University of Northern Iowa Athletics
The Panthers have amassed a 355-232 (.590) record in 18 seasons under Jacobson’s leadership. UNI has reached the NCAA Tournament four times since Jacobson became the Panther head coach in March 2006, with UNI earning a first-round victory during each trip, highlighted by its 2010 upset of No. 1 Kansas to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history.
Northern Iowa has captured four Missouri Valley Conference regular season titles under Jacobson in 2009, 2010, 2020 and 2022, as well as league tournament championships in 2009, 2010, 2015 and 2016. The Panthers have also have made a pair of trips to the NIT in 2012 and 2022, as well as the CIT Tournament in 2011 and 2013.
Jacobson has coached three different Panthers to earn the Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year Award, including Adam Koch in 2010, Seth Tuttle in 2015 and AJ Green in 2020 and 2022. The Panthers have also earned 29 All-MVC selections during Jacobson’s tenure.
Following the program’s MVC regular season title in 2022, Jacobson became the first coach in the history of the 115-year history of the league to be named Coach of the Year five times. In 2024, Jacobson also picked up his 188th victory in conference play, passing Hall of Fame coach Henry P. Iba for the most in MVC history.
Opened in 2006, the McLeod Center has been the home of UNI men’s basketball for the last 18 seasons. Located and connected to the Panthers’ former home in the UNI-Dome, the McLeod Center can hold up to 6,650 people.
The Panthers have recorded three unbeaten home seasons inside the McLeod Center (2009-10, 2014-15, 2019-20), and notched the program’s first home win over an AP No. 1 team on Nov. 21, 2015 over North Carolina. UNI enters the 2024-25 season with a 205-64 record inside the McLeod Center (.762 win percentage).
Brandon Ronan (MS, CSCS) is in his third season as the strength and conditioning coach for the UNI men’s basketball team.
Ronan, a Waukon, Iowa native, comes to Cedar Falls after spending eight years at the University of Montana, where he most recently served as Director of Athletic Performance.
Ronan earned his bachelor’s degree from Loras College in Dubuque in sports science in 2013, where he played four seasons of football for the Duhawks. A key piece of the Loras defense, Ronan was named All-Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference as a senior in 2012, and also earned a conference defensive player of the week honor.
While an undergrad, Ronan earned experience in the field interning for both the Loras and Boise State strength and conditioning programs, helping demonstrate techniques for running and weight lifting for athletes.
Following a summer internship in 2013 with Stanford Sports Performance in Palo Alto, Ronan interned and later became a graduate assistant at the University of Montana while studying to earn a master’s degree in health and human performance.
After graduating from Montana in 2016, he took on full time duties with the Grizzlies as Assistant Director of Athletic Performance, serving as the head strength coach for Montana volleyball, women’s basketball, track and field, and cross county. He also assisted in strength coaching for football, and became an adjunct professor of Health and Human Performance at Montana, teaching basic concepts of strength training and conditioning, before being promoted to Director of Athletic Performance in November 2017.
UNI men's basketball players work closely with Senior Associate Athletic Director for Student Services Stacia Eggers, who has exclusively served as the team's academic advisor since 2009. Under her direction, UNI student-athletes have had a higher grade point average than the general student body every semester since spring 2010.
Since 2012, men's basketball's semester GPA has been over 3.00 in 17 of the previous 22 semesters. The Panthers also boasted a 3.45 semester GPA in the spring of 2023, and a cumulative team GPA of 3.44, the highest of all of UNI's men's teams.
