It’s strange how much one game can make such a big difference in sports. Just a few days ago, after the University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team had lost back-to-back games to Indiana State University and the University of Evansville in heartbreaking fashion, I was thinking that this may be a lost season.

At that point, the Panthers were sitting in sixth place in the Missouri Valley Conference. While UNI’s 57-52 upset of No. 15-ranked Wichita State University is just one victory and the Panthers still sit in a fifth-place tie, it feels like an entirely new season.

For the second straight year, UNI students got to storm the court as the Panthers upset another top-15 team. UNI beat the Shockers and were the better team from start to finish. It just seems like the Panthers are back in business. That’s what one game does to a team, especially an emotional victory like that one.

One win can turn the mentality of a fan base around in a heartbeat. Instead of having that awful pain in your stomach thinking about how UNI lost two straight games due to a couple of tough calls, you can start getting excited once again that maybe this could be the season the Panthers go back to the NCAA Tournament.

The Panthers have seven games left in MVC play, eight games total (one of them being a BracketBuster game). UNI is currently two games behind Indiana State for third place and three games behind second-place WSU.

While it’s still possible to reach second place in the conference, UNI should be focusing on moving themselves into third place by season’s end. It would create much-needed momentum heading into the conference tournament in St. Louis next month, and we all know that postseason sports are based around who gets hot at the right time.

If UNI were to get on a winning streak, their last stretch of the schedule is the time to do it. Aside from a home game against first-place Creighton University, whom the Panthers beat last season in the McLeod Center, UNI doesn’t play a single team with a winning record in MVC play.

It’s time to get excited once again, Panther fans. The Panthers may be just one game above .500 overall and one game below .500 in the MVC, but it’s wins like the one on Saturday that give me hope for the rest of the season. There’s a reason the Panthers have 31 games on their schedule. The season is not over yet.