CEDAR FALLS – UNI men’s basketball faces Vermont in the middle of three-game home stretch at 5 p.m. Thursday.
UNI (0-1 / 0-0 MVC) is coming off a loss to Nicholls State, the preseason favorites in the Southland Conference.
This will be the first meeting between the Panthers and the Catamounts. It’s also the first time program history that Vermont has played in Iowa.
The Catamounts were ranked second in the America East preseason poll, which ended a five-year run as the top pick. Vermont’s five consecutive, regular-season conference titles is the second-longest active streak in Division I.
Fans headed to the McLeod Center may expect more traffic than a typical game day in conjunction with the Iowa high school football championships taking place in the UNI-Dome that day.
Other notes:
Ben Jacobson became the fourth coach in Missouri Valley Conference men’s basketball history to win 300 games Feb. 27, 2021
with UNI’s 94-87 double-overtime victory at Illinois State.
Jacobson trails only Henry P. Iba (486, Oklahoma State), Eddie Hickey (337, Creighton/Saint Louis), and Dana Altman (327, Creighton) on the Valley’s all-time wins list.
AJ Green is in 21st on the all-time scoring list at 1,190 points.
Trae Berhow has 1,237 career points between UNI and Pepperdine with 937 points as a Panther for 49th place in program history.
Austin Phyfe (70th, 782 points) and Tywhon Pickford (90th, 643 points) are also ranked in the top 100.
The Panthers received six first-place votes and finished third in
the 2021-22 MVC Preseason Poll.
AJ Green was selected as the MVC’s Preseason Player of the Year for the second year in a row and also landed on the Preseason First Team.
Austin Phyfe also earned recognition with a spot on the Preseason Second Team.
