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This discussion is happening in a number of game threads so I thought I'd create a post to keep it all here. I don't think many people are happy with where things are at right now. We have lost two very winnable Valley games in a row. At times we look like the best team in the Valley and at times we look like anyone could beat us. The inconsistency is pretty maddening as we have a front court who are veterans and our now starting point guard is also a veteran and our staff has been in place for awhile now. I'll give my .02 on why we're here:
1. Troy Dannen - He really screwed us coming off of the Sweet 16 year. Nearly all of the money that came in was allocated elsewhere instead of the basketball program. I understand that he had an entire department to run, but that was a time that if we had gone all-in we wouldn't be sitting where we are today. We needed a basketball practice facility 15 years ago. We had the community support and the donors willing to get it done. Instead we made incremental facilities upgrades and paid our coaches. As we're now seeing, facilities run the show in college athletics. There are up and coming coaches every single year in nearly every sport who can do a great job. Sure you'll miss on some, but not pouring every penny we had into basketball at the time was a huge swing and miss.
2. David Harris - He might be the worst AD hire that UNI has ever had. It blows my mind how Tulane hired him, but thank god they did. Megan has done more in six months than he did in his entire tenure here. He was supposed to be a fundraising guru from Iowa State, instead we hear stories of Farley, Jake and other coaches handling everything themselves. I'm not sure how it's possible but he pushed our athletics backwards even further.
3. Recruiting - This has been a major issue these last few years however I believe we're finally righting the ship here. NIL changed the game entirely and I think it took us a few years to adjust. Tuttle and G have done a fantastic job in getting a better caliber of athlete to UNI and the relationships Jake has are still paying dividends. While we had the momentum after our big run in 2010 we had a few years where we were able to get some guys we typically wouldn't get. Washpun, Jesperson, Morgan, etc. Iowa and Iowa State were both hitting the out of state recruits pretty hard and we had a great pipeline coming in from Minnesota and Wisconsin thanks to Kyle Green. We also have had some close losses in recruiting. We all know about Doug McDermott, but I'm not sure people realize how close Austin Reaves, Tyrese Haliburton, Jarrod Uthoff and Will Tschetter were to becoming Panthers. We did this in spite of having some of the worst facilities in the Valley. I believe if we had focused on improving facilities we would have landed at least one of these guys if not all four. G and Tuttle are recruiting competitive kids who can play at a high-level. Those are the kids who build a program up and get that momentum back. If you want to get excited, go watch some highlights of our kids coming in next season. It could be one of the best classes we've ever signed.
4. Injuries - They happen on every team but UNI has been hit pretty hard these last few years. Austin Phyfe's COVID issues were an absolute killer to those teams. Tywhon Pickford was a monster before he hurt his shoulder and was never the same. AJ having his double hip surgery and missing an entire season. Born getting beat up (somewhat predictable but still happened) hurt us. These were all key contributors for the program, not just bench guys playing 5-10 minutes a game. Avoid even one of these with AJ, Phyfe or Pickford and we likely have another NCAA tournament appearance if not multiple.
5. Coaching - I still think Jake is one of the best to do it. The landscape of college basketball has changed so much over the last 10 years and really put mid majors at a disadvantage. While we haven't been winning the league year after year we have remained somewhat competitive despite being one of the lowest funded teams in the conference with some of the worst facilities. Tuttle and G have put life back into this program and are bringing in the right kids to build this program back up. I think we need to keep Tuttle at all costs - he will be the next head coach of the Panthers someday. He's one of the most competitive guys you'll talk to and a great leader. I have also only heard great things about G. It seems he has great relationships within the program and is gaining steam in recruiting as well. KG leaving for Iowa State was a massive loss and I think we're seeing that on the defensive side of the ball. We have improved this year on D but the inconsistency is where we're hurting and I think that's mostly due to some of the current veterans on the roster. The recent additions to the team are already showing massive improvements on D and I believe that will continue to trend in the right direction.
6. Facilities - I've touched on this a couple of times but man they're bad. I don't know if many of you have seen the practice gyms they use in the WRC but they're worse than the gyms my 9th grade girls team gets to play in. Credit to the staff for making due but that practice facility needs to be built and completed asap. I think you'll see a massive jump in our program when that happens and it's a decade + overdue. I hope Megan's focus is to get this done as soon as possible.
7. In-game atmosphere - This is an area that we were one of the worst in the country for quite some time. I can't believe we went 3+ years where one of our media timeouts was someone putting on a $20 practice mat. Talk about putting an arena to sleep. It seems like they've really put some thought towards this and it's nice to see. They're getting national attention for one of their promos coming up, another promo was just highlighted on SportsCenter, and they're improving concession costs to make games affordable for families. These are all big steps in the right direction. The Cedar Valley has always been a fickle fan base and a tough sell but there's enough people who are interested to fill a 7k seat arena every night if the right steps are taken. I'm obviously biased, but I don't think there are many arenas that provide a bigger home court advantage than a packed McLeod Center. That place can rock and is a blast to be at for a big game!
8. School enrollment - UNI's enrollment was nearly cut in half in a 10 year stretch. This is and was a killer for the entire university and greatly affected athletics. It's nice to see these numbers bouncing back in the right direction again. Getting more families to weekend games will increase revenue and push these projects further along. I'm not sure there's many universities out there that has such a big divide between academics and athletics.
As bad as things may seem at the moment I really believe we're on the cusp of taking off. Within 5 years we'll likely have a brand new practice facility either built or underway, an alumni of the program who will be playing on a pretty substantial contract (AJ Green who I'd be willing to bet would chip in some $$), and the Valley is as winnable as ever. We have one of the best head coaches in the Valley with one of the next big up and coming assistants. The next big step will be getting back to the tournament and getting a win so we can stop talking about that damn A&M game. Be patient, good things are coming.
1. Troy Dannen - He really screwed us coming off of the Sweet 16 year. Nearly all of the money that came in was allocated elsewhere instead of the basketball program. I understand that he had an entire department to run, but that was a time that if we had gone all-in we wouldn't be sitting where we are today. We needed a basketball practice facility 15 years ago. We had the community support and the donors willing to get it done. Instead we made incremental facilities upgrades and paid our coaches. As we're now seeing, facilities run the show in college athletics. There are up and coming coaches every single year in nearly every sport who can do a great job. Sure you'll miss on some, but not pouring every penny we had into basketball at the time was a huge swing and miss.
2. David Harris - He might be the worst AD hire that UNI has ever had. It blows my mind how Tulane hired him, but thank god they did. Megan has done more in six months than he did in his entire tenure here. He was supposed to be a fundraising guru from Iowa State, instead we hear stories of Farley, Jake and other coaches handling everything themselves. I'm not sure how it's possible but he pushed our athletics backwards even further.
3. Recruiting - This has been a major issue these last few years however I believe we're finally righting the ship here. NIL changed the game entirely and I think it took us a few years to adjust. Tuttle and G have done a fantastic job in getting a better caliber of athlete to UNI and the relationships Jake has are still paying dividends. While we had the momentum after our big run in 2010 we had a few years where we were able to get some guys we typically wouldn't get. Washpun, Jesperson, Morgan, etc. Iowa and Iowa State were both hitting the out of state recruits pretty hard and we had a great pipeline coming in from Minnesota and Wisconsin thanks to Kyle Green. We also have had some close losses in recruiting. We all know about Doug McDermott, but I'm not sure people realize how close Austin Reaves, Tyrese Haliburton, Jarrod Uthoff and Will Tschetter were to becoming Panthers. We did this in spite of having some of the worst facilities in the Valley. I believe if we had focused on improving facilities we would have landed at least one of these guys if not all four. G and Tuttle are recruiting competitive kids who can play at a high-level. Those are the kids who build a program up and get that momentum back. If you want to get excited, go watch some highlights of our kids coming in next season. It could be one of the best classes we've ever signed.
4. Injuries - They happen on every team but UNI has been hit pretty hard these last few years. Austin Phyfe's COVID issues were an absolute killer to those teams. Tywhon Pickford was a monster before he hurt his shoulder and was never the same. AJ having his double hip surgery and missing an entire season. Born getting beat up (somewhat predictable but still happened) hurt us. These were all key contributors for the program, not just bench guys playing 5-10 minutes a game. Avoid even one of these with AJ, Phyfe or Pickford and we likely have another NCAA tournament appearance if not multiple.
5. Coaching - I still think Jake is one of the best to do it. The landscape of college basketball has changed so much over the last 10 years and really put mid majors at a disadvantage. While we haven't been winning the league year after year we have remained somewhat competitive despite being one of the lowest funded teams in the conference with some of the worst facilities. Tuttle and G have put life back into this program and are bringing in the right kids to build this program back up. I think we need to keep Tuttle at all costs - he will be the next head coach of the Panthers someday. He's one of the most competitive guys you'll talk to and a great leader. I have also only heard great things about G. It seems he has great relationships within the program and is gaining steam in recruiting as well. KG leaving for Iowa State was a massive loss and I think we're seeing that on the defensive side of the ball. We have improved this year on D but the inconsistency is where we're hurting and I think that's mostly due to some of the current veterans on the roster. The recent additions to the team are already showing massive improvements on D and I believe that will continue to trend in the right direction.
6. Facilities - I've touched on this a couple of times but man they're bad. I don't know if many of you have seen the practice gyms they use in the WRC but they're worse than the gyms my 9th grade girls team gets to play in. Credit to the staff for making due but that practice facility needs to be built and completed asap. I think you'll see a massive jump in our program when that happens and it's a decade + overdue. I hope Megan's focus is to get this done as soon as possible.
7. In-game atmosphere - This is an area that we were one of the worst in the country for quite some time. I can't believe we went 3+ years where one of our media timeouts was someone putting on a $20 practice mat. Talk about putting an arena to sleep. It seems like they've really put some thought towards this and it's nice to see. They're getting national attention for one of their promos coming up, another promo was just highlighted on SportsCenter, and they're improving concession costs to make games affordable for families. These are all big steps in the right direction. The Cedar Valley has always been a fickle fan base and a tough sell but there's enough people who are interested to fill a 7k seat arena every night if the right steps are taken. I'm obviously biased, but I don't think there are many arenas that provide a bigger home court advantage than a packed McLeod Center. That place can rock and is a blast to be at for a big game!
8. School enrollment - UNI's enrollment was nearly cut in half in a 10 year stretch. This is and was a killer for the entire university and greatly affected athletics. It's nice to see these numbers bouncing back in the right direction again. Getting more families to weekend games will increase revenue and push these projects further along. I'm not sure there's many universities out there that has such a big divide between academics and athletics.
As bad as things may seem at the moment I really believe we're on the cusp of taking off. Within 5 years we'll likely have a brand new practice facility either built or underway, an alumni of the program who will be playing on a pretty substantial contract (AJ Green who I'd be willing to bet would chip in some $$), and the Valley is as winnable as ever. We have one of the best head coaches in the Valley with one of the next big up and coming assistants. The next big step will be getting back to the tournament and getting a win so we can stop talking about that damn A&M game. Be patient, good things are coming.
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