KXEL Presents: The Home of the Panthers Basketball Pre-Game Podcast - November 26, 2022

Welcome to the Home of the Panthers podcast produced by News Talk 1540 KXCL and presented by I'm On Communications.

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It's time to talk about some UNI Panther men's basketball third game of this holiday week for the Panthers and as part of our pregame coverage this season we're talking with UNI Panther men's basketball sophomore Bowen Bourne who joins us now as the Panthers prepare to take out

the Huskies of Northern Illinois coming from DeKalb over to Cedar Falls and a chance to play at the McLeod Center for the first time in a while.

Bowen, thanks for being back with us.

Appreciate you having me on.

Before we talk about today's game in particular, I wanted to get some thoughts from you.

We're at that point where high school basketball season is getting underway.

Other levels of basketball getting going, it's really starting to feel like the season now that we've

gotten past Thanksgiving.

Let me ask a little bit about development and your insights as a college player for some of those kids who might be going out at the junior high level, the high school level, maybe a different age.

What kinds of things at the start of a season are really important to try to apply after maybe just a couple of weeks of practice?

Yeah, I feel like there's a couple things.

The first thing I would always mention is to make sure that you're having fun.

I think basketball is played the best when everybody's out there having fun, being competitive.

And so I always notice that whenever I'm the happiest or whenever I feel the best, have the best mindset going into games or practices.

Those are usually the practice or games that I end up doing pretty well in.

Always making sure that, yeah, it's obviously serious and you want to win all the time and everybody wants to be perfect and everybody wants to play as good as they can, especially when you talk about all the time that you've put in in the offseason.

It can be frustrating sometimes when you go out there and you don't make shots that you know you can make or you are turning the ball over when you know that you've put in a lot of time on ball handling.

So always giving yourself a little bit of room for air and having fun with it and enjoying the time.

that you're spending with your teammates and your coaches like that stuff basketball matters but that the memories that you have with with teammates and coaches is always gonna kind of outweigh the things that you know the wins or losses and so that would be the first thing I would say and then yeah just being confident in your abilities and and all the work that you've put in in the past you know it's all it all pays off and so it might not pay off right away but I have a saying that's that's called water levels and so

It's basically kind of trying to stay right in the middle, you know, never getting too high and never getting too low, you know, being able to trust your work and being able to realize that you have put the work in and you deserve everything that you've done.

So always, yeah, being confident in what you're doing, whatever your role is, you know, kind of embracing it and, yeah, just being confident and having fun out there.

We're talking with UNI Panther men's basketball sophomore Bowen Bourne ahead of the Panthers and the Huskies of Northern Illinois.

And I remember one of the first times we talked ahead of a Panther game, you talked a little bit about playing junior high basketball and how there was an important formative experience.

that you remember so really those things stick with you even if you advance in the game to where you are now at least a couple of levels up playing major college basketball

yeah for sure I mean I take I take moments you know for my entire life you know and use them as you know abilities you know just to learn hum and ways to improve and so yeah as you mentioned I remember playing junior high basketball where

my seventh grade season we actually went undefeated and went 12-0 and then yeah ended up being hurt my eighth grade year and so I still yeah kind of remember pretty much everything about it I don't remember exactly everything that happened but I still use those experiences um you know anytime you're playing basketball and you're with a team you know you should always just you know pay pay attention to stuff and you should always just embrace and enjoy the things that you're given because

playing middle school basketball and playing high school basketball like even when I'm playing division one basketball.

I still think high school basketball was the most fun thing ever you know so it's it's funny how yeah you can look back at things and and and be like man you know I miss it or um you know I wish I was still still playing high school basketball or whatever but I think yeah you know I'm obviously super super blessed to have the the experiences that I have but yeah always always embrace you know wherever you're at right now and you're in your basketball journey and your journey in life like being able to

kind of just reflect a little bit and realize, you know, where you at right now, you're probably going to, you know, you're going to miss it in a couple of years.

And so I always, yeah, take experiences from junior high to high school to now playing division one basketball.

You can use your experiences throughout your whole life for a lot of things.

In terms of actual basketball development, anybody who had a hoop in their driveway.

wanted to do the same types of things they saw the NBA players doing or that they saw players that are in your position now doing at the major college level.

Are there some things though that with your basketball experience you cringe when you see a seven or eight year old trying to do them because they're not really good fundamentals and I'm guessing it's even more so now with YouTube and some of the

Crazy things that are posted there.

Yeah, for sure.

I mean, I think, you know, some people actually, you know, blame like Steph Curry for ruining the game of basketball.

And you see stuff on social media about it all the time because the stuff on social media that typically gets the most traction and gets the most views is the stuff that's not fundamentally sound.

It's the half quarters.

It's the full court shots.

It's

It's the stuff, you know, that isn't typically taught because it is so unorthodox.

And so I think, yeah, sometimes kids get caught up in, you know, they see Steph Curry, Trey Young, they see some of these guys shooting threes, 10 feet behind the three point line, and they think, oh, this is super cool.

It's on SportsCenter, you know, they see it and that's something that they want to do.

Something I always did as a as a kid and kind of growing up and going through it was I always you know when I went to the gym the first thing I always did was form shooting and so Form shooting is basically starting, you know, you can start from a couple feet out I always used to start with one hand go up and shoot it With with my guide hand completely off it and so you did kind of do it from different spots and then I would go

around again and I would put my guide hand to the side of the ball but I wouldn't touch it so then you'd kind of go through again and shoot regular and kind of then work your way back and and I think that's one of the the pivotal points of to why I'm a good shooter today is because I did focus on the fundamentals and and I think that that's something that

a lot of time goes left unseen or unsaid like you're not gonna see a highlight video of Steph Curry doing form shooting or shooting layups you know like you're gonna see the stuff that is difficult to do but he has worked and a lot of the guys that are good shooters have worked so tirelessly on the boring things and the stuff that nobody sees and the stuff that nobody wants to do

That a lot of those kids are not seeing it and so I think that's yeah, probably the biggest takeaway is It's focusing on the fundamentals like basketball is a really simple game if you really break it down if you can dribble and Shoot and pass you're gonna be a really good player and so a lot of the times I think yeah kids get kind of caught up In some of the wrong stuff and and not to say that's their fault Sometimes that might be the only things that they're seeing and they might not have a coach or somebody to teach them the fundamentals and so

That's why, yeah, if you can really learn kind of the basics and the basics to correct form shooting, how to dribble with your eyes up, simple stuff like that, you can end up using that and turning yourself into a really good player because I feel like I haven't done anything super unorthodox in terms of my training to get to where I'm at now.

I have just focused on the basic fundamentals and it has ended up turning out pretty good for me.

Well, we've almost run out of time.

Let me ask a little bit about the Huskies and maybe even more so than about northern Illinois.

I mentioned right off the bat that it's been a while since the Panthers have been at home at the McLeod Center.

You have to go back to that game against Wartburg.

So almost a handful of games since then.

Is it good to be back?

Is it something that you've been looking forward to in particular?

I know it's the middle of a long stretch here early in the season, but does it kind of feel like a homecoming of sorts?

Yeah, I mean, it's always good to be back in the McLeod.

It's a little bit different.

Yeah, because a lot of the students are on break, but it's definitely good to be back home and to play in front of our Panther fans.

And yeah, it's a little bit different because it is on break.

It's a little bit colder now than it was the last time we played.

So, definitely always feels great to be back in the cloud.

So, I didn't go to UNI.

I have a tremendous number of friends who did.

And there's always the conversation about UNI or NIU for people who aren't from either Northern Iowa or Northern Illinois.

Any good stories about the confusion that that sometimes causes?

Has anyone ever said, hey?

How's things going at Northern Illinois?

I've never had anything happen directly to me, but it's funny you mention that because my grandma, whenever there would be something in the newspaper or whatever, she would always send it to me and be like, this is not right.

And so, yeah, I do have, yeah, kind of just some friends or family that will message me and be like, wait a minute.

That's that's not what you guys are you and I and I you you know so um so yeah I think it's yeah pretty funny that you know sometimes yeah people will will mention that to me.

There will definitely be some confusion someone will be confused about the result of today's game.

For sure.

Bowen thanks for being back with us again and uh great to talk with you and we'll look forward to talking about some conference basketball next week as the Panthers get an early start in the MVC.

Yep thanks for having me on.

Thanks for listening to the Home of the Panthers podcast presented by I'm On Communications.

Experience the I'm On difference.

I'm Tim Harwood.