CEDAR FALLS – Northern Iowa men’s basketball will get its first chance to compete on the floor as the Panthers play host to the Division III Coe College Kohawks on Wednesday night inside the McLeod Center at 7 p.m. CT in a preseason exhibition. The game is free and open to the public to attend.
UNI men’s basketball (0-0 / 0-0 MVC) vs. Coe (0-0 / 0-0 ARC)
Nov. 1, 2023 | 7 p.m. CT
Cedar Falls, Iowa | McLeod Center (6,650)
ESPN+ (Brad Wells: Play-by-Play / Kevin Lehman: Analyst)
UNI, who will open the 2023-24 regular season on Nov. 7 at defending NIT champion North Texas, look to build off a 14-18 season a year ago in which it finished 9-11 in Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) play in eighth place. The Panthers defeated Illinois State in the opening round of the MVC Tournament (commonly known as Arch Madness) before falling to regular season champion Bradley in the quarterfinals.
Returning 12 players from the 2022-23 roster with the addition of three freshmen and one transfer, the Panthers were tabbed to finish second in the MVC’s annual preseason poll as voted on by the league’s head coaches, sports information directors and media with 19 first-place votes, second only to Drake.
Bowen Born, who earn Second Team All-MVC recognition last season, was named to the conference Preseason First Team All-MVC list, looking to build after a breakout season last winter. Born led UNI with 573 total points (17.9 points per game), the tenth-highest total in a single-season in program history while shooting 40.8% from the field.
Tytan Anderson, the MVC’s leader with 11 double-doubles last season and captain of the MVC Most Improved Team, was named to the league’s Preseason Second Team. A force off the glass, Anderson led the Panthers and the MVC with 273 total rebounds (8.5 per game), the most by a Panther in a single-season since Eric Coleman in 2007-08.
2023 MVC All-Freshman Team forward Michael Duax also returns after a breakout first season on the court, as does MVC All-Bench Team guard Landon Wolf, who shot 36.2% from beyond the three-point arc as a redshirt freshman. This season will also see the return of guard Nate Heise, who only played in two games before suffering a season-ending hand injury last November.
In addition to the return of big men Cole Henry and Chase Courbat, and guards Drew Daniel and Ege Peksari, the Panthers are expected to debut Loyola-Chicago transfer center Jacob Hutson this season. In his time with the Ramblers, Hutson backed up 2021 MVC Player of the Year Cameron Krutwig, averaging 3.4 points and 1.4 rebounds a game.
Head coach Ben Jacobson begins his 18th season on the Northern Iowa sidelines with 335 career victories with the Panthers, three wins shy of passing Eddie Hickey for second on the MVC’s all-time wins list. Jacobson will also have a chance this season to surpass the legendary Henry P. Iba as the league’s all-time leader in conference wins, sitting five wins shy of moving ahead of the former Oklahoma State coach.
COE KOHAWKS
The reigning American Rivers Conference (ARC) Tournament runners-up will have the opportunity to tune themselves up against the Panthers before their Nov. 8 season opener at Cornell (Iowa) when they visit Cedar Falls on Wednesday night.
Coe posted a 16-13 record in 2022-23, finishing sixth in the ARC standings. After going on a run to the ARC Tournament title game, the Kohawks earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament, where they fell to Washington (St. Louis) in the opening round.
This year’s Coe squad, led by 12th year head coach Bryan Martin, was picked third in the ARC preseason poll behind Central and Loras. The Kohawks are led on the floor by a pair of senior standouts, with guard Cael Schmitt leading the way after a 17.8 points per game season last winter and 3.3 assists per contest. Forward TJ Schnurr averaged 17 points a game for Coe last season, and led the Kohawks with 6.7 rebounds per game.
