Redshirt freshman Wes Rubin showed scoring ability
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CEDAR FALLS — The Northern Iowa men’s basketball team put its preseason work on display Saturday afternoon at McLeod Center, holding an open practice for season-ticket holders and media.
It was the first event of its kind in Coach Ben Jacobson’s now 19 years with the program. It culminated with a midcourt photo that included players and their family members.
Jacobson said the idea came from Loyola-Chicago.
“I don’t know how many years they’ve done it there, but I was talking with (UNI redshirt freshman forward) Wes (Rubin’s) mom Nancy — Wes’ brother (Miles) is at Loyola and they had just gotten done with (theirs),” Jacobson said. “So that’s where the idea came from.”
A large portion of the open practice featured five-on-five play with players split into purple and gold teams.
The purple team’s roster typically included Tytan Anderson, Jacob Hutson, Trey Campbell, Leon Bond, Rubin, RJ Taylor and Hunter Jacobson, while the gold team was usually Kyle Pock, Max Weisbrod, Ben Schwieger, Redek Born, Charlie Miller, Will Hornseth, Cael Schmitt and Charlie Miller.
As a few different versions of five-on-five took place, Jacobson occasionally met with both teams and called timeouts. Meanwhile, assistant coach Seth Tuttle largely led the purple team and assistant Gameli Ahelegbe guided the gold team.
Asked how he delegates to assistants in practice, Jacobson described how former assistant Kyle Green convinced him to have an “offensive coordinator” and “defensive coordinator” on his staff around seven or eight years ago.
“A lot of responsibility for an offensive coordinator, if you will. A lot of responsibility for a defensive coordinator, if you will,” Jacobson said. “And it’s worked well for us.”
A dry-erase board sat on the northwest corner of the court with messaging that included a list of the day’s goals of “enthusiasm,” “communication,” “be present” and “maximum effort.” Elsewhere on the board was a rebounds vs. turnovers statistic of Purdue’s and how it correlated to the Boilermakers’ record the past 19 years.
“It makes sense that you would be either studying or working to build a relationship with someone who’s done it at a high level for so long,” Jacobson said of his friendship with Purdue Coach Matt Painter. “There’s parts of man-to-man defense, they run a lot of actions — multiple actions offensively. There’s parts of what our teams do that are similar enough that there’s a direct tie there. I watch them as often as I can and reach out to (Painter) from time to time and get some thoughts on things.”
Perimeter shooting from Anderson, Campbell and Pock stood out in the nearly 90-minute practice. As did Bond’s athleticism and Rubin’s scoring at all three levels of the floor, which included a step-back jumper on one possession to beat the shot clock.
“The area that he’s worked really hard on is his conditioning and being healthy and staying healthy, which is directly tied to the weight room and getting in better shape and taking care of your body,” Jacobson said of Rubin. “All of that has been at the top of the list. Because if you’re not doing those things you can’t get (into) the skill level (he’s got).”
UNI’s season is less than a month away. The Panthers host Dubuque at McLeod Center on Nov. 4.
