CEDAR FALLS - During the Northern Iowa basketball program's run of three straight NCAA tournaments, the Panther offense was predicated on set plays.

"We had close to 200 plays when Coach Mac (Greg McDermott) was here," senior Adam Viet said.

Thanks to an experienced backcourt - Brooks McKowen, Ben Jacobson, Erik Crawford and John Little - UNI could improvise and add new wrinkles to its offense on a regular basis.

Now, with a roster heavily comprised of underclassmen, along with injuries and Jared Josten moving to point guard, the Panthers have been forced to "dummy-down" their approach.

"We're sticking to a few basic plays and trying to perfect those," senior Eric Coleman said. "A few years ago when we had juniors and seniors, they knew the whole playbook and it was just me coming in having to learn.

"It's way different now. We've got seven, eight guys who are all learning at once."

Head coach Ben Jacobson said his club has "about a fourth" of its offense implemented compared to two seasons ago.

"That's OK," Jacobson said. "It's about finding a way for your team to be confident and making plays."

Even with fewer sets, the Panthers (11-7, 3-4 MVC) struggled to establish a consistent rhythm with their half-court offense, often resulting in Josten hoisting up a low-percentage shot late in the shot clock. Coupled with that, UNI is also among the worst 3-point shooting teams in Missouri Valley Conference play.

So, Jacobson and the coaching staff decided to tweak their offense even more. The Panthers spent several days last week working on a motion offense based on passing, screening and cutting.

"It gives us some more movement," Jacobson said. "It gets the ball out of Jared's hands so he doesn't have to handle it the entire possession, every possession. Watching some of our games leading up to last week, we got stuck sometimes. This helps free Jared up a little bit.

"It's very different, but I also think it can help this team."

It was successful in Sunday's 70-55 win over Missouri State. The Panthers shot a season-best 57.5 percent, had 16 assists - their most in a month - and finished with a season-high five players in double figures.

"It's more fun," Viet said. "Running all those plays, we were just looking for the options. If there was somebody open before what the play was supposed to be, we weren't looking for that. The good thing about motion is you never know when you're going to be open."

It seems to be a drastic change for a young squad 17 games into a season.

"It was needed," Coleman said. "Our offense wasn't getting it done with what we were doing. As long as we keep doing this, we'll get better."

Still, UNI won't completely abandon its slew of sets.

In fact, with three seniors and junior Travis Brown in the starting lineup Sunday, the Panthers perfectly executed a backdoor set they were accustomed to running regularly with McDermott.

"We can still go back and grab some of them from time to time, especially with those older guys," Jacobson said. "We're just not in a position where we can go into a game and have access to 100 of them and call them on the fly.

"We still like to use the ones we have."

Expect UNI to use a combination Wednesday night when it travels to Wichita State.

"We'll see how it goes as we go forward," Jacobson said. "It's not why we lost to Bradley and Creighton, though. The bottom line is, we didn't defend or rebound like we needed to there.

"If we do those two things, we think this can help our team going forward."

MARSHALL PLAN? Besides fighting through a four-game losing streak and an 8-10 season, Wichita State fans are hearing rumors they may lose their head coach.

First-year coach Gregg Marshall has been linked to the opening at South Carolina, which announced last week that Dave Odom would retire after the season.

Marshall, who was at Winthrop - located in Rock Hill, S.C. - for nine seasons before coming to Wichita State last April, issued a statement Monday saying he wouldn't discuss any openings.

"My total focus is building the Wichita State basketball program toward excellence. I have not been contacted by, nor have I contacted the University of South Carolina or any school, for that matter, for any position," Marshall said.

Still, Marshall didn't rule out being a candidate for the job.

BAD LUCK: Viet, who missed the Creighton game last week with a sprained right ankle, re-injured it during practice Monday. The 6-foot-3 guard had his foot in an ice bucket at the end of practice.

"It's not that bad," Viet claimed. "It's sore, but I'll be fine."

Viet has made six of his last nine 3-point attempts after starting the year 5-of-18.

"I'm not quite sure what it was," Viet said. "It's mostly a mindset. My motto, when you're missing shots, is to keep shooting. It seems now I'm playing with a little more confidence."

Contact Matt Coss at (319) 291-1468 or matt.coss@wcfcourier.com