend with.

[BUBraves2006]

I saw Northern Iowa up here in the Chicago Challenge Invitational. They aren't a real deep team but any one of six guys can score on a given night. The Panthers are well coached and definitely are a contender.

Eglseder must be slowed by injuries a lot, because when he's healthy he's an absolute beast. Farokmanesh and Ahelegbe are both good players that I will enjoy trying to hear Coach Stowell try and pronounce!

[PTTB]

UNI is playing solid team ball right now. They had a very poor 1st half against Indiana State, but have played well since then. Tonight, they were a little careless with the ball, and shot sub-par from the 3, and still got a double digit win on the road. Are they as good as a 20 point win at home vs. Wichita State or as bad as a 1 point loss at home to Indiana State? No...obviously, somewhere in between.

The post play has been solid with Eglseder (yes, has been slowed by injuries and some foul trouble at times), Koch, and O'Rear. Rodenberg comes off the bench and provides some solid minutes (he became eligible at the semester).

The guard play is still young. None of the starting guards played D1 basketball last year (1 junior, 1 soph, 1 fresh). Off the bench is a steady, but not great PG in Brian Haak (10 min/game) who plays hard. Then, there is Travis Brown (2 year starter) and Kerwin Dunham (6'6" wing shooting about 45% from 3). All 5 starters average b/t 10-12 PPG. No one is the go-to guy, but someone seems to be stepping up every game. Tonight it was O'Rear. The good news is that depth seems to be helping this team, as compared to previous teams that Mac and Jake have had were a little more of 6-7 man rotations. Our depth may not be scoring depth, but it's solid stop gap depth.

BTW, this is a much different team since the Chicago Invite. Moran, Eglseder, and Dunham were all just coming off of injuries that sidelined them for a good portion of the previous month before then.

[Fyrebyrd]

you can't overlook good teams. Which is what alot of people are doing with UNI. I don't think many people expected much from them, and they are shoving that misinterpretation back down people's thoughts. Here's to the underdogs.

[PTTB]

explain, PTTB, if you will, the situation with JE.
Why does he do so well one game then struggle the next?
Injuries?

JE did not practice most of the pre-season. He practiced maybe 2-3 times before the first game (not exhibition, but regular season game). He then got maybe a total of 8-10 practices in over the next month, before Christmas (leading to some inconsistency). In the Creighton game, he sprained his ankle and since then has had both good and not so good games.

It seems as though his inconsistency can be related to how refs call games. He's a big guy (no one doubts that), but there have been some MAJOR flops going on this year that he has been the recipient of offensive fouls. I think when that happens, you get a little cautious. Also, in the early games this year, teams were playing alot of zone. That was really limiting his touches. Since UNI has shown they can stretch teams with the 3 point shot, his production has improved. He is still shooting 60% from the field and over 10 PPG, I believe, so he's still doing alot of good things...they may just not be showing up in the stat sheet as points.