Seth Tuttle has made a return to the Cedar Valley.

The former basketball standout for the Panthers has spent the past three years playing in several European leagues, but has recently decided to take a graduate assistant position on UNI’s staff. 

“I had always wanted to get into coaching,” said Tuttle. “I didn’t realize when I was younger that my playing career would last past high school and then into college and past that.”

While his overseas career may have been short lived, it was certainly not due to a lack of success.

Tuttle, who played for the Panthers from 2011 to 2015, was a key forward in UNI’s historic 2014-2015 season when they won a school record of 31 games and broke into the top ten national poll for the first time in school history. Seth was also named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year that season and received second team All-American status.

For the entirety of his professional career, Tuttle averaged 12 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game, all the while only playing an average of 27.2 minutes in each contest.

Tuttle recounted his favorite experiences while playing in Europe.

“Just being able to play at a high level and meet a whole lot of new friends and getting to experience life on the other side of the world where it’s different. It’s a lot of fun. You learn a lot about the game and yourself. It was a great experience.”

Tuttle knows little other than success, and he fully plans on bringing that back with him to McLeod.

“I’ve played here and know what it takes to be successful. Not only as an individual, but as team. Our teams have had a lot of success here when I was here.”