The Shot
On March 20, 2010, Ali Farokhmanesh caught the ball on the right wing with 35 seconds on the shot clock. Northern Iowa led top-seeded Kansas 63-62. The smart play was to hold. Farokhmanesh jab-stepped, created space, and launched a three.
"You can't be serious with that shot!"
It went in. Northern Iowa 69, Kansas 67. Sweet 16 for the first and only time in program history. Ben Jacobson had put Northern Iowa on the map.
He stayed 16 more years. Then he left.
Twenty Years of Loyalty Met the Pac-12
Twenty Years, 397 Wins
Jacobson coached Northern Iowa for 20 seasons. 397 wins — most in program history. 220 Missouri Valley Conference wins — most in league history. Five MVC Tournament titles. Five NCAA Tournaments. Five Coach of the Year awards. He beat two different No. 1 teams: Kansas in 2010, North Carolina in 2015. Nobody else in Valley history has done that.
The 2014-15 team went 31-4. The 2019-20 squad was 25-6 when COVID killed the tournament. They probably had a Sweet 16 in them. His last team, 2025-26, became the lowest seed in 50 years of Arch Madness to win the MVC Tournament — four games in four days as a 6-seed.
His salary was $825,000. He had a rolling five-year extension signed seven months before he left. Other programs called over the years. He always said no.
"The reason was because of the relationships with the people at Northern Iowa," Jacobson said at his farewell press conference. "There are presidents, ADs, faculty and people on campus, people in the building that you have been with for a long, long time."
He was 55. Kids were grown. Utah State was entering the Pac-12. The Valley was not.
The Pac-12 Problem
The Missouri Valley has a ceiling. A good MVC team gets a 10 or 11 seed. A great one gets an 8 or 9. First weekend is the achievement. Second weekend takes a miracle — or a shot nobody thought you'd take.
Utah State offered a Pac-12 address starting July 2026. New league anchored by Gonzaga and San Diego State. Win 25 games in that conference and you're a 5 or 6 seed, not a 12.
"If we do the things that we are capable of doing, when the selection show happens, we're just in a better position because our numbers are different," Jacobson said.
Then the real reason: "That first weekend in the NCAA Tournament, that's special, but there's a next weekend... and a next weekend after that. What does that feel like?"
After 20 years of first-weekend exits and one Sweet 16, he wanted to find out.
Steppingstone U
Utah State's coaching history should give any new hire pause. Jacobson is the seventh coach in 13 years. The pattern: coaches win, get poached, leave. Craig Smith went 44-20 and left for Utah. Ryan Odom went 52-21 and left for VCU. Danny Sprinkle went 28-7 and left for Washington. Jerrod Calhoun went 55-15 and left for Cincinnati.
CBS Sports called it "college basketball's most influential mid-major job." That's a nice way of saying nobody stays.
AD Cameron Walker hired Jacobson to break the cycle. "He clearly likes to put down roots," Walker said. His scouting report was blunt: "I'm not sure that the resources are there at Northern Iowa, so you're taking someone who's outperforming their resources."
Jacobson signed a five-year deal at $1.2 million. That's a 45 percent raise. He inherits a roster that won 55 games in two years.
You take that section. I'll take this section. Let's see how many people are actually here. We counted. It was like 17 here, and 27 there... He believed at all times. He saw this before any of us did.
One Coach vs. Five
Kyle Green Came Home
Two days after Jacobson's farewell, UNI hired Kyle Green.
Green spent 16 seasons at Northern Iowa across three stints. He was on the bench for the Farokhmanesh shot. For the 31-4 season. For the lean years too. He left in 2021 for Iowa State, where he spent five years under Otzelberger. The Cyclones made the tournament every year. Two Sweet 16s. A Big 12 title. But when UNI called, Green came back.
His press conference was emotional. "There's probably some kind of over/under on how long it's going to take me to start crying," he said. "I'm probably going to get it out of the way sooner rather than later."
Then the story everyone in the room needed to hear. Early days, before anyone cared about UNI basketball. Green and Jacobson sitting on the bench before a game. Jacobson says: "You take that section. I'll take this section. Let's see how many people are actually here." They counted. Seventeen on one side. Twenty-seven on the other.
"To the time when I'm next to him on the bench in the Sweet 16," Green said. "He believed at all times. He saw this before any of us did."
Green's son AJ has a retired jersey in the rafters. "It'll probably hit me the first game," Green said. "Or the first time I get angry at the officials. I'll look up and see it. Then maybe it'll center me."
"This is more than just a school or job," he said. "It is a home."
Forty-Four Fans
Jacobson and Green counted 44 people in the stands. Twenty years later: a Sweet 16, five conference titles, 397 wins.
Green knows the deal. The man who built the program just left for a bigger conference. But Green didn't come back to compete with Logan. He came back for Cedar Falls.
"I want people to sit in the stands and think, 'I can see the mentality of that team,'" Green said. "It reflects the Cedar Valley. Tough. Hardworking. Diving on the floor for loose balls."
Forty-four fans became a Sweet 16. Green helped count them. Now he gets to keep counting.