CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Paul Jesperson sat in his Northern Iowa gear last March, waiting with all of his teammates and coaches to see their destination for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Jesperson — a Merrill native and arguably one of the best basketball players to come out of central Wisconsin in the past 20 years — and the Panthers capped a 30-3 regular season with a Missouri Valley Conference title. That meant an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Northern Iowa was sent to Seattle for an opening round game against Wyoming. The Panthers wound up advancing, behind (at the time) a career-high 16 points from Jesperson, to the round of 32 in last year’s tournament before falling to Louisville.