Northern Iowa
* Record: 24-2 (13-1 in Missouri Valley) * AP ranking: 11 * NCAA RPI: 19 * Best win: 56-44 over Iowa on a neutral court * Worst loss: 52-49 at Evansville * Best stat: Shooters, shooters everywhere. Not only do six of the Panthers’ top nine hit 73 percent or better from the foul line, those same six hit 40 percent or better from the 3-point line. * Difference maker: Senior forward Seth Tuttle can make a case for first-team All-America honors. The 6-foot-8 sharpshooter is hitting 63.7 percent of his field-goal tries, 48.6 percent of his treys and 77 percent of his foul shots in averaging 16.3 points per game. Perhaps the least known great player in the college game. * Reason to doubt: As with all non-power 5 conference schools, there’s always a concern that the Panthers might find themselves in trouble against more athletic teams deep into the tournament. * Will be trendy in Indy at the Final Four if … the height-challenged Panthers (no starter over 6-8) can avoid tall, physical teams that could overpower them inside. * Prediction: Elite Eight, if they can earn a No. 3 seed instead of a No. 4, which would force them to play a No. 1 seed in the Sweet 16. * Coachspeak: “Northern Iowa, they’ve got a great team. They really battled, made a ton of shots and made a ton of plays. They’re going to win a lot of games this year, and they’re going to be playing in the NCAA tournament.” — Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart after his Rams survived the visiting Panthers in double-overtime, 93-87.
When the NCAA tournament brackets are announced 26 days from today, it will be impossible for No. 11 Northern Iowa to receive the highest seed ever for a Missouri Valley Conference team, since fellow MVC member Wichita State earned a No. 1 seed last season.
But that doesn’t mean the Panthers — now 24-2 after Sunday’s 68-57 at Missouri State — can’t challenge the Shockers’ 2013 NCAA run, when they went all the way to the Final Four in Atlanta.
“We ran into a buzz saw,” Missouri State coach Paul Lusk told The Associated Press after watching UNI roar in front by 22 points after just 14 minutes. “When they shoot it like that (12 made 3-pointers), they’re one of the best teams in the country.”
Thing is, they shoot it like that most of the time. And befitting a team giving up only 54.8 points a game (fourth best in Division I), they also defend remarkably well. In fact, the Panthers are one of only four programs ranked in the top 25 of NCAA stats in both field-goal percentage and field-goal-percentage defense. The others are Associated Press No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 9 Utah and No. 21 SMU.
UNI’s .487 marksmanship ranks 14th nationally and its field-goal defense (.382) stands 21st. Beyond that, the Panthers are tied for first nationally in road/neutral site wins with 11. And their current 13-game winning streak is fifth nationally heading into Wednesday night’s trip to Loyola.
Not that Panthers coach Ben Jacobson is necessarily content with his team’s performance to date.
“I still think we have some things we can do better,” Jacobson, now in his ninth season at UNI, told the media following the Missouri State win. “There’s something to be learned from this.”
What Panthers foes are learning is that NIU senior forward Seth Tuttle may be the best player in the country whom almost no one has heard of.
After watching the 6-foot-8 Tuttle strike for 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the floor against Missouri State, ESPNU analyst Mark Adams likened him to Duke big man Jahlil Okafor — regarded by many as the No. 1 selection in this summer’s NBA draft — and Wisconsin All-America center Frank Kaminsky.
Said the Bears’ Austin Ruder: “When they shoot it like that and have Tuttle on the inside, there’s not a lot you can do.”
Tuttle is amazing. How many supposed post players hit nearly 50 percent from the 3-point line and 77 percent from the field and lead their team in assists (3.2)?
After watching Tuttle hit four free throws inside the final two minutes of an 11-point win over his team, Bradley coach Geno Ford said, “Everything they do goes through him. He controls the whole game out there.”
But the person most in control is Jacobson, who already has the scalp of one major power to his credit, his Panthers’ upset of overall No. 1 seed Kansas in the second round of the 2010 NCAA tourney one of those moments that CBS still highlights every March.
That team was a No. 9 seed, however. This UNI squad should earn somewhere from a No. 3 to a No. 5 seed, depending on how it finishes out the regular season and how it performs in the MVC tourney. And while Tuttle is certainly the key to the Panthers, he’s far from their only weapon, given that nine players average 14 or more minutes, and six of the nine shoot better than 40 percent from the 3-point line and 73 percent from the foul line.
Yet Tuttle certainly remains the biggest key to UNI’s postseason dreams. And it may almost be as much because of what he says as what he does. Merely consider the following Tuttle quote after the Panthers waxed Wichita State by 16 points.
“We really didn’t talk about beating them by one or two,” Tuttle told reporters after scoring a career-high 29 points. “We talked about beating them by 15. That was our mindset.”
Perhaps that’s why Jacobson said after Sunday’s win: “Seth is so unselfish and he’s got such a good feel that, no matter how he’s going to get defended, he makes everything work. He could take more shots, but he doesn’t because he wants our team to have good offense. He wants our team to do well.”
According to Missouri State’s Lusk, the Panthers team is doing just fine.
“They stole our energy and stole our spirit,” he said. “That’s what good teams do. I’ve seen them do it against some of the best teams in our league.”
And we should soon see them do it against the best teams in all of college basketball when the NCAA tournament begins 26 days from today.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.