Shockwaves

Final: UNI 65, WSU 58

WSU is now 8-11, 1-7 in the Missouri Valley. Another disappointing performance from a beaten-and-bruised team. Bradley (9-10, 2-5 MVC) is leading Illinois State 55-54 in the second half as I write this, but it’s another bottom-of-the Valley team that is without its best player. WSU had a chance to get better, but it’s looking now like only a miracle will get them into the Valley’s top six.

But this season now is about healing and looking to the future anyway.

UNI has won four straight in Koch, an amazing stat.

For Gary Rima (KABOOM!), Kevin Boyle and everyone here at the Panther Sports Network, good night from Wichita. Thanks for stopping by for the Farm & Fleet Postgame Show.

Final: UNI 65, WSU 58

Couisnard fouls out with 45 seconds to play. Marshall didn’t like the call and official Steve Skiles is going over for some voluntary abuse. (But he didn’t make the call.)

Koch can put it away with two free throws: make, make. 65-58.

WSU comes away empty when Hatch forces a shot, maybe trying to draw a foul. WSU isn’t fouling and the game will end.

1:09, 2nd half: UNI 63, WSU 58

Nathan, I agree on posting Durley up more. But what I’m seeing is that once he gets the ball, he’s pretty predictable in what he’s going to do with it. That doesn’t work more than once on experienced guys like Coleman. But he’ll get better and more diverse.

The fans started to clear out at the timeout, except for the guy who can whistle louder with his fingers than any of the officials.

Couisnard hits a three with 2:07 to play, the first Shocker not named Durley to score in more than 11 minutes.

Couisnard drives for a basket and WSU timeout with 1:09 to play, 63-58.

2:22, 2nd half: UNI 62, WSU 53

WSU’s set play out of the timeout is a three for Couisnard from the top, but it misses. He’s 3 of 7 tonight, but a couple misses have been well off.

Eglseder, obviously feeling my positive impressions, tried a three-pointer that was short but not awful. He’s 5 of 17 from three this season.

Durley’s free throws end an almost seven-minute scoring drought for WSU. It went from a 43-41 Shocker lead to 53-45 deficit.

Durley makes a strong inside move for two and a foul shot with 5:57 to go. WSU’s down five and pressing.

Kerwin Dunham scores his first basket of the night for UNI with a surprising and impressive drive past Couisnard. A foul and FT later, it’s back to an eight-point game.

Spurts. J.T. Durley shows spurts. Coleman flew at him and blocked a three-point attempt, but Durley got the ball and drove the baseline for a two-handed dunk with 4:50 to play.

Kerwin Dunham (3.7 ppg) has scored UNI’s last six points.

Durley has scored WSU’s last 10, though. No Shocker other than him has scored since the 13:48 mark.

UNI had a killer possession, eating the shot clock down to 2 before feeding Coleman inside, who put a quick move on Durley for a layup. 62-53. After a Hatch miss, UNI will eat more clock. Thomasson foul will put Coleman at the line after the media TO.

7:48, 2nd half: UNI 53, WSU 43

Lance Harris makes his first appearance of the night.

Durley missed another three.

Eglseder backed Durley into the paint and missed a shot, got his own rebound and then hit the floor — shaking the rafters — when he was fouled. He made both, nice touch. Just a sophomore, too. Gotta appreciate big guys like that with touch.

Phil Thomasson was poked in the eye by Coleman and lost a contact for the 4,702nd time this season. Seriously, this guy has contacts fall out like I have hair fall out.

But at least he can get his contacts back in. Not so much with my hair . . . .

The Barn just plain fascinates me. He has 10 second-half points already, the lead’s now 50-43. His hands are so big that he only touches the ball with his fingertips, and he STILL swishes free throws with no difficulty.

Mark this down, folks: Eglseder will be an All-Valley player before he leaves Cedar Falls.

KABOOM, Adam Koch, Marshall has to call a timeout trailing 53-43. WSU had better get back into this quickly or fans will be leaving to get the three kids to bed.

11:23, 2nd half: UNI 46, WSU 43

Gotta love a jammies reference from Nathan Arizona in the comments section. Bless your little heart.

Looks like Mantas Griskenas is done for the night after he hit the floor in the first half. He has not returned from the locker room since.

Thomasson’s 15-footer with 15:48 to play gives the Shockers their first lead (38-37) since leading 20-18 in the first half. But “The Barn” gives UNI the lead again.

The Barn is Jordan Eglseder, a 7-foot-1, 265-pound center from Bellevue, Iowa. I would’ve guessed 365, not 265. The guy’s broad and solid. He’s slow, but doesn’t have bad back-to-the-basket skills. Just slows down the Panther offense, though. Whoa, nice touch with the left hand, though, for a MINI-KABOOM 6-footer.

WSU will press after two Cooz FTs. They cause a turnover, then P.J. busts a looooooong three for a two-point lead. Fans on their fee, unsolicited, for the first time tonight.

Viet KABOOMS again, he’s 5 for 5 from three. Coleman spotted him across the block with a good assist.

The Barn is impressing me. He just took a lob pass from Coleman and layed it in like he was placing an egg in hay. Or something like that.

15:56, 2nd half: UNI 37, WSU 36

UNI’s Jared Josten just threw the quickest double-team at Graham Hatch that he’s probably ever seen. Hatch threw it at two other UNI players, he was so surprised.

Coleman has scored the first four points of the half, but Mekel (three) and Couisnard (dunk) make it a one-point game. WSU is back in a matchup zone.

WSU was 0 for 2 on possessions to take the lead, but will have the ball after the media turnover.

Halftime: Now I’ve seen it all

We see TV halftime interviews of football and basketball coaches all the time. MLB managers are getting into it, too. But now, just five feet to my right, a Northern Iowa assistant is doing a halftime inteview with UNI radio guys Gary Rima and Kevin Boyle. One of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen. I hope this guy’s getting plenty of CiCi’s of Cedar Falls coupons for his appearances.

Halftime: UNI 33, WSU 31

Nothing quite grabs the crowd’s attention at halftime than Don Hall reading the hundred-or-so names on the athletic director’s honor roll. Maybe next time he can liven it up by giving each one of them on-the-spot nicknames, ala Chris Berman. “Andy Wo-Wo-Womack, Taylor Even Steven, Spencer Sister Christian.” Don’s a pro; he could do it.

UNI scoring at the half: Viet 12 (4 of 4 threes), Coleman 8, Koch 7, Haak 3, Eglseder (who doubles as an Iowa barn in his spare time, he’s that big) 2, O’Rear 1. Panthers are hitting 54.2 percent from the field, 6 of an unbelievable 9 from three, 1 of 2 at the line.

WSU scoring: Mekel 9, Durley 8, Clemente 6, Cousinard 3, Hatch 3, Thomasson 2. The Shcokers are an indentical 13 of 24 (.542) from the field, 4 of 9 from three, 1 of 2 at the line.

WSU has a 14-10 rebounding edge (not many missed shots to be had)

Halftime: UNI 33, WSU 31

I can’t help but think that Durley firing up a three-pointer early in a possession is not what Gregg Marshall wanted out of the timeout. Coleman scored for UNI, then Durley missed another early three. ONIONS, as Bill Raftery would say.

A Koch inside basket — Adam, not Charles — and it’s 33-26. Biggest lead of the half until Durley grabs a loose ball for a dunk. At least he didn’t take it back outside for a three.

And who gets the Shockers back into it just before the halftime buzzer? The flu-like symptoms guy, Gal Mekel. He KABOOMS from the left corner as the clock winds down (good assist from Couisnard) to cut the lead to two.

3:06, 1st half: UNI 29, WSU 26

Viet had 11 three-pointers in 18 games entering Koch tonight. No wonder he’s not venturing inside the arc tonight. He feels the magic.

UNI might want to get out of the 2-3 zone. Couisnard fed Thomasson on the left block, who bounced it to Clemente for a one-handed half-tomahawk dunk, it’s 23-22.

Somebody get on Adam Viet . . . KABOOM. UNI leads 25-23. Viet is 4 for 4 from three, he now has 15 this season. The Panthers, meanwhile, are 6 for 6 from three so far.

Griskenas hit the floor hard after the basket. He’s headed back to the locker room, with Hatch replacing him.

Coleman scores inside for a 27-23 lead, then Koch steals and lays it in for a 29-23 lead, 5:02 to go. UNI has gone back to a man and will probably stay in it unless foul trouble hits.

Jared Josten missed UNI’s first three — UN-KABOOM — with 4:24 to play in the half. Durley goes KABOOM at the other end, though, and it’s a three-point game.

7:50, 1st half: UNI 22, WSU 20

Great shooting so far. UNI’s 6 of 10, WSU 8 of 12. Each team has four turnovers.

J.T. Durley is in for the first time. KABOOM, UNI leads 18-17 after Adam Viet’s second KABOOM.

Durley, KABOOM! The kid isn’t shy. He’s in the game about 30 seconds and fires it up early in the shot clock.

Viet, KABOOM, though they should take away a half-point when he did a post-shot flop, trying to draw a free throw. Viet, by the way, is averaging 3.3 points and already has nine.

Don’t know how interesting this is, but every Panther who sees the floor is from the connecting four states of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. There’s your geography lesson for the evening.

10:11, 1st half: WSU 17, UNI 15

Aaron Ellis and Hatch in for WSU. The pressure has paid off for the Shockers so far. UNI has two turnovers.

Mekel just doesn’t look like he feels well, but the results are good. With the shot clock winding down, he almost lost his footing on a drive, then turned and beat the clock with a 12-footer for a 10-7 lead. Then he got a steal and drove down, beating a defender for a running basket. It’s 12-7 and he may be throwing up in the WSU huddle after UNI called a quick timeout.

UNI got within two on a three-pointer, then a matchup zone caused an unforced turnover when Griskenas bounced a pass of Thomasson’s shin.

Another three from UNI, and I’m learning that the signature call of UNI radio voice Gary Rima is “KABOOM” after a three. Better than “Lolly Lolly Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here!” I guess.

Hey, he didn’t say “KABOOM” when Hatch hit one for a 17-13 lead . . . .

15:20, 1st half: WSU 8, UNI 7

The Shocker big men are going to have a tough time matching up with Coleman and Adam Koch, UNI’s big men. Both are active and quick, especially with the ball. Coleman got the game’s first two with 16:40 to play.

Adam Koch was 1 of 13 from three-point range before firing one in for UNI. It’s 5-2.

WSU applies some 3/4-court zone pressure, just to slow up the Panthers a bit. They back up into a zone which causes a bad pass out of bounds.

Coleman is a left-handed hoss. He drove into Thomasson, who Fosbury flopped trying to draw a charge, but no call and Coleman put it in.

WSU is on a 4-0 run with some pressure defense paying off. Clemente hit a wide-open 16-footer — Coleman will let him have that shot — then Couisnard dunked for an 8-7 lead. P.J. got a steal on the press, too, and WSU will have the ball after a media timeout.

Now this from the Waterloo Holiday Inn.

7:05 p.m.: I’ve got a Gal . . .

Lineup change: F Mantas Griskenas in the starting five for WSU over Graham Hatch.

Mekel gets the start. I always thought unless you were just vomiting the whole time, you no doubt felt better running up and down the court than just sitting still. Hey, look what it did for Michael Jordan in the ‘93 NBA Finals.

Some of the seats filled, but still probably only 9,000 fannies in attendance.

7 p.m.: The lineups

For the Panthers: F Adam Koch, C Eric Coleman, G Adam Viet, G Jared Josten, G Travis Brown. (One note about Coleman leading the Panthers in assists — it’s only 1.7 a game. You telling me there’s no guard on this team averaging 1.7 assists?)

For the Shockers: F Ramon Clemente, F Phil Thomasson, G P.J. Couisnard, G Graham Hatch . . . and G Gal Mekel.

6:55 p.m.: Around the arena

It’s a cold night. Kansas and Kansas State are on TV. So’s a “Law and Order” repeat, I think.

There are MANY, MANY empty seats nine minutes before lineups. The student section is about 5/8ths full and many of the choice seats — those taken by SASO and athletic department sponsors — aren’t filled yet.

6:50 p.m.: UNI trying for rare air

Matt Braeuer, in suit and tie, picked out the game ball for the officials. Always a point guard.

Northern Iowa, as you know, is trying to win in Koch Arena for the fourth straight season. No team has done that on WSU’s home court since Dana Altman’s Creighton Bluejays did it in 1995 through 1998.

The Panthers are an interesting bunch. Forward Eric Coleman leads UNI in five categories (scoring, rebounding, assists, blocks and steals) and is the nation’s only player to lead his team in all five. He leads in shooting percentage (.597), too.

The Panthers (11-7, 3-4) broke a four-game losing streak on Saturday by beating Missouri State in Cedar Falls. It’s not a good team in close games — UNI is 1-4 in games decided by six points of fewer. Of course, WSU hasn’t handled late-game situations all that well, either.

6:40 p.m.: “Angel is a Centerfold”

If the pep band is playing that song, we must be getting close to tipoff.

Tonight’s officials are Randy McCall, Steve Skiles and Kipp Kissinger. I always get a good chuckle out of the officials giving a wink or a thumbs-up to the radio guys as they come onto the court for the first time. It’s as if they’re saying, “Hey there, radio guy, I don’t remember your name, but I obviously know you who are and speak kindly of me tonight.”

6:30 p.m.: Time to rate the Panthers

As always during the conference season, we’ll rate the incoming opponent to start the blogging night. We rate the school and its importance to the Missouri Valley Conference. We’ll use the following for criteria, giving a maximum of 10 points for each and a minimum of 1. Here’s our look at Northern Iowa.

1. Its national reputation in college basketball. The greatest Division I moment in Northern Iowa basketball history came in 1990, when the 14th-seeded Panthers upset Missouri (and former UNI coach Norm Stewart), the third seed, in a first-round game. Since then the Panthers have gone on to great things . . . well, not really. Consider that UNI wasn’t a Valley member in 1990 (it joined two years later). Consider that UNI has had its most productive Valley seasons in the last four years, which have led to three NCAA bids (all first-round losses). Though UNI has made occasional strides in the Valley, it’s never translated to the national stage. 2 points.

2. Where its best players rate historically among the conference’s best. The Panthers always seem to contribute scoring guards to the all-time MVC roster: Ben Jacobson (not the coach), Jason Daisy (still can’t forget the night he weaved through five Shockers like they were orange cones and hit a game-winning shot at the buzzer), Robbie Sieverding and Cam Johnson. Forwards Grant Stout and Eric Coleman (a senior this year) would also be on the five-man UNI watch list. Among those guys, only Daisy is an MVC player of the year. 4 points.

3. Its home arena. I’ve not been to the McLeod Center in its short history, but I’m told it’s a pretty and functional 8,000-seat venue. It gets my benefit of the doubt only because I want to move on to two of the worst venues in MVC history. There was the UNI-Dome, the 10,000-bad-seats-for-basketball facility that was really a domed stadium that seats about 22,000 for football and indoor track, though I don’t know of any meet in collegiate indoor track history that has attracted 22,000 fans. To fully appreciate how awful the UNI-Dome was for basketball, consider:

– In Randy Smithson’s first season, the Shockers’ locker room was a full quarter-mile from the playing floor, which sat near midfield of the football field. It was such a long hike to and from the locker room, the Shockers were late in getting to the floor for the second half and were nearly assessed a technical foul. The only thing that might’ve saved them was officials’ pity.

– To make the setup for basketball seem more homey — kinda like playing a chess match in the LA Coliseum — the folks and UNI put temporary bleachers on one side of the basketball court, much like the stands you’d see at a City League gym. On the other side, across the media table and eight-lane track, sat about 9,000 football seats. How homey, especially for the guys in row 52.

– Finally, a personal story. In 1998, I was the Shocker beat writer when freshman Maurice Evans and a Northern Iowa player got into a brief and seemingly innocent scrape early in the game as they were trailing a play. Official Eric Harmon (who was in “Blue Chips” and kicked Nick Nolte out of a game), saw the scrape and whistled both players for flagrant fouls and ejected both from the game. I didn’t see the elbowing or punching or whatever it was and decided I needed to ask Harmon for a clarification of what happened. So after the game I ask a UNI athletic department official where I can find the officials. He gives me seemingly detailed directions. Twenty minutes later, I think I was in southern Minnesota. The back hallways and locker areas of the UNI-Dome are so immense that I had no idea where they were. Luckily, Harmon and his two colleagues were leaving when I caught them and got the clarification.

Then there was the 1999 Shocker game in Cedar Falls, when the UNI-Dome was under repair because of roof leakage. The Panthers were forced to play in what they called “West Gym,” a 2,000-seat, 70-year-old gymnasium that any Kansas high school would be ashamed of. I’ll never forget the sight that day of Shocker radio guys Mike Kennedy and Steve Shogren having to climb into a crow’s nest-type perch to call the game, almost directly over the action.

But we’re grading the McLeod Center now. It’s new and nice, I’m told. Finally, a great place to watch a game in Cedar Falls. 8 points.

4. Its home fans. We can only hope Panther fans are enthused by their team’s success in past years. Those northern Iowa winters are too cold not to have something to look forward to. 4 points.

5. Its home city. The Cedar Falls-Waterloo metroplex is your basic small-town, big-campus combo. It rivals Terre Haute for smallest MVC community, which means only the smallest of American and United airlines planes fly into the airport. They’re the kind of flights where the co-pilot is also the flight attendant. I’m not an alcohol consumer before and during flights, but the St. Louis-to-Waterloo route always had me thinking about a stop at the Lambert Airport sports bar before heading to the connecting flight. 3 points.

6. Its mascot and school colors. Panthers, purple and gold. They’re named the Panthers, of course, because of all the wild cats in the nearby Cedar Mountains. 4 points.

7. Most colorful players and coaches from the school. Not much to work with here. Two UNI coaches stand out — Norm Stewart (more for his Mizzou days, obviously) and Eldon Miller. After leaving Ohio State, Miller took over the Panthers in 1986 and led them to the MU upset in 1990 and later into the Valley. Miller was, let’s be kind, not colorful. Solid coach, far from flashy. 3 points.

8. And, finally, a chance to earn 10 bonus points based on none of the above. Until about five years ago, you could still find many folks around the Valley who still wonder what the heck Doug Elgin and the St. Louis folks were thinking when they pushed to bring Northern Iowa into the conference. Geographically it’s not a bad spot, but Panthers basketball didn’t offer anything on a national scale until just recently. The Panthers battle Drake for the third-most popular college sports program in Iowa. Other than that, there’s the never-ending battle to separate itself from Northern Illinois University (UNI, NIU). And, finally, a bonus point goes to radio analyst Kevin Boyle. Longtime Shocker fans will remember that Boyle, who was Miller’s assistant for a long time, is the Iowa Hawkeyes player who missed the close-in shot that would’ve given the Hawkeyes the NCAA second-round victory over WSU on March 15, 1981. You know what happened from there. 5 points.

The Panthers check in at . . . 33 points. That puts them in third, five more schools (including WSU) to go. We’ll rate Bradley on Saturday night.

The current standings

Creighton 55

Illinois State 43

Northern Iowa 33

Drake 29

6:20 p.m.: 1 and 6

Uniform alert: WSU is in its white uniforms tonight, shunning tonight.

When you’re 1-6 in conference play, there are no “must” wins. But let’s consider tonight’s game for a sec.

It’s the first of three straight home games for the Shockers (UNI, Bradley, Missouri State). If there’s anything the first seven games have taught us, it’s that WSU may not be able to beat everyone in the league, but it at least can compete with them all. Or most. Especially at home.

A loss tonight would mean a 1-7 MVC record with five home, five road Valley games remaining (and whoa, I don’t even want to think about the Bracket Buster matchup right now). If there’s any hope of getting out of Thursday’s play-in round at the Valley tournament — and there’s not much hope — WSU desperately needs this one. And Saturday’s. And probably next week’s game against MSU.

And if there’s ever a wounded tiger, it’s this Shocker team. Braeuer’s out, and five more players are banged up or sick (Couisnard’s shoulder, Burley’s knee, Michael’s thigh, Clemente’s finger, Mekel’s flu symptoms). They need this one tonight for confidence.

6:10 p.m.: Welcome to the Roundhouse

First things first: Gal Mekel is participating in early shooting duties. He’s blinking a lot, like his eyes are watering, but I think we’ll see him tonight. How much, will he start, those kinds of things are TBA.

Thanks for checking in with the blog tonight. I’ll be rating Northern Iowa and its Missouri Valley contributions in about a half-hour, then we’ll get to previewing the game and all that good stuff.

Back after this from the UNI Sports Network (oh, that’s what the guy next to me says).