Northern Iowa Observations

I think Northern Iowa is the toughest team in the Valley to gauge...
Almost all the preseason reviews are picking UNI from 3-5th in the Valley,
but I think it could be anywhere from 1-8th depending on a couple factors...

First, they have a lot of experience coming back -
Three of their best four players return --
Johnny Moran (10ppg, 65 three-pointers), Jake Koch (10 pts, 5 rebs, plus 35% on 3-pointers), and Anthony James, who always seems to play well against Bradley (12.4 ppg, 3.4 rebs, 41.3% on three-pointers).

If they can find some good point guard play and avoid any injuries to their fairly inexperienced front court (outside of Koch)..then they can challenge for the Valley title.
BUT -- Kwadzo was a ton and consistently put up good numbers...they might miss him a lot! Same with O'Rear even though Lucas didn't always put up good numbers.
Plus those two guys were their best defenders, too.
How they might do without these guys can be seen by how the team performed when O'Rear went out last February...
The Panthers suddenly turned an 8-game winning streak into losing 8 of their final 10 games!

Of their three best returning players, two had off season surgery - Jake Koch on his foot (bone spurs) and Johnny Moran on his torn labrum in the right shoulder.
This is his shooting side - so it is possible that the surgery may significantly affect his shooting. Time will tell.
But these two guys' recovery and the avoidance of injuries is key to their success this season.
They have only one senior so in that respect they are a fairly inexperienced team.


We will get to see UNI earlier than the other Valley schools - as they have the 1AM slot on ESPN's Tipoff Marathon (1AM Central Time but 11 PM in California where they're playing St. Mary's)...and their first game is being televised live on ESPN, Tuesday November 15.

I am going out on a limb and I will pick them lower than the other guys... I think more like 7th in the Valley -- I think they will not easily replace the intangibles that Ahelegbe, O'Rear, and Dunham gave them.