When Northern Iowa and St. John’s meet in one of those popular ‘upset game scenarios’ of a twelve seed, versus a five seed, it will be a matchup of two very accomplished coaches. St. John’s coach Rick Pitino and UNI’s Ben Jacobson have combined to win 1,310 games.
Pitino (79-24 with the Red Storm) has captured 913 and Jacobson has collected 397 during his twenty seasons with the Panthers. While the hall-of-famer Pitino has a national reputation and national championships on his resume, the Missouri Valley Conference’s longest tenured coach has led Northern Iowa to five NCAA Tournaments and one Sweet Sixteen appearance.
Each of these teams are on a hot streak. St. John’s is the first team in Big East history to win back-to-back, both the regular season and tournament titles. The Johnnies have sustained just one loss since January 3. UNI needed four wins in four days at the MVC tournament to qualify for the ‘Big Dance.
St. John’s is bigger and plays a faster brand of basketball than the Panthers. The Red Storm (28-6) are ranked in the top twenty in both the NET and Kenpom.com. Their metric numbers are impressive and the list of personal accolades are long.
All-conference and all-defensive team center Zuby Ejiofor is a 16-point, seven-rebound performer who plays aggressive defense, collecting 40 steals and 73 blocked shots. The 6’9 Eijofor presents a huge challenge for UNI big man Will Hornseth.
But the Red Storm have plenty of size and ability beyond ‘Zuby’. All-Big East forward Dillon Mitchell joined Eijofor on the league’s all-defensive team ant the 6’8 Mitchell averages ‘only’ eight points to go with his seven rebounds per game.
St. John’s isn’t a great three-point shooting team, but have capable snipers in Oziyah Sellers and Ian Jackson.