Men’s Basketball 1818 Chouteau Ave. • St. Louis, MO 63103 • (314) 444-4300 March 5, 2020 • Contact: Mike Kern UNI's Ben Jacobson Named Top MVC Men’s Basketball Coach The Four-Time Recipient Ties League's All-Time Record University of Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year at a State Farm MVC Tournament luncheon on Thursday. Now in his 14th season at the helm of UNI, Jacobson is the longest-tenured of any current coach in the MVC. It marks the fourth time that Jacobson has been honored as the league's top coach, tying Maury John 2020 Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year Voting of Drake as the only two in league history to win the award four times. Coach, School 1st 2nd 3rd Total Ben Jacobson, UNI 24 16 4 108 Jacobson edged Southern Illinois' Bryan Mullins, Southern Illinois 23 14 5 102 Bryan Mullins by six points in the voting Greg Lansing, Indiana State -- 11 24 46 (108 to 102). SIU was picked 10th in the Porter Moser, Loyola Chicago 2 7 12 32 pre-season poll and finished fifth. UNI, Coaches received three points for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote and one point for a third-place vote. Only the top-4 meanwhile, was picked to finish third in coaches are listed, therefore the votes do not match the total number this year's pre-season rankings. It's the of voters in each category. The maximum number of votes a coach third time in the past five seasons that the could receive was 45. league's top coaching honor was decided by six points or fewer (In 2016, Barry Hinson of SIU earned the award by three points over Gregg Marshall of Wichita State, and in 2017, Dan Muller of Illinois State edged Marshall by six points in the voting.) UNI earned the State Farm MVC Tournament top seed after earning the league’s regular-season men’s basketball title for the first time since 2010. It is the third regular-season crown for UNI (2009-shared, 2010-outright). It marks the third time UNI has been the top seed at Arch Madness. UNI won titles in 2009 and 2010 as the top seed. It also earned tourney championships in 2004, 2015 and 2016. Jacobson has led the Panthers to the NCAA Tournament four times previously, most recently in 2016. Jacobson continues to climb the all-time MVC lists for victories. Only one other coach has won as many as 291 games during his 14th MVC season. Henry Iba of Oklahoma State had 302 total wins at the end of his 14th year. Notably, Jacobson is fourth all-time in MVC history with those 291 career wins as an MVC coach, and his 153 league wins rank fifth-best. Jacobson enters this year’s State Farm MVC Tour- nament with a 16-9 all-time record at Arch Madness (with four crowns). The 16 wins rank third all-time in MVC history, while the four titles trail only the six championships earned by Dana Altman (Creighton). Alt- man’s 21 all-time tourney wins is the league record. Notably, the only other UNI coach to claim the MVC's top honor was Eldon Miller in 1997. UNI opens up Arch Madness on Friday (March 6) at 12 p.m. versus the winner of this evening’s No. 8 Drake versus No. 9 Illinois State game. The Panthers are seeking their first NCAA Tournament berth since the 2016 season, one in which they defeated Evansville in the State Farm MVC Tournament title game. # # # # # .