3/25/2010
Written By: Mike Rickord
Category: Open Mike  

This cover shot of the University of Northern Iowa Panthers men’s basketball team hoisting the Missouri Valley Championship trophy for the second year in a row only tells part of the success story as I type this column on the Monday following arguably the greatest basketball game played by an Iowa university men’s team in NCAA tournament history. Saturday March 20th, 2010 will be a date etched into the state of Iowa sports annals for generations as the national coming out party of the UNI Panthers and coach Ben Jacobsen as they defeated the No. 1 ranked and No. 1 seeded Kansas Jayhawks 69-67 to advance to the sweet sixteen and absolutely destroy the office pools across America with a convincing win that has garnered national attention from coast to coast! 

This group of young men from the “Rodney Dangerfield” conference of the tournament, the Missouri Valley, have become the darlings of the dance and made everyone in America Google search the Panthers and Cedar Falls, Iowa to extract some data on the team that sabotaged their once a year opportunity for office bragging rights!

Coach Ben Jacobsen’s Panthers won their games this year the old fashioned way! They earned them! Defense and team play are the mantra for this gang of overachievers! Sound fundamentals, confidence in each other and true grit in the face of overwhelming odds have the Panthers recording history in 2010. The Panthers have no lottery picks and on paper look like the least talented team in the tournament. However, Coach Ben Jacobsen has the Panthers playing unselfishly and at times his substitution patterns remind you of a hockey line.

Gary Rima, is the long time play-by-play voice of the Panthers best known for his passionate “Ooh Baby’s” on a call and I have to tell you his “Ooh Baby I love this team” has worn off on many of us! What’s not to like? Especially if you are a basketball purist or a youth and high school coach focusing on teaching the game of basketball with 20th century principals. The Panthers focus on team defense, unselfish play, pure shooting based on hours in the gym and love of the game the way that it has been played for generations. This UNI team has developed the perfect DVD to train every youth coach, and player in America just with their game film!

This has been an incredible month for basketball in Iowa starting with the girls and boys state championships at Wells Fargo Arena. The girl’s action was tremendous and we crowned four new champions and the boys had three repeats with Ames, Bishop Heelan, and Rock Valley grabbing back to back titles. Inside this basketball issue our 12th annual is a recap of the state champions.     

The three state Universities each qualified on the women’s side for March Madness and the women from Northwestern in NAIA were national champions. This state on the basketball side of the sports ledger has had an incredible March.

However, if I did not recognize the NCAA champion Iowa Hawkeyes and 3rd place Iowa State Cyclones  last month’s front cover theme for their incredible performances  at the NCAA wrestling championships in Omaha, Nebraska I am certain that there would be grapplers at my door threatening to snap my pencil neck carcass in half. If you combine the success of Wartburg and Upper Iowa on the collegiate landscape this was another banner year for wrestling on the national scene for the state that is Mecca of the sport. 

In fact if you combine the wrestling and basketball success this winter despite the miserable weather conditions it is a winter to reflect back on with many many fond Iowa sports memories.

In closing, I thank you for taking time to pick up this basketball issue and our 12th anniversary edition of the Iowa Sports Connection magazine. The magazine continues to evolve with our supporting stable of media products. The Iowa Sports Connection Radio Network continues to expand our affiliates across Iowa and the website and digital magazines are more popular than ever with records being set every month with unique visits from across America. The final piece that we launched this past year, television is going to expand into three shows and statewide along with streaming capability on “iowasportsconnection.com”. It doesn’t get any better than the month we have all had covering sports but I’m certain that it will and the Iowa Sports Connection will be there to cover.

Have a Championship Month! God Bless You! God Bless America!