KXEL Presents: The Home of the Panthers Basketball Pre-Game Podcast - November 30, 2022

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Welcome to the Home of the Panthers podcast produced by Newstalk 1540 KXCL and presented by Imon Communications.

Experience the Imon Difference.

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News Talk 15 40 K X C L is your home of the Panthers and before each Panther men's basketball game during the 2022-23 season, we talked with Panther sophomore Bowen Bourne and this week Bowen coming off a big performance, a career high 30 points in Saturday's win against Northern Illinois.

Bowen, congratulations on that big day.

Thank you very much.

What was going right?

You were obviously making free throws, a dozen points from the free throw line, but 36 minutes on the court and 30 points.

That's a good day for anybody.

Yeah, for sure.

It felt good to be out there.

And you know, for me, it was pretty much going out there and doing the same things that I always do.

I've obviously played a little bit more college basketball now.

So you just get a little bit of a better feel, you know, just for the game and for the reads that you're trying to make.

you know for me it was it was really kind of keeping the same mentality and

And so I just stayed aggressive throughout the whole game and got to the rim, got to the rim a bunch.

And so, yeah, I thought, you know, for me and from a mentality standpoint, I basically kind of attacked the game the same way that I did every other game and just ended up, yeah, getting to the rim a bunch.

And my teammates kept finding me and kind of nailed some kind of mid-range jumpers and some threes.

So it was, yeah, it was a good game and it was a good win.

It was not an easy day for the Panthers.

Northern Illinois had a three possession lead at halftime and so UNI had to come back.

It had a couple of good runs in the second half.

What flipped the way the game was going into UNI's favor?

Kind of early in the first half we had a lot of turnovers and and it feels like for each game We've kind of had just one thing that that has really kind of hurt us and and it didn't really matter too much in this game Because we did end up coming up with the win But you know the last couple games we've just always had kind of one thing that has kind of struggled You know and made it made it a little bit harder for us to win the game and so like San Francisco

They had a lot of transition threes that kind of hurt us and For Grand Canyon it was the offensive boards that really hurt us in the first half and so this game It was a it was our turnovers which hadn't been an issue really and so we've kind of just had one thing Through the each game that we've played that has kind of made it.

We're almost making it difficult on ourselves to win and so Once we kind of short up, you know and kind of calm down and settled in a little bit

because initially I think we're up 21 to 9 to start that game and then kind of, you know, in that first half started to turn the ball over a little bit.

So it was a little uncharacteristic of us, I think, because I think we tend to take care of the ball pretty well.

But once we started taking care of the ball and once we switched to becoming the aggressor, that's when things really flipped for us.

And that's kind of how it's been pretty much every game.

You know, we've played stretches where we've played really well.

It's just going to be about limiting our mistakes.

and for this game, it happened to be our turnovers.

We're talking with UNI Panther men's basketball sophomore, Bowen Bourne.

The Panthers five games into the season at this point would be six.

That would be 20% of the schedule and now a conference game against Bradley.

I'll get to the Braves in a minute, but where do you feel like the Panthers are today versus opening day against Wartburg?

What's this team learned at this point?

I think the biggest takeaway is probably how important each possession is.

I think with a lot of young guys, it's kind of hard to really gauge how hard it is to get wins here at this level.

And so having a lot of guys, some of our red shirt freshmen that are playing big minutes, Trey Campbell obviously playing big minutes.

And with the injuries with Cole and Nate and Fife,

having a lot of guys that you know haven't really been through it.

I think the biggest thing that we're realizing is is how important every possession is.

We talk a lot about offense efficiency rating and you always want to keep it under one point per possession and and we're kind of right around you know 1.05, 1.04 and the last couple of games and so you know simply looking at that number just to get it under

one point per possession.

It's really only one or two stops.

And when you do have it under one point per possession, your winning percentage goes up by 83%.

So you're winning 83% of the games that you're not allowing the opponent to score over one point per possession.

And so that's hurt us.

And I feel like we're kind of realizing, you know, through watching film and just through playing in it, you know, how important a defensive rebound can be for us, you know, how important.

a single box out can be because for a lot of these, it's come down to single possession games.

And so I think that's been the biggest takeaway for us so far is just how important each possession is and having to give 100% of your effort the entire game.

You brought up the injuries.

Who is filling in and been most impressive to you as a veteran in those capacities that they might not have expected to be playing in?

Yeah, I think, obviously, you know, you look at our starting lineup, Mike Duax has had to come in right away and kind of be a starter for us.

And I thought he's played really well.

He had a good tournament.

You know, the two games down in Kansas City, he played really well for us.

And he's kind of played well, you know, the last game as well.

And then to add on to that, Landon Wolfe has played pretty well.

So I think those two initially come, you know, come to mind first just because of, yeah.

They've had a red shirt year, so they've been in practice a little bit.

So that just helps, you know, just in terms of your feel.

But it's also practice.

It's kind of hard to relate to the game.

And so it's a little bit different once you get out there.

But I think those two have done just a really good job of kind of stepping in and contributing for us in some big minutes.

If the Panthers run into a night where there's foul trouble or something else that's going wrong, what's the depth picture look like for you and I?

How do you feel about that as a starter and the ability to get good minutes off the bench?

Yeah, I mean, we have a good bench.

Again, it's a young bench, but...

you kind of got some guys that have just really grown, really grown a lot from, you know, this summer.

And that's all you're really looking for in a season is to continue to grow.

And, you know, nobody's going to be perfect.

But, but yeah, I mean, you look at the guys already that have stepped up, you know, like Mike, you know, who would have been coming off the bench and maybe not playing as many minutes, you know, like, I feel like each guy, you know, is always ready when their name is called another guy.

You look at like Joe Daniel, you know, he

has worked extremely hard over the past year, you know, and not knowing, you know, what type of minutes he's going to get.

And so I feel like that kind of just is also a part of the culture of your team and, you know, always being ready, you know, when your name is called to

come out and step up.

We're talking with UNI Panther men's basketball sophomore Bowen Bourne ahead of the Panthers and the Bradley Braves, the first game on this year's Missouri Valley Conference schedule.

When you see the Braves on the schedule, particularly when the game is in Peoria, what do you know about what's going to happen?

We know it's going to be a physical game for sure.

We played there last year kind of in a similar situation where it was kind of in the middle of the non-conference.

And so last year specifically, yeah, just remember them being the best team that we had played up until that point.

maybe not talent-wise, but just in how they play.

You know, league games are always just so much harder than regular games.

You know, having last year obviously playing at Arkansas and then playing at St.

Bonaventure, those were some talented teams.

And then you come into Bradley and obviously we played Bradley one game after the...

you know, top 25 win at St.

Bonaventure, and Bradley really took it to us.

And so it's a little bit of a mindset switch in terms of, you know, going in there, you have to be ready to play because it's going to be just a gritty, tough game.

And so taking the approach of knowing that, you know, being ready for their defense, their really solid defensive team, they've got some really good offensive players as well.

And so yeah, just going in, you know, especially at an away game, you know, it always makes it harder, you know, to go into somebody else's arena kind of in the middle of your non-conference schedule and trying to get a win.

And so that's exactly what we're going to try to do.

And but yeah, there's been a little bit of a different, you know, in terms of how we're prepping and practice, you know, prepping for the physicality and in some of those things.

So we've talked at different points about turnovers, we've talked about rebounds, different things that have been particular focus points for the Panthers, game one versus game two versus game three and onward.

If there's one thing against the Bradley Braves that you expect to be a particularly important element tonight, what's that aspect of the game?

It's going to be boxing out for sure.

You know, our coach, Seth Tuttle, has basically been talking to us pretty much the entire summer, the entire, you know, fall here, just about, you know, being ready and that we're going to have to man up, you know, and we're going to have to rebound and we're going to have to find ways to get stops.

And this was the main team that he was talking about, you know, trying to box out and get rebounds against their lengths and their physicality is going to be extremely important.

That's UNI Panther men's basketball sophomore Bowen Boer and Bowen and the Panthers taking on the Bradley Braves tonight.

Bowen, thanks for being with us.

Yeah, 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.