10-year extension for Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — After leading Northern Iowa to the biggest win in school history, coach Ben Jacobson is sticking with the Panthers.

Northern Iowa and Jacobson have agreed to a new 10-year deal that includes a substantial pay raise, athletic director Troy Dannen announced Wednesday.

The agreement will increase Jacobson's annual salary to $450,000 starting next season, with annual raises of $25,000 throughout the length of a deal that runs through 2020.

Jacobson's old contract paid him $289,300 per year and ran through 2016. Northern Iowa said no public funds will be used to fund the increase.

Jacobson, 39, is in his fourth season as the head coach at Northern Iowa and has won back-to-back Missouri Valley Coach of the Year honors. He served as an assistant under Greg McDermott at Northern Iowa for five seasons, taking over when McDermott left for Iowa State in 2006.

Jacobson led the Panthers to an NCAA tournament berth in 2008-09, and this season Northern Iowa (30-4) caught everyone's attention by stunning top-seeded Kansas 69-67 in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The team will play Michigan State (26-8) in the Midwest Region semifinals in St. Louis on Friday night.

Coury is Cornell's Kentucky charm

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Mark Coury hopes to have the last laugh.

A walk-on as a freshman at Kentucky, Coury played two seasons for the Wildcats before transferring to Cornell and now will face his former teammates Thursday night in the semifinals of the East region.

"I joked about it with friends and my ex-teammates when I talked to them, 'Yeah, wouldn't that be great if we somehow end up in the tournament and play you guys?' " Coury said after practice at the Carrier Dome. "I never thought it would actually happen."

Cornell (29-4) has made a run like no other by the Ivy League.

Notes

• Auburn hired Tony Barbee as men's coach after he led UTEP to the regular-season Conference USA title and the NCAA tournament. Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs announced that Barbee will replace Jeff Lebo, fired the day after a first-round SEC tournament loss. Lebo failed to make the NCAA field during his six seasons. Barbee led UTEP to three consecutive winning records in four seasons. The Miners were 26-7 this past season but lost 77-59 to Butler in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

• Kansas announced it plans an independent review of the athletic department's ticket office and fundraising entity after a report raised questions about the sale of basketball tickets. The Kansas City Star report quoted anonymous sources as saying federal investigators are looking into possible illegal sale of basketball tickets.