The 2020–21 Northern Iowa Panthers men's basketball team represented the

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa, United States. UNI offers more than 90 majors across five colleges. The fall 2024 total enrollment was 9,283 students. The university was initially founded in 1 ...

during the

2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season The 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 25, 2020, and concluded on March 14, 2021. The 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament culminated the season and began on March 18 and concluded on April 5. Season ...

. The Panthers, led by 15th-year head coach

Ben Jacobson Ben Scott Jacobson (born December 16, 1970) is an American basketball coach. He is the head men's basketball coach at the University of Northern Iowa, a position he has held since 2006. He served as an assistant at North Dakota Fighting Hawks me ...

, played their home games at the McLeod Center in

Cedar Falls, Iowa Cedar Falls is a city in Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city population was 40,713. Cedar Falls is home to the University of Northern Iowa, a public university. Cedar Falls along with neighbori ...

as members of the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...

(MVC). In a season limited due to the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the Panthers finished the season 10–15, 7–11 in MVC play, to finish in a three-way tie for fifth place. As the No. 7 seed in the MVC tournament, they defeated Illinois State in the first round before being forced to forfeit their quarterfinal game against

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

due to positive COVID-19 tests.

Previous season

The Panthers finished the 2019–20 season 25–6, 14–4 in MVC play, to win the MVC regular-season championship. They lost in the quarterfinals of the MVC tournament to

. As a regular-season conference champion who failed to win their conference tournament, they were set to receive an automatic bid to NIT. However, all postseason tournaments were thereafter canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Offseason

Departures

2020 recruiting class

2021 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results

, - !colspan=9 style=, Regular season , - !colspan=12 style=, MVC tournament Source:

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2020-21 Northern Iowa Panthers men's basketball team Northern Iowa Panthers men's basketball seasons

Northern Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

Panth Panth (also panthan, meaning "path" in Sanskrit), also called the Sampradaya, is the term used for several religious traditions in India. A panth is founded by a guru or an acharya in guru-shishya parampara, and is often led by scholars or senior ...