Northern Iowa

The MVC race is always up for grabs, and perhaps another surprise team like UNI lurks. Perhaps no league has as much parity as the Valley, where even the bottom teams are improved.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The Northern Iowa men's basketball team has been picked to finish first in the Missouri Valley Conference, according to the preseason poll announced today during the league's annual Basketball Media Day.

Northern Iowa, which returns all five starters after sharing the regular-season title with Creighton last year, earned 38 of 39 first-place votes in the survey of league coaches, beat writers, sports information directors and play-by-play men.

ST.

 

Overall Rank: #59

Conference Rank: #2 Missouri Valley Conference

Arizona over Utah

Northern Iowa over Purdue

Western Kentucky over Illinois

Wisconsin over Florida St

Northern Iowa Panthers

Missouri Valley Conference

 

Last NCAA Appearance: 2006, First Round loss to Georgetown

St. Louis, MO -- The University of Northern Iowa men's basketball team punched its ticket to the 2009 NCAA Tournament today with a 60-57 overtime victory over Illinois State.

Kwadzo Ahelegbe gave UNI the lead for good with a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left that brought the score to 58-57. After the Panthers came up with a defensive stop, Ali Farokmanesh connected on a pair of free throws with 6.8 seconds left to seal the win for UNI (23-10).