‘Beat No. 1’ checked off

Reporting from Cedar Falls, Iowa

At the beginning of the season, as he has done every year at Northern Iowa, Coach Ben Jacobson hands his team a piece of paper and a pen, asks them to list their goals and leaves the room.

The list this season’s team came up with was lengthy. Jacobson makes a copy for each player who keeps it in his locker.

“There’s a lot of different things,” senior guard Ali Farokhmanesh said. “We don’t like to talk about it because it’s the teams’ goals.”

Knocking off No. 1 Kansas, as the ninth-seeded Panthers did last week to advance to the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 against fifth-seeded Michigan State on Friday, probably was beyond their dream chart.

But the Panthers (30-4) never doubted what they set out to accomplish this season under Jacobson, in his fourth year as coach.

“He makes us make a promise on it,” Farokhmanesh said. “It’s not a list of random things.”

Northern Iowa, a school of about 13,000 students, had not won a tournament game in 20 years. But the Panthers beat Nevada Las Vegas in the first round and then Kansas to become one of the tournament’s Cinderellas. No Missouri Valley Conference tournament champion team had reached the Sweet 16 since Larry Bird and Indiana State went to the national title game in 1979.

Their journey started when the team was composed of players who were mostly afterthoughts.

Farokhmanesh, from Iowa City, said only junior colleges were interested in him. Jordan Eglseder, a 7-foot senior from nearby Bellevue, Iowa, made his commitment as a ninth grader and stuck with it despite calls from some Big Ten schools.

The Panthers aren’t newbies to the tournament either. They’ve been one of the best mid-majors for years, making the tournament five of the last seven seasons.

The only problem was getting out of the first round. This season’s team with five seniors and three juniors finally changed that.

“These guys have worked hard to earn this,” Jacobson said.

They started the season 22-2, cracked the Associated Press top 25 in February and were featured in Sports Illustrated. But they lost at Bradley on Feb. 13 and Eglseder was arrested early the next morning on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

He was suspended for three games, based on the athletic department’s code of conduct that calls for a benching of 10% of games left in such cases. The Panthers went 2-1 without their leading scorer and rebounder.

Some critics thought he should sit out the rest of the season. Some fans thought the team should wait it out and let Eglseder play.

“I thought about it a lot,” Jacobson said. “I went back and forth and thought more about, ‘Is that enough?’ But I felt very comfortable that we did the right thing. He’s a terrific kid. He’s got a very good track record.”

Eglseder said the experience shook him.

“That was one of the hardest things I ever had to go through,” he said. “Everyone knew about it, but that’s not the worst part. Having little kids ask me why I’m not playing, that was hard.”

Whether it’s success or hardships, the Panthers have perfected turning the page.

They’ll refer to their goals once again before playing Michigan State in St. Louis. And while it’s a top-secret document, Eglseder did concede one clue.

“We actually have one more goal we have to accomplish,” he said.

It’s not hard to figure out what that is.

sryan@tribune.com