On Sunday Northern Iowa SR PG Wes Washpun scored 18 PTS including the MVC tourney-winning jumper at the buzzer to clinch a 2-PT win over Evansville en route to being named conference tourney MVP. He also helped the Panthers earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament, where they hope to win a game just like they did last March. Coach Ben Jacobson is no stranger to the postseason, having guided his team to the CIT/NIT/NCAA in 7 of his past 8 seasons on the sideline. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Coach Jacobson about upsetting a #1-seed and not calling a timeout at the end of the title game last weekend.
You graduated from North Dakota with the most AST in school history: what is the secret to being a good PG? You have to understand that you have to get everyone involved…but your best player needs to touch the basketball.
In the 2010 NCAA tourney guard Ali Farokhmanesh made a legendary 3-PT shot in a 2-PT upset of #1-seed Kansas to help reach the 1st Sweet 16 in school history: how did that game change your life (if at all), and what is the key to pulling off an upset in March? We already had a good national perception but it propelled our program forward in ways that we could not have otherwise done. You need to have an experienced team and a group of guys who believe they will win.
You beat several good teams in non-conference play this season including Stephen F. Austin/North Carolina/Iowa State: which of these teams impressed you the most? North Carolina’s size up front might be the best in the country, and Iowa State has as much versatility on offense as any team we have faced in recent memory.
You began conference play 2-6 before winning 12 of your final 13 games (including a pair of win over Wichita State): how were you able to turn around your entire season starting in late-January? Our 3 seniors (Matt Bohannon/Paul Jesperson/Wes Washpun) stuck to the plan and did not get sideways, which is the whole key. Our sophomores also started to play well, which helped a lot.
On Sunday Washpun scored 18 PTS including the tourney-winning jumper at the buzzer to clinch a 2-PT win over Evansville en route to being named conference tourney MVP: why did you decide not to call a timeout, and did you think his shot was going in? With it being the last possession and having seen Wes be in that situation a number of times before, we knew that we would get the last shot and that he would not shoot it too early. We went to the same action for the final 5 minutes of the game so I felt great about letting him run the play. I thought it was going in before he released it because he just made that same shot a possession earlier, but after it hit the back rim I did not think it would go in.
Your top-3 scorers are all seniors: how crucial has their veteran leadership been to your success this year? Last year we had 5 seniors who gave us terrific leadership during the entire season. Our 3 seniors this year had to do something different, but they have shown as good a job of leadership as any that I can remember during my entire time here.
You are known for having 1 of the best defenses in the nation: what is the key to playing good defense? Trust. You have to guard the ball and make rotations to cover up for your teammates and box out to only allow 1 shot.
9 players on your roster are from the state of Iowa: how do you compete with Fran McCaffery/Steve Prohm on the recruiting trail? We have been hammering away at that since I first got here as an assistant in 2001. It was our top priority from a recruiting standpoint and we continue to work at that every day.
This month marks the 10th anniversary of your hiring as head coach at Northern Iowa, where you are already the winningest coach in school history and have won 3 MVC COY awards: what makes you such a good coach and how long do you plan on sticking around for? We are really consistent with what we expect from our players and how we go about recruiting. We work hard to help our guys understand that they have to compete hard but also treat people right. I plan to stick around for as long as I can.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? I think that we will get an 11 or 12 seed, which is about what we have earned. We are 4-1 against the top-50 so our resume looks great at that end. We have 4-5 losses around the 200 mark, which will hold us down, but we have won 12 of our last 13.