The biggest factor in Iowa’s favor as well as the largest deterrent is the young, raw talent of the Hawkeyes. The best player on the team is no doubt a dynamic sophomore, Tyler Cook. At 6-9, the forward out of Saint Louis flashed looks of high potential consistently throughout his freshman year. Tyler Cook’s effect on the game cannot always be shown in his stat lines; however, Cook’s impacts every possession, regardless of his possession of the ball.

Jordan Bohannon, Isaiah Moss, and Brady Ellingson will be dominating the guard spots as sophomores and juniors. Bohannon and Moss can both score off the dribble and distribute to make plays at will, even as mere sophomores. Ellingson, however, will be more of a pure point guard. With the powerhouse Tyler Cook at forward, clear leaders at guard slots, and depth at both forward and guard positions, Iowa Basketball will be successful if McCaffery can find a large player to play in tandem with Cook.

This large X-factor for Iowa will be the freshman center for the Hawks, Luka Garza. The 4-star recruit out of Washington DC will play the role which could put Iowa over the top. The 6-11 has already grabbed 18 boards through two games with 27 points in addition. In recent memory, Iowa loses the rebounding affair on a strikingly consistent basis. In addition to the young Garza and Cook, the returning Big Ten Conference 6th man of the year award winner, Nicholas Bear, will jump start the young Hawkeyes whenever needed. With a deep set of young big men behind Garza, Baer, and Cook, the rebounding deficit will improve moving forward.

Another reason for the jump into March Madness will be the schedule for the young Iowa team. With the only notable non-conference opponents coming on the road against both Virginia Tech and the rivaling Cyclones, wins will be racked up quickly prior to conference play. Iowa also draws one of the weakest schedules in the Big Ten Conference. The Hawkeyes will not travel to ranked opponents in #2 Michigan State, #20 Purdue, and #19 Northwestern.

Iowa will also not travel to rival Wisconsin and will only play Michigan State, Maryland and Indiana once. The Hawkeyes will reach 20 wins before the final stretch of the season. Three of the final five games will

play on the road with the last two facing ranked opponents. With an easier schedule than most, even if the young players do not improve in the expected ways, Iowa will rack up at least 22 wins before the Big Ten Tournament in the Madison Square Garden.

The graduation of Peter Jok will also allow the Hawkeye basketball squad to acquire a bid to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Jok made up the core of last year’s team, leading the Big Ten in scoring. However, Jok also lead the team in shots taken. Despite leading in points, Jok shot a 7^th team best shooting percentage to return for it, behind the likes of Tyler Cook, Nicholas Baer, Ahmad Wagner, and others.

Contrary to popular belief from mainstream sports analysts, Iowa will benefit from the absence of Peter Jok for multiple reasons. Iowa will not be reliant on a one-man effort with multiple people getting involved. A team is much easier to stop with one man scoring instead of a team. The spacing of the floor will also be nicer for shooters with the best player in Cook playing in the post instead of Jok playing around the 3-point arc. All in all, Peter Jok is an absolutely great player; however, Jok’s presence hurt the team more at times than not.

Due to the young raw talent of the Hawkeyes in addition to lucky breaks in scheduling and an ability to involve more players than in years past, the 2017 Iowa Hawkeye basketball team will not only return to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five years, but will chance running at Sweet Sixteen for the first time since the 1998-99 season. The next game for the 2-0 Hawkeyes will come against Grambling State on Wednesday, November 16^th at 7:05 pm CST at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The post Spoilers: Hawkeyes Dance in March appeared first on KRUI Radio.

It was all Iowa from the get-go, they began the game with a 9-0 run and never looked back. As expected Peter Jok was the centerpiece for the Iowa offence and defense. He lead both teams in scoring with 27 points on 11-19 shooting.

Jok described this as only a decent game for him, “I’m trying to get 35+, that’s a good game for me.”

In order for the Hawkeyes to succeed they’re going to need Jok to continue to put up points.

One of the things going in to tonight game is seeing if the Hawkeyes can find their number two guy behind Jok. Going into tonight’s game many thought that guy would be Tyler Cook, however, Cook struggled to get anything going scoring 6 points on 1-7 shooting he also had 4 turnovers. He will look to have a better game on Sunday.

Some more concerns for the Hawkeyes is the fact that they had 17 turnovers.

“That’s too many turnovers.” Said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffrey, his two main concerns about the game were the turnovers and defensive lapses. “We have to be better than that.”

Something that worked well for the Hawkeyes was their bench, they got 36 points from their bench including an extremely impressive showing form Ahmad Wagner. He had 12 points 5 rebounds 4 assists 4 blocks and 2 steals, his performance did not go unnoticed by the senior leader.

“Ahmad really impressed me, I think he played really well.” Said Peter Jok.

Pemsl was the other player off the bench with double figures. He finished the night with 10 points and 6 rebounds.

Overall it was a pretty successful shooting night for the Hawkeyes as they shot .500 from the field. They also were able to give some valuable playing time to some of their young players.12 different players saw action tonight, which is important for this young team in order for them to grow.

The Hawkeyes next game is this Sunday at 2:30pm at Carver-Hawkeye Arena against the Savanah State Tigers, another game they hope to win.

The post Hawkeyes Kick Off the Season with a Win appeared first on KRUI Radio.

By Mark Freie (@markfreie)

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa State Cyclones (7-1) saw five different players reach double-digit scoring totals in their 90-75 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes (8-3) on Friday night.

Cyclone junior Naz Long led all scorers for the Cyclones with 21 points including five 3-point shots.

Hawkeyes head coach Fran McCaffery gave praise to Fred Hoiberg and the Cyclones.

“This is a good Iowa State team who has a ton of playmakers,” McCaffery said. “[Abdel] Nader was one of those guys who really impacted the game for them tonight.”

Impact is exactly what Nader did. The redshirt junior scored 19 points coming off the bench for the Cyclones, who shot 53% as a team.

The first half was full of high energy plays. Hawkeye senior Gabe Olaseni sent Hawkeye fans into a frenzy early in the game as he recorded a demolishing block on Nader. Olaseni fished with 5 points and 2 blocks on the night.

The Hawkeyes were able to hold Georges Niang to 2 first-half points, but Iowa States sharp shooters made up for his lack of play shooting 44% in the first half. Cyclone guard Matt Thomas drilled a buzzer-beating three to send his team into halftime with a 38-33 lead.

However, the game got away from the Hawkeyes early in the second half.

“Once the wheels started coming off, defensively we broke down, offensively we broke down,” McCaffery said. “[At the] start of the second half, we didn’t have too many buckets. It’s hard when the lead gets to double figures so quickly.”

A major area of concern this season for the Hawkeyes has been their long scoreless stretches. The Cyclones took advantage of a five-plus minute scoring drought as they went on a 23-4 run that included five-straight Iowa turnovers.

Niang was able to find his shot and scored 14 second-half points while dishing out 7 assists.

Leading the Hawkeyes was senior Aaron White who recorded 18 points and went 5-5 from the free throw line. White has now scored double digits in every game this year for the Hawkeyes. White’s performance was not enough for the dominant Cyclone team.

A bright spot for the Hawkeyes was shooting touch of Peter Jok who added 14 points, going 5-10 with two 3-point shots.

The Hawkeyes will need to find answers to their prolonged scoring droughts. Iowa State was able to take full advantage of costly Hawkeye turnovers in the second half.

“You have a great win, or you have a tough loss,” McCaffery said. “You go back to work…you have to get them believing again because they clearly had doubt tonight.”

The Iowa Hawkeyes will have the week off for finals, but will return to action on Saturday, December, 20 against the #23 UNI Panthers in Des Moines. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30.

Full Iowa-Iowa State Stats HERE

The post Cyclones Down Hawkeyes 90-75 appeared first on KRUI Radio.