College Basketball Betting Guide

From deep within the plains of the American Midwest comes a basketball powerhouse. At Northern Iowa University, basketball reigns supreme. The Northern Iowa Panthers, from Cedar Falls, Iowa, have turned some serious heads within the last few years. Rising from relative dormancy, the Panthers have reached the NCAA Division I Tournament in four of the last six years (2004, 2005, 2006, and 2009).  Competing in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), the Northern Iowa Panthers have had a very strong presence, experiencing incredible amounts of success among fellow teams.

The Panthers have earned the MVC regular season conference title in 1925, 1929, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1953, 1961, 1964, 1969, and 2009, and taking top honor at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament more recently in 2004 and 2009. In total, the Northern Iowa Panthers have appeared in the NCAA Division I Tournament eight times: three times reaching the second round, and once winning 4th place (1964). Another interesting note, when the United States announced that it would not send a team to compete in the 2007 World University Games, the Northern Iowa Panthers volunteered to attend the games, representing the United States, and playing other college athletes from around the world. The team ended up finishing 9th in the games.

Current coach Ben Jacobson has been at the reigns of the team since 2006, when former coach Greg McDermott—arguably the team’s most successful coach in recent history—left to take a head coach position at Iowa State University. In the Midwest, basketball is a big deal, to say the least, and the Northern Iowa Panthers are no exception to that rule.