Hey guys, UNI fan here (coming in peace)
Just wanted to invite you to Panthernation.com if you wanted to talk basketball with some of us. One of the reasons you havent seen any posts on Ohio is because traditionally, we don't make threads until they are "up next". You will see an "Up Next: Ohio" thread at about 9 or 10 pm.
Regardless, it should be a great game between us. Best of luck to you on Tuesday!
Go Panthers!
Welcome! As a general mid-major fan in games of no other natural interest, I'm a pretty decent Panther fan when I see them playing. Lot of respect for your program, and I was thrilled when I saw this game pop onto our schedule late in the going this season. I see a lot of our program in yours the past few years -- especially back in the magical March of 2010.
Looks like your team is off to a hot start like ours this season -- any insight you can provide on who to watch for and how your team has been playing?
I really don't want to sound biased here, but I'll give it my best shot.
Our team has been playing better than anyone has expected this season. Many insiders guessed that this would be a rebuilding year for us, as we lost two very important starters from last season. A majority of people picked us to finish fourth in the MVC, and right now, we're in the top tier of many MVC power rankings.
Early in the year, we had to fly out to Old Dominion and play them on a saturday night. Then fly all the way across the country and play St. Mary's (our one loss) at what would have been 1 am our time (11 pm in Cali) two nights later. That game is what may have skewed a lot of statistics (see the post about ANTHONY JAMES, as he went like 1-15 from the field that night). Other than the one setback, our coach has said that UNI has been playing together better than he has expected for this time of the year; especially since we have two true freshmen starting for us. The reason we're playing the DIII school right now is because it got rescheduled from earlier in the year when St. Mary's was added to the schedule. Luckily for us, it should be a "warm up" game, and our team shouldn't be too worn out for the next night.
Your scouting report seems pretty accurate for the most part. Koch and Rank can hit the three point shots if given the opportunity. But... so can four other people (off the top of my head). ANTHONY JAMES can hit shots from just about anywhere it seems. While JAMES is our points leader statistically, he can have no problems scoring zero points in a game if it means getting a win. What I mean by that is, just about any one of our players can be the scoring threat. JAMES dropped 28 vs. CSU, Koch lead with 21 vs. UW-M, and even a guy who averaged about 2 points off the bench dropped 14 vs. Iowa St.
Defensively, our team is very patient. They play a strong man to man defense a majority of the time and will limit the opponents opportunities for second chance points, which is why the defensive rebound percentage is really high, and the offensive is well... not so high.
We typically play about 9-10 people per game. Even though the stat sheet shows about 7-8, our coach will rotate in other guys depending on the opponent and their style of play. Other than that, if any of you are making the trip to Cedar Falls, I'm not sure what to tell you in terms of attendance. The school is on winter break, so it might be slim for students.