The Wyoming Cowboys battle the Northern Iowa (UNI) Panthers on Friday in the 2015 NCAA Tournament Round of 64 at 1:40 p.m. ET. Watch the free live stream, or listen to the free radio broadcast with any of the links provided below.
No. 5 seed Northern Iowa heads into Friday's contest with a 30-3 record and three straight wins. The Panthers earned a spot in the tournament after their 69-60 victory on Sunday over Illinois State, winning their fourth Missouri Valley Conference championship. Northern Iowa was ranked as high as No. 10 in the AP poll this season, and coach Ben Jacobson believes some of the credit goes to Wichita State and Creighton for bringing attention to the Missouri Valley Conference over the recent years.
"No question, the things that those two programs have done helped us this year. So people around the country understand the quality of play within our league," Jacobson told the Associated Press. "The other thing it does is I think it drives your own guys. It motivates your own guys to want to get into that national spotlight, to want to get to rise up to that challenge and meet that challenge."
Now it's time for the Panthers to do their part to bring further attention to their conference. They haven't played in the NCAA Tournament since 2010, when they went as far as the Sweet 16 - a school -best - before losing to Michigan State.
Wyoming, meanwhile, earned a 12th-seed spot in the tournament after winning the Mountain West Conference championship on Saturday, 45-43 over San Diego State. The Cowboys (25-9) are making their first appearance in March Madness since 2002, when they lost in the second round.
"Coach Shyatt's a very old-fashioned rule book type of guy. So he's just approaching this game like he would the regular season game against a conference team," Wyoming star Larry Nance Jr. said. "It's been nothing but business since we found out our matchup with them, and we expect nothing but that."
Watch the live stream HERE, or listen to the radio broadcast HERE.
