The men’s basketball team gets mentioned a lot on UNI’s campus. While they have been successful and will be great this year, there is another team on this campus who deserves more recognition: the Panther women’s basketball team. These ladies are some of the best athletes at this university. We need to recognize them more for their efforts.

Many people do not know this team finished the last fifteen games of last season with a 10-5 record. They also finished 13-5 in the Missouri Valley Conference, which was good enough for third place. They finished only one game behind Wichita State University and Indiana State University. This is remarkable, and most students don’t know these facts. This is something that needs to change.

Another reason this team deserves more recognition this year is core players will be returning, making this year even better. Jen Keitel is expected to lead the team as she was selected to the MVC All-Conference first-team last year. She led the team in points, field goal percentage, scoring average, field goals made, offensive rebounds and blocked shots. Last year was her breakout year, but this year will be even better.

She is not the only reason why the women’s basketball team is looking strong this year. The Panthers were a young team this year, but everybody now has a year of experience below their belt. Sophomore Madison Weekly played in 25 games last season as a true freshman, so a jump in her production should be expected. Junior Stephanie Davison had a breakout year last year as she started in all 30 games while averaging 10.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. The experience of playing a whole year together goes a long way, and these ladies will capitalize on this opportunity.

Most teams have a few seniors graduate every year, but the Panthers did not have this problem. While they started off slow last year due to inexperience, this year they will be expected to play full throttle from the start. They deserve recognition because they are going to prove their worth anyways. These ladies are the real deal and they should not be thought of as second to the men’s basketball team.