The Hawkeyes started off lightning quick as they ran out to a 17-4 lead by the Under-16 media timeout. It would only get worse from their. Luka Garza led all scorers with 22 points, going 8-8 from the field and going 5-6 from the free throw line.

“I play as hard as I can, my teammates were finding me in open spots, and my jump shot felt really good,” Garza said of his consistency. “I worked really hard all summer to have a consistent three-point shot, so that felt great as well.”

Right behind Garza in the score column was star freshman Joe Wieskamp, who dropped 20 points on the night, with 18 coming in the first half. “He was really aggressive tonight and that’s what we want him to be,” Fran McCaffery said of Wieskamp. “He puts it on the deck, shoots the three, and is aggressive on the glass. He is versatile.”

Garza and Cook led the Hawkeyes in scoring with Tyler Cook trailing behind with 15 points and a couple of nice dunks in the half-court set. Isaiah Moss, who had struggled in New York during the Empire 2K Classic, came to life in front of the home fans, scoring 15 points, knocking down three of four, three-pointers, and a beautiful fast-break dunk in the first half.

“Now Moss with the steal – SHOWTIME!”@IowaHoops jumped ahead 12-0 on this slam. pic.twitter.com/qzbYiU9WtH

— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) November 22, 2018

It was also a big night for the Iowa walk-ons as all four of them saw playing time: Riley Till, Austin Ash, Nicholas Hobbs and Michael Baer. Austin Ash scored his first career points as a Hawkeye on three-pointer with 4:17 to go in the ball game, and the crowd very nearly took the roof off Carver-Hawkeye Arena is Ash’s follow up three-pointer would have fallen.

Iowa now begins a crucial four-game stretch starting with their matchup against the Pitt Panthers in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on November 27th. “You’ve got four monsters coming up, but I don’t look at it that way, I look at it as one monster coming up, and we’ll worry about the ones after that,” Fran McCaffery said of the four-game slate against Pitt, Wisconsin, Michigan State and Iowa State.

Iowa’s next match-up is against Pitt in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on Tuesday, November 27th at 8:00 PM on ESPNU.

The post Garza, Wieskamp lead Iowa past Alabama State appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Thursday night, the Iowa offense was struggling, at halftime the Hawkeyes were only 8-25 from the field, shooting 17 threes in the process. “In the first half, we took 17 threes and eight two-point shots, So I was really disappointed in that aspect, I thought we had an advantage in the post offensively, I know I wanted to try and exploit that but we were jacking threes”, Fran McCaffery said of the first half shooting.

Iowa turned to their defense in their 77-63 win over the UMKC Kangaroos, “It was kind of funny, we kind of joked around about it in the locker room,” junior forward Ryan Kriener said. “This was kind of the first time that offense has been our problem, our offense was a little stagnant and our defense really held us in there”. Kreiner played 16 minutes and was very effective on the defensive end, adding eight rebounds to his six points.

The game also marked the official debut of freshman guard Joe Wieskamp, the former five-star recruit from Muscatine High School was the Hawkeyes leading scorer with 15, including four, three-pointers in the first half.

“Being here since June, going up against the guys every day, I think you just adjust,” Wieskamp said of his adjustment to the college game. Wieskamp also showed his great athleticism with a beautiful putback dunk in the second half that received a rousing cheer from the Carver crowd of 9,317.

Get up then, @JWieskamp21!

The @IowaHoops freshman has showed out tonight: pic.twitter.com/tuuY6MGx1j

— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) November 9, 2018

Junior guard Maishe Dailey also played a big role off the bench against the Kangaroos as he scored 11 points. “We just needed to bring intensity, we felt like we got hit in the mouth in the first half so we just wanted to bring that fight and we reciprocated that fight in the second half,” Dailey said of Iowa’s performance.

Dailey also believes he’s transitioned into the role of “Defensive stopper and defensive leader,” and if he in fact has, would be a huge boost to this Iowa team.

Joe Wieskamp led all Iowa scorers with 15 points and also added four rebounds and an assist. Juniors Jordan Bohannon and Tyler Cook followed up with 12 points each, Bohannon added four rebounds and three assists, while Cook accumulated eight rebounds and five assists.

Next in the scoring column was Maishe Dailey, who had 11 points with two assists to boot. Sophomore Luka Garza added eight points and three rebounds and freshman Connor McCaffery contributed seven points and three assists.

Iowa’s next action is Sunday afternoon against Wisconsin-Green Bay, tipoff is at 2 P.M. local time.

The post Hawkeyes use defense to beat UMKC appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Jimmy Nash recaps the contest between the Hawkeyes and the Wildcats.

IOWA CITY, IA- In a tale of two halves, near record breaking performances, and senior night. The Hawkeyes emerged victorious.

Iowa (13-18, 4-14) defeated Northwestern (15-16, 6-12) 77-70 at Carver Hawkeye Arena on Sunday night.

In the first half, Iowa shot lights out scoring 45 points while Northwestern scored 28. In the second half, Iowa scored 32 points while Northwestern scored 42.

“It was nice to have one of these games going into the Big Ten Tournament,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. “We knew that we needed this performance to show what we were capable of doing.”

At one point in the first half, Iowa led by as many as 22 points. That lead got that high thanks to the three. Guard Jordan Bohannon has six 3-pointers in the first half. The team made nine 3-pointers throughout the entirety of the first half.

“I said you have to get your swag back.  He was doing a good job of running the offense (the last few games), but he needs to be aggressive like that for us to win,” McCaffery said.

Going into the break, Iowa was shooting over 48 percent from the field and controlled the rebounding battle.

Iowa built the lead back to 22 in the second half after Northwestern started the half on a little run.

Scottie Lindsey was the only real offense that Northwestern had the entire night. Lindsey launched a Carver Hawkeye Arena record-tying nine 3-pointers in the night’s contest. Lindsey finished the game with 32 points, a career-high for him.

“I was proud of my guys for continuing to fight,” Northwestern head coach Chris Collins said. “With all the injuries it would’ve been easy to just lay down and let Iowa run away. We kept fighting.”

The charity stripe is really where Iowa gained its advantage.

Iowa attempted 23 shots from the line and made 17. Northwestern attempted only seven free throws and made three.

Jordan Bohannon was four of five from the line tonight. He was chasing a record.

Bohannon made his 33^rd and 34^th consecutive free throws in the first half to tie Chris Street’s school-record. He went to the line to attempt the front end of a 1-and-1. He intentionally missed it.

“That was something I have had on my mind the last couple of games and the last few months,” Hawkeye guard Jordan Bohannon said. “I talked to my brother and we had the same agreement that it wasn’t my record to have.”

Iowa will head to New York City to faceoff against Illinois in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 4:30 p.m. (CT).

The post White-Hot Bohannon get Hawks past ‘Cats appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Iowa defeated the odds Tuesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, putting together their best complete game as a team in well over a month as they rolled over the Badgers, 85–67.

“We watched a lot of film of the Purdue game”, said Iowa center Luka Garza, “Seeing the lack of awareness, attention to detail … we saw that … and it was hard for a lot of our guys, and we locked into what we needed to do, and we did it.”

Garza stole the show on Tuesday, putting together one of his best games in what has been a miraculous freshman season for the big man. Garza tied for the team lead with 17 points, collected 16 rebounds and more than held his own on the defensive end against Badgers All-American Ethan Happ. Happ finished with 21 points but was kept in tune most of the first half and turned the ball over four times.

Garza’s performance did not go unnoticed.

“He’s a gamer. He’s a warrior. He’s relentless,” said Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery. “He’s a worker,” said Tyler Cook, “He’s always in the gym, always working on his game … when you got a guy like that, even if you struggle, you never hit a wall.”

Garza’s 16 rebounds are the most by any Iowa player in almost two years. He’s improved almost all aspects of his game since a slow start to Big Ten play in the new year.

Cook added 17 points of his own while throwing down some ferocious dunks to open the second half.

“He had a monster game,” said McCaffery. “I thought he was a big reason why we got the lead we got.”

Iowa did not light up the scoreboard with three-pointers like they have tried to do in recent games, only nailing six threes, but their defense on that same end was steadily improved. After allowing a Big Ten record 20 three-pointers against Purdue on Saturday, Iowa held Wisconsin to just 4 of 18 shooting from beyond the arc.

“We weren’t happy with what we did this weekend,” said Garza. “We locked in, everyone was focused and ready to play with emotion, and when you do that, momentum comes your way.”

One of the key moments in the game came towards the very end of the first half, with the Hawkeyes leading by just four. Isaiah Moss took a corner three that looked to be too strong off the back rim, before bouncing around a bit and falling through the hoop. It put the Hawkeyes up seven, which they would stretch to nine (again via Moss) a few seconds later.

“Oh yeah,” said Moss, when asked if he knew that shot was going in. “The timeout before that, Tyler said he was going to pass it to me, so I was ready.”

The Hawkeyes had been lacking that sort of continuity and preparedness on offense in their last several Big Ten games. If the kinds of messages sent after the Purdue loss continue to resonate, the Hawkeyes could surprise some teams the last half of Big Ten play.

Iowa is back in action on Saturday when they visit Nebraska.

The post Hawkeyes Get Back on Track with Victory Over Wisconsin appeared first on KRUI Radio.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – You’d be hard pressed to find one individual, one aspect, or one play that changed the course of Tuesday night’s game.

Both Iowa and Minnesota have been reeling this season. One of these teams needed to come away with a win. The injury-laden Gophers hoped they were in line for a dire victory.

Instead, it was a collective effort from the Hawkeyes that led to a 94-80 Iowa win.

Collective and cohesive. Two words to best describe Iowa on this night. How’d the Hawkeyes manage to play what is quite possibly their cleanest game of the season?

To start, there are the individuals.

Jordan Bohannon dazzled yet again with a double-double of 20 points and 10 assists. The Iowa point guard played 48 minutes and only committed one foul and two turnovers. He also went 4-of-4 from the free throw line, putting his consecutive makes streak up to 30, just four behind Chris Street’s Iowa record.

Opposing teams throw everything they can at Bohannon, and it doesn’t seem to faze him. Bohannon is often the guy to stop the bleeding with a big, timely shot. No moment seems too large.

“He has supreme confidence in his ability to make that shot,” Fran McCaffery said. “The situation is sort of irrelevant to him, and that’s what you want.”

There’s also Tyler Cook, also with a double-double. Cook’s 17 points and 10 rebounds were huge factors that led to Jordan Murphy getting into foul trouble, trying to body up Iowa’s big man.

Okay, but what about Isaiah Moss? The streaky shooting guard was confident on Tuesday, shooting 5-of-10 from the floor and 4-of-6 from three, notching 16 points.

Yeah, it’s great to get Moss going, but there’s also Luka Garza, Nicholas Baer, and Cordell Pemsl. Each of them had 10 points as well.

Jack Nunge also brought some energy. He had six points, three rebounds, and even two big blocks.

Who sparked this Iowa win? Tough to say when the entire team is on their respective games.

Clearly, the offense was solid, but so too was the defensive aspect of the game. Iowa has played some of the worst defense in Division I this season, but managed to get enough stops Tuesday night.

“We were better defensively, but I think we need to be even better than we were tonight,” McCaffery said. “There are still some areas that need improvement so that we can be better connected. But we were better than we’ve been.”

Iowa still gave up 80 points while Minnesota was without one of their top scorers in Amir Coffey, but the effort on defense was clear and present. There have been moments this season in which that wasn’t the case.

Finally, the big plays. While Moss’s steal and breakaway dunk with 1:34 was the ultimate dagger, it wasn’t what led to the win. 94-80 sounds like Iowa controlled the game, but the two sides were pretty evenly matched.

The Hawkeyes had to weather multiple storms from the Golden Gophers, who had three separate scoring runs of seven, eight, and nine points throughout the game. Iowa stayed composed and didn’t let those turn into 15-0 runs that have plagued them multiple times this season.

Iowa also turned the ball over just eight times and made 12 three-pointers, the teams most in a Big Ten game this season.

Controlling the big moments helped Iowa earn its third conference victory.

The win was Fran McCaffery’s 400^th win as a head coach, but he didn’t put much stock in himself after the game.

“All it does for me in remind me of the great players I’ve coached, the great athletic directors I’ve had,” McCaffery said. “You don’t get to 400 wins being a great coach. You get 400 wins when you have great players who are committed to one another.”

McCaffery wasn’t concerned with the distant future either. The Hawkeyes are still trying to play their way out of the bottom four of the conference to avoid having to play a Wednesday game at the Big Ten Tournament, but McCaffery is merely evaluating this team one game at a time.

“We were better tonight than we were on Saturday. That means we had some maturity,” McCaffery said. “Now we have to play a team that beat us already… let’s see if we can do that on the road. That would be a big step for us to play better than we’ve been playing before on the road.”

Iowa (12-12, 3-8 Big Ten) travels to University Park, Pennsylvania on Saturday for a rematch with the Penn State Nittany Lions (15-8, 5-5 Big Ten). Tipoff is set for 5:00pm CST on Big Ten Network. Penn State beat Iowa 77-73 in Iowa City on December 2 to open Big Ten play.

Penn State plays at No. 5 Michigan State on Wednesday night at 5:30pm CST on Big Ten Network.

The post Hawkeyes Run Over Gophers for Much-Needed Victory appeared first on KRUI Radio.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Pressure and heightened expectations are hard to live up to. Freshmen in new universities, new states, even new parts of the country often have a difficult time reaching the standards others have set for them.

Four-star recruit Luka Garza was no exception to this in the first half of Iowa’s season. The 6’11 big man from Washington, D.C. found himself out of the starting lineup and struggling to keep up with power conference teams

Naturally, criticism followed. The team was struggling, and the highly regarded center wasn’t meeting expectations.

That hasn’t stopped Garza from focusing on his game.

Since going for 19 points and 11 rebounds in a career-high 30 minutes in Iowa’s overtime victory at Illinois, Garza seems to have turned the corner.

“I had a couple stretches where I wasn’t as consistent, but I feel like I’m getting better at that,” Garza said after another double-double (17 points, 16 rebounds) in a win over Wisconsin. “I think playing as hard as I can is helping me through that.”

The freshman is just the third player in the last 20 years to accumulate 17 points and 16 rebounds versus Wisconsin, joining Iowa’s Reggie Evans (2001-02) and Indiana’s DJ White (2007-08).

Garza has been playing as hard as any Hawkeye recently. ESPN’s Dan Dakich was on the call each of Iowa’s last two games, including the blowout loss to Purdue. Dakich praised Garza on Saturday for being the only Hawkeye playing with fight in the second half.

He gave the young center praise again on Tuesday.

“I like to play with that intensity, I’ve always been taught to play hard and give those extra efforts,” Garza said. “That emotion is something I like to play with.”

Dakich isn’t the only one who has noticed Garza’s energy level. Head Coach Fran McCaffery is appreciative of the big man’s efforts.

He’s a gamer, a warrior, however you want to describe it. He’s relentless,” McCaffery said. “A lot of big guys – a lot of young big guys – they tire. When they tire, they takes possessions off, and he doesn’t do that.”

McCaffery was particularly impressed with Garza’s defensive on Tuesday when he guarded an All-American in Ethan Happ.

“I thought Luka was great. Happ’s an All-American. Luka’s a freshman,” McCaffery said. “I think he really studied him this week and moved his feet.”

McCaffery has said before that leadership can come from anyone, whether he is a senior or a freshman. Tyler Cook was a freshman leader last year. Now, Garza is stepping into that role.

“The way Luka leads is obviously with his emotion… it’s something easy too feed off of,” Cook said. “We’ve got a lot of vocal guys on the team, but I think he brings something else to the table that really fits well with this group.”

Whether he’s scouting out the next opponent in a film session or practicing new offensive moves to improve his productivity, Garza isn’t going to get complacent. Even if games are rough, his worth ethic is noticeable behind the scenes.

“Regardless of if he’s hitting shots or not, he’s playing his behind off,” Cook said. “When you get a guy like that who’s always working after practice or on off days, going to put it together.”

There’s always room for improvement, and he’s already made big strides in the early going of 2018.

In this lost season, Garza has given fans something to be proud of. Iowa fans have always held stock in the tradition of hard work.

Garza is a hard worker.

“It’s a learning experience,” Garza said. “I’m learning, I’m getting better, and I’ll continue to get better.”

The post Garza Making Strides in Freshman Year appeared first on KRUI Radio.

All those adjectives can be used to describe the character and play of Chris Street, the former Hawkeye great who passed away 25 years ago in a car accident during his junior season. In situations like this, it’s important to seek the help of an experienced lawyer here to navigate the legal process and obtain justice for the victim and their loved ones. On Saturday, when the Iowa Hawkeyes hosted a top-3 ranked Purdue team and honored Street – with his family and dozens of former Hawkeye players and coaches in attendance – none of those adjectives could be used to describe the team’s play.

Iowa fell behind early and never were able to claw back, falling to the Boilermakers, 87–64. The Hawkeyes outscored Purdue in the second half, but a 31-point halftime deficit left Iowa in a hole they could not come out of.

For Purdue (19–2, 8–0 Big Ten), the win marks the end of a four game losing streak at Carver-Hawkeye Arena that dated back six years. The Boilermakers sank 11 three-pointers in the first half and nine in the second half to set a school record for made 3-point field goals in a single game. They shot 61% from deep.

Iowa (10–10, 1–7 Big Ten) took an early 3–0 lead just over two minutes into the game, but would never lead again. Four minutes later, the Boilermakers had hit four threes and held a 17–6 advantage. The Hawkeyes were never able to figure out a defensive plan to stop a staggering offensive attack from Purdue in the first half.

“They shoot it, they can throw it inside, and they can share it,” said Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery. “They have a special team.”

Purdue’s starting lineup, with four seniors and one sophomore, scored 70 of the team’s 87 points. The only time Purdue struggled to score was late in the second half, long after the team’s starters had departed.

Carsen Edwards, Purdue’s crafty young point guard, led the team with 22 points, including connecting on 6 of 9 three-point attempts. The Boilers’ 6-foot-8 power forward Vincent Edwards (of no relation) had 19 points, including 3 made threes. Dakota Mathias and P. J. Thompson also scored in double figures for Purdue.

For Iowa, Luka Garza led the team with 19 points on 8 of 10 shooting from the floor, much of which came during a complete takeover by the freshman big man in the second half.

“I got a couple shots from the outside, got shots from the inside,” said Garza on his second-half performance. “I was feeling it for a little bit there.”

Iowa got unusually unproductive play from Tyler Cook, who was 3 of 8 from the floor and failed to reach double figures in points for just the sixth time this season. Jordan Bohannon also scored just nine, and hit only one three-pointer after hitting five in each of his last three games.

Perhaps the best summation of Iowa’s performance came with just under three minutes left to play in the first half. With the Hawkeyes trailing by 29, a packed Carver-Hawkeye Arena let out sarcastic cheers after a missed three-point shot by Carsen Edwards. Dom Uhl collected the rebound and threw an outlet pass down to Cordell Pemsl, who was all alone for a layup – before it was blocked from behind by a sprinting Vincent Edwards, who turned the block into a layup of his own, extending Purdue’s lead.

Never in the game did Iowa show as much defensive effort as Purdue did on that possession. Even as the Boilermakers continued to sink three-pointers with little effort from the top of the key, Iowa failed to make immediate adjustments to their on-ball defense.

When questioned about Iowa’s defensive game plan, McCaffery pointed to Purdue’s senior big man, 7-foot-2 Isaac Haas, as a reason for why the defense was not guarding the three-point line as hard. Yet Haas only played 18 minutes due to foul trouble and took only one shot – which he made.

Asked if he felt that the messages he was sending to the team, which has now lost five of its past six, were being received, a discouraged McCaffery replied that he has “seen change”. Whatever change he saw did not show up for the Hawkeyes on Saturday morning.

“We’ve just got to keep working,” Bohannon said. “At the end of the day that’s the attitude you have to have during adversity.”

Iowa is back in action on Tuesday when they host Wisconsin.

The post Iowa Outclassed by Purdue on Chris Street Day appeared first on KRUI Radio.

It’s now October 31st, meaning Halloween is upon us and college basketball is right around the corner. Exhibitions are being played across the nation, used to size up the talent of all 347 Division I college basketball teams in the country before the regular season is in full effect.

In the middle of it all, Iowa City is now teeming with excitement around this year’s Hawkeyes: a team that bolsters youth and emerging talent with the recent graduation of star guard Peter Jok. However, Jok’s absence is not bringing groans of rebuilding, but instead eagerness for what the rest of the team has to offer.

Guard Play Will Come with a Learning Curve

Jordan Bohannon is undoubtedly the starting point guard for the Hawks this year. The sophomore scored a team-high 19 points while assisting four baskets in the exhibition win over William Jewell College. He is by no means a ‘true’ point guard, but his three-point prowess (4-7 in the exhibition) makes him a must-start.

The backup point guard looked to be the inconsistent Christian Williams, but his sudden exit via transfer puts pressure onto head coach Fran McCaffery to fill the void. With the news breaking so close to the season, many believed either Isaiah Moss or Maishe Dailey would be tasked with the backup role. Enter: Connor McCaffery.

The coach’s son is a freshman guard out of Iowa City West High School who was tabbed by many to receive little playing time and potentially redshirt. However, he was a surprise constant in the exhibition, tallying the fourth-most minutes (18) and the second-most assists (3).

A large chunk of his playing time may be attributed to Moss’s ankle tweak which sidelined him for much of the second half, but with McCaffery’s increased role up top, we may see Moss more as a true shooting guard in his attempt to fill Peter Jok’s shoes.

There’s no question that Fran McCaffery will reward Bohannon’s stellar freshman season with a starting role, but the backup slot is still up for grabs. With one home exhibition left (Thurs. Nov. 2 vs Belmont Abbey College), Connor McCaffery, Moss and Dailey will likely see increased minutes to sort out the pecking order for the season.

Freshmen Will Be A Focal Point Once More

Last season, 44.7 percent of Iowa’s offense came from four freshmen: Tyler Cook (12.3), Jordan Bohannon (10.9), Cordell Pemsl (8.9) and Isaiah Moss (6.5). This season, four freshmen enter the fold: forwards Luka Garza and Jack Nunge and guards Connor McCaffery and Austin Ash. Garza (26) and Nunge (17) each received extensive minutes in the exhibition and it certainly paid off with 17 and 16 points, respectively.

Both forwards will certainly see the floor more often than the guards, but Connor McCaffery is looking toward more minutes with Christian Williams gone. Ash, a walk-on from Cedar Rapids, was the only Hawkeye to not see the floor versus William Jewell College.

Garza, a true freshman from Washington D.C., is a bruising forward that managed nine rebounds in the contest. He’ll open up space to push Nicholas Baer to his rightful small forward spot. Garnering the most attention of the four recruits, he seems to have cracked the starting lineup already.

Nunge, a true freshman from Newburgh, Indiana, is a versatile swingman that can play all across the floor. He was perfect (3-3) from beyond the arc and notched nine boards in the exhibition. He’ll certainly add a third level of scoring past the traditional forwards and guards on the team.

Why The Hawks Can Compete

Last season, Tyler Cook proved to be the man down low that the Hawks have been seeking since Melsahn Basabe. He’ll help Iowa compete in not only the Big Ten, but in the tournament. Fran McCaffery has one B1G tournament win since taking over in 2010 and losing early in the conference tourney has often kept the team out of March Madness.

This year, though, Iowa has the talent down low to win games consistently in the conference. Wisconsin and Ohio State have traditionally given the team trouble and the tandem of Cook and Garza will look to change that.

Another variable that has held the Hawks back in March is poor point guard play, but Jordan Bohannon was recently named to the 20-player Bob Cousy Point Guard Watchlist, hopefully meaning that the string of poor point play is over. The sophomore will have an increased role as far as scoring goes, but he’ll need to facilitate better than guards in the past in order for the Hawks to advance in March.

The real reason the Hawks can thrive this year is the graduation of Peter Jok. He clearly scored points galore and boosted the team for many different reasons, but teams expected points to pour from Jok all year. Opening opportunities for many other skilled players, especially the newcomers, makes this squad exceptionally scary for Big Ten defenses.

Garza and Nunge add the final layer that the Hawks have been lacking for years and while it’s only Halloween, this team should be plenty spooky by the time March rolls around.

The post Why Iowa Basketball Can Be Spooky By March appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The 2017–18 season will mark the eighth season for Fran McCaffery as head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. In his first seven seasons, he has recorded just two wins in the Big Ten Tournament and two wins in the NCAA Tournament.

Despite this, there is plenty of excitement going around the Hawkeye basketball program as the season approaches – and McCaffery is welcoming it with open arms.

“It’s not something that ever concerns me,” McCaffery said at Monday’s Iowa men’s basketball media day press conference concerning the outside expectations. “I think you want expectation. You want your fans to be excited about your team.”

It is easy to see why Hawkeye fans and outsiders are excited about the future of the program. Iowa loses just one contributor from last year’s 19–15 team that reached the second round of the NIT. A team that relied heavily on contributions from freshmen now has more experience and more depth. McCaffery says he has never tried playing 13 different players in a rotation before, so rotations this upcoming season could be a challenge.

“I think we have to give everybody a chance to kind of establish themselves,” McCaffery said. “We have size, we have depth in the backcourt, we have length, and we have guys that can score coming off the bench.”

Last season, the growth and development of youth Hawkeye forwards Tyler Cook and Cordell Pemsl was key to the outcome of the Hawkeyes’ season. Both players made major strides of improvement over the offseason.

“He’s really matured,” McCaffery said of Cook, a 6’9” forward who 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds a game en route to a spot on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.

Cook seems to hold that opinion of himself, too.

“Offensively, I feel like I’m unstoppable,” he said. “My pace for the game is so much better … on-ball, off-ball, moving without the ball, my IQ of the game is so much better than it was a year ago.”

The Hawkeyes would benefit greatly from a step forward from Cook, who already established himself as the Hawkeyes’ best big man last season. Fortunately, he will have more help this season. Cordell Pemsl, also a sophomore, made strides to improve his physique this offseason, a move he believes will help him become more agile and more active down low.

Pemsl says he strove to drink a gallon of water per day this offseason, as well as cutting out sodas and junk foods for more healthier options. McCaffery said he weighed in at 235 pounds, as opposed to the 256 he weighed a year.

“My strength hasn’t gone down at all. I feel great,” Pemsl said. “I’m able to spread the floor a little bit, open up shots for other people as well.”

The ability to have more movement down low would be a coup for the Hawkeyes. Iowa also adds two highly touted freshmen big men – Luka Garza and Jack Nunge – who can both work the ball inside and score from outside. Both listen at 6’11”, they rank among the tallest players on the Iowa roster.

“Luka has a 7’1” wingspan … and Jack has a 7’1” or a 7’2” – that takes up a lot of space [in the paint], that’s going to be a lot harder for people to score on,” said sophomore forward Ryan Kriener.

“[Expectations for Garza and Nunge are] very high,” McCaffery said. “They’re incredibly versatile. They come ready.”

In the backcourt, it will mostly be returning faces for the Hawkeyes. Jordan Bohannon entered his freshman season as a bit of an unknown, but after a stellar first year where he sank 89 3-pointers and earned a spot alongside Cook on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team, teams will be having to game plan for him much differently defensively.

“They’re going to chase him around,” McCaffery said of Bohannon. “But they did that some as the season progressed … he’s got that relentlessness about him. He’s smart, he’s quick, he’s tough.”

McCaffery even went as far to say that Bohannon, as a high school recruit, reminded him of former NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry.

“He can pull the jumper right in your face. He’s fearless. He’s got unbelievable range.”

Still listed as 6’0”, 180 pounds, Bohannon lacks some of the size of other, more physical Big Ten point guards. His shooting ability gives him the edge over some of his matchup disadvantages.

The Hawkeyes will also have a new, unfamiliar challenge to face this upcoming season, as Big Ten conference play starts in early December for the first time, as the league compensates for its conference tournament being held in New York City in early March.

“The overseas trip [to three European countries in August] helped a lot,” said sophomore guard Isaiah Moss. “Chemistry-wise, finding out who plays together well … getting together and stronger as a team.”

“We do have a tough stretch there,” said junior Nicholas Baer. “It’s something we haven’t had a chance to try out yet, but anytime you have a chance to play against Big Ten competition you’ll be excited and you’ll be ready for it.”

Baer, the reigning Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, described perfectly the attitudes of many Hawkeye fans of the upcoming season – excited and ready for it. Iowa’s returning experience and incoming talent could lead to one of the best years in McCaffery’s tenure.

“I have an expectation for the team,” McCaffery said. “I think they have an expectation for themselves, and I’m excited about it.”

The post Iowa Basketball Media Day: Hawkeyes Prepared for Challenges of Upcoming Season appeared first on KRUI Radio.

A four-point loss at home to Illinois on Feb. 18 was the team’s third straight loss, and the remaining schedule was not exactly favorable.

The schedule didn’t get easier, but the Hawkeyes did get better.

After beating Indiana 96-90 in overtime, Iowa had to hit the road for two games in a row, both versus ranked opponents. First, the Hawkeyes blew then-24th-ranked Maryland out of their own gym. Next, they took down #22 Wisconsin thanks to a three-pointer by Jordan Bohannon with less than 10 seconds to play.

Just like that, the Hawkeyes were starting to work their way back into the conversation for an at-large big. Beating Penn State 90-79 on Sunday to close the regular season on a four-game winning streak has them fully immersed in the bubble talk.

“There’s no better time to click than in March,” said senior Peter Jok following his 21-point performance in his (could-be) final game inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

As of Monday morning, the Hawkeyes’ rating percentage index (RPI) has jumped to 72 and the team’s record versus teams in the RPI top 50 is 5-7. ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi has Iowa listed as one of the “First Four Out,” along with Rhode Island, Kansas State, and Illinois. Thanks to the late-season push, the Hawkeyes have put themselves in contention for an-large bid.

“I think we deserve to be in,” said Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery after the Penn State game. “What you have to do is not focus on thinking about it and talking about it.”

For a young Hawkeyes team, it may be tough to block out all of the noise and bubble talk that will undoubtedly swirl around them as they prepare for the Big Ten Tournament. Iowa’s leaders know they have to help keep the team focused on what they can control and nothing else.

“Young guys probably think about (the bubble) but I try not to let them think about it,” Jok said. “You just have to keep winning and whatever happens happens.”

While there has been some doubt from those outside the locker room, the team thought of themselves as a tournament team all season. They just needed to play like it every time they took the floor.

“We thought that we were (a tournament team) the whole season, we’ve just been playing inconsistently,” said freshman Cordell Pemsl. “I think we finally got that rhythm and that swagger back as a team.”

The team is certainly playing some of their best basketball right now. The four-game winning-streak is the longest of the conference season for Hawkeyes, and they’ve done it as a unit. Six different players have scored in double figures in the last four games, three of them have come off the bench to do so.

“If you look at how we’ve played these last four games, we’re a top team in the country,” said sophomore Nicholas Baer who has scored in double figures each of the last four games, including a career-high 20 points versus Penn State. “You want teams that are hot in in NCAA Tournament, teams that are playing their best basketball. If you look at the Iowa Hawkeyes, we’re playing our best basketball right now.”

Still on the outside looking in, the team knows there is still work to be done. The late push has been great, but they can’t let up yet.

“We do have a sense of urgency,” Baer said. “Every game is our biggest game.”

It is the general consensus that Iowa will have to win two games in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament if they want to move in to the field of 68. Iowa, the seven-seed, will face off with the 10-seed Indiana on Thursday at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. If they survive that, they will meet Wisconsin, the two-seed, in the quarterfinals.

“We’ve got our hot streak going at the right time,” Pemsl said. “We’re hoping to carry that over into next week.”

There’s no way to predict exactly what the Selection Committee will do with Iowa until Selection Sunday arrives. The Hawkeyes know they have to keep winning, and if they win enough games, there won’t be anything left to chance.

“We just tell ourselves ‘we might as well just go win the Big Ten Tournament,’” Pemsl said. “They have to put us in then.”

Iowa plays Indiana Thursday at 5:30 PM CST on ESPN2.

The post Strong Finish to Regular Season Has Hawkeyes Eyeing Tournament Bid appeared first on KRUI Radio.