Can somebody tell me what has happened to this team?

[Newsbreaker]

I think some of you are confusing "energy' for "urgency."

Urgency exists if you're playing in front of an empty building...no translation required.

When you're playing with urgency, understanding what is at stake, and what must happen immediately to grow, you don't fall down by 10 points. We seem to have a need to be on death's doorstep before we are called to action.

Eventually, you cross that doorstep.

[DRAKELAWPANTHER]

Yes, and the Panthers are playing with "urgency."

Unfortunately, "urgency" doesn't make the rim any bigger or magically increase our perimeter shooting percentage.

[PantherHawk]

How many times this season has UNI missed a 1-1 opportunity late in the game? man free-throws killed UNI this past stretch! I think UNI will come back strong and play hard down the stretch, hey anything can happen in ARCH Maddness.

[jman2004]

PantherHawk, were you drunk and angry typing last night with the CAPS lock on?

[DancerHall Cat]

Quick question for everyone that was there. I was unable to pick this up on the radio over the net. Did UNI have any time-outs when we got the ball with under 30 seconds down by 3?

[DRAKELAWPANTHER]

No. We spent our last a little earlier on an inbound play.

[PantherHawk]

yeah i was little upset last night, no i wasn't drunk i was just really "hot" as they say. It is just hard to accept these losses when we are so close and it seems every time we let it slip away. This team is better than that and they are getting better, it may not show up in the W & L columns but they are getting better. I just hope we can turn this swing around and head into ARCH Maddness on an upswing and surprise some people! We are a good team with a good tradition, now we just need to get over that hump and get on a roll. Hey NCAA or NIT i just want to watch more Panther Basketball after the season is over, because its more than likely they are going to be the only team from the State of Iowa in the postseason.

[JCPanthers]

yeah i was little upset last night, no i wasn't drunk i was just really "hot" as they say. It is just hard to accept these losses when we are so close and it seems every time we let it slip away. This team is better than that and they are getting better, it may not show up in the W & L columns but they are getting better. I just hope we can turn this swing around and head into ARCH Maddness on an upswing and surprise some people! We are a good team with a good tradition, now we just need to get over that hump and get on a roll. Hey NCAA or NIT i just want to watch more Panther Basketball after the season is over, because its more than likely they are going to be the only team from the State of Iowa in the postseason.

Why do you care anyway? You threw practically the entire team and the coach under the bus in another thread...so for you to come on here now and say that you hope they turn it around so you can watch them play in the postseason is a joke.

[BCPanther]

It's called credibility PH...

And you have none....

[unigriff]

hence why they have HAWK in their screen name:O)

[Hime_Peterson]

I don't do a whole lot of posting on here, but I watched last night's game on TV, along with several other games this year, and I have to take exception with those who say that UNI is not playing with a "sense of urgency."

You could say that about the game against Drake, when in the second half when stops were needed, Drake would get wide open looks, but last night, I saw a team that was playing with desperation and was playing their tails off and almost pulled it off against the Valley's 3rd best team---and a team that is playing very well.

There is a lot of talk about missed shots and the like, but from the 8-10 times I've seen UNI, the one thing that is missing from this team that makes them not as good as the last three is the fact that they don't have guys who can create off of the dribble, as Ben Jacobson, Erik Crawford, and to an extent, John Little could do. Josten can do it some (I'd like to see it more), and McKowen has a way of willing his way into the lane, but nobody near the level of Jacobson.

There were some on here last year who were somewhat critical of Jacobson last year due to the fact that from a numbers standpoint, his senior year wasn't quite as good as his junior year (which was a pretty tough act to follow and was also complicated by nagging injuries). But Jacobson had a unique ability to create a shot. When a defender was in his shorts, he could put the ball on the floor and take it all the way to the rack, pull up, or hit one of his impossible fadeaways that he hit 100's of in his career. Crawford, prior to his injury, was also good off of the dribble drive.

UNI is capable of playing better than they are, and lately, it boils down to making open shots. They got great looks, especially Adam Viet against the Drake game which was televised on Mediacom, but they simply wouldn't go down.

In my opinion, UNI is a slasher or two away from the top of their conference right now. Perhaps I'm wrong, but to me, having a guy or two who was a very good shot creator would take a lot of pressure off of the big men, and would create better three-point looks for their spot-up guys.

[jman2004]

I'm high on Kerwin Dunham. He's not one that people talk about making an impact on this team but in a way, I'd say Benny kind of flew in under the radar too. Dunham plays just like him. It was pretty uncanny in the state playoffs. My old high school basketball coach coaches Bondurant and they beat my old high school out of state last year. Dunham has all the skills. I really believe that in a year or two's time, you could be hearing a lot of his name. I could be wrong though.

Carlton Reed will help with this as well next year, but from his Iowa days, I don't know if he's quite that calibre either. Time will only tell, but you're right on the money. We're missing that this year in a big way.

[BCPanther]

Reed was that player in high school. I just don't think he ever really got the chance at Iowa. He is a better player than Henderson and much less of a head case...

[merkpanthers]

Our seats are up the corner section on the UNI bench side. We really have a great view of what goes on in the huddle during timeouts.

Last night was the first night that I saw one of the coaches really give a "hell, fire, and brimstone type speech". When we got down 12 with about mid way through the second half, Kyle Green had had enough. He left the coaches huddle with Jake, Glas, Hogan, and Foster and went and just absolutely smacked the chair Jake sits on and then started to get into faces, especially Travis Brown.

I think this was GREAT for the team and they really responded. There is a point where a coach can be too even keeled. Jake teeters on that at times, which is ok if he lets his assistants have some fire. I really wish Jake would have full out chased those refs off the court last night. He started and then caught himself and went and shook hands. Those clowns were high school level at best...

PS- Does anyone besides me absolutely LOVE how Rich Glas interacts with officials?? He is always talking to them during timeouts. You can tell he gets his point across, then says something that makes them burst out laughing and he walks away. Rich Glas is AWESOME!!

Well I'm glad to hear that at least someone lit a fire under the players butts last night. I'm surprised that it hasn't happened sooner. Something needed to be done. Lineup changes, getting in players faces, etc. I'm happy that someone on the bench FINALLY stepped up and realized that getting angry and in their heads was what needed to be done because the Mr. nice coach approach wasn't working. Being in the student section so far away from our bench is a real disadvantage for us as normal fans. We can't see what coach Jake is trying to tell they guys to do. I notice Glas a few times talking to the refs, but when you are 120 feet away it's hard to tell what's going on. Has there been any other times when a coach has got in the players grills except last night? How about the last 5 home games or even before that?

[BCPanther]

PJ Hogan kind of half heartedly did it Thursday. But nothing like Green last night, he was visibly challenging them to step up. They responded...