After winning back-to-back Missouri Valley titles and reaching the NCAA tournament's round of 16 last season, Northern Iowa entered the season with high expectations.

Instead, the Panthers (11-6, 2-3 MVC) find themselves in unfamiliar territory heading into Wednesday night's game at Illinois State.

"Our five conference games, we've played pretty good basketball for a large portion of it. Indiana State played better than we did," coach Ben Jacobson said. "In league play, you're going to be in close games."

Northern Iowa has struggled on the glass and on defense.

"The one area where we have to continue to get better is our consistency at the defensive end of the floor. Continuing to make things tough for teams late in shot clocks," Jacobson said. "We've got to work hard to become a better rebounding team."