A look back at the Iowa hoops season
Fran McCaffery did his best coaching job since arriving in Iowa City.
Tom Kakert • HawkeyeReport
Publisher
@hawkeyereport
And just like that, the Iowa basketball season came to an end.
Unfortunately it didn’t end like any of us expected.
Iowa was all set to play in the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday afternoon against Minnesota in a virtually empty Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Then less than an hour before Michigan and Rutgers were set to tipoff their game, the Big Ten Conference decided to cancel the conference tournament due to concerns with the coronavirus.
While it was disappointing, at least the Hawkeyes had the NCAA Tournament to look forward to until they didn’t. One day later, the NCAA announced that it was cancelling the tournament and all D1 college sports for the rest of the academic year.
Iowa fans were hoping that the Hawkeyes would make a run in March and perhaps riding on the back of All American Luka Garza, they would return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999. This overachieving bunch, if they had a good draw, could potentially reach that level and perhaps even more.
Right now it just feels unsatisfying.
Last year Iowa rallied to beat Cincinnati in their first game of the NCAA Tournament and pushed Tennessee to overtime in the second game before falling to the Volunteers. While it was disappointing that the Hawkeyes lost, there was satisfaction in the heart of the Iowa basketball team for what they accomplished.
This year just feels empty.
What could this team has done?
Unfortunately we will never know.
What we do know is this year’s Hawkeye team was a heck of a lot of fun to watch and be around. As mentioned earlier, this was certainly a team that overachieved this season.
In most years when the Hawkeyes lose two potential starters and possible key option off the bench, it would have sank the season. Jack Nunge to a torn ACL in the fifth game of the season. He was starting at power forward and after a slow start, Nunge started coming along six points and 4.6 rebounds per game. More than once this year, Fran McCaffery mentioned that during the summer, Nunge was the second best player on the roster. You can guess who #1 was and we will get to him.
Then Jordan Bohannon decided to shut down his season after playing in ten games. It was a poorly kept secret that the senior guard was likely to take this course of action and it was solidified when after coming back from hip surgery, he had issues with his other hip and his season came to an end after leaving his shoes on the Hilton Coliseum following a win over Iowa State. Bohannon averaged 8.8 points per game.
Lastly, there was the loss to Patrick McCaffery for the season. The freshman forward saw his season end after playing in two games. His reason was understandable. McCaffery was having issues keeping on weight and having health issues due to complications from having cancer in his early teen. His cancer did not return, but the issues related to it made it impossible for him to play a full season.
Then there was the early season pasting at the hands of DePaul. While some though the Blue Demons could be improved, Iowa was a nine point favorite and ended up losing 93-78 and the game didn’t even feel that close.
At that point an Iowa team that some thought could potentially be a bubble team in March looked like there was almost zero chance to make the Big Dance. There was a run of very difficult games coming up and most of them were away from home. The overall view from even some of the more optimistic fans was this could turn into a long year.
A funny thing happened on the way to the basement of the Big Ten standings, Iowa found a leader and an identity and the outlook on the season changed as quickly as the dire straits they appeared to be in back in early November.
Iowa went out to Las Vegas and beat last year’s national runner-up, Texas Tech. They lost the next night to San Diego State, but as we learned during year, they were one of the top teams in college basketball this year. The Hawkeyes then we to Syracuse and won by double figures and lost on the road to Michigan. In that game Luka Garza gave us a preview of his great season, scoring 44 points against the Wolverines.
The Hawkeyes went out and beat Minnesota by 20 points. Traveled to Ames and won by 16, and beat Cincinnati in Chicago by six. Iowa completed a stretch that some thought they might get two wins and emerged with five victories.
After dropping their first two games in their return to Big Ten play, including a disappointing performance at Nebraska, the Hawkeyes rolled to five straight victories. Iowa went 5-6 the rest of the way to finish up with a 20-11 overall record and 11-9 in conference play. That earned Iowa the five seed in the Big Ten Tournament and then the season came to a close.
The story of this season was Luka Garza. After sharing the low block for two years with Tyler Cook, Garza emerged and became the Big Ten Player of the Year, an All American, and potentially the Player of the Year in college basketball.
The list of accomplishments for Garza this season are nothing short of amazing. We already mentioned the 44 point game against Michigan. The junior center ended the year scoring more than 20 points in 16 straight games and he averaged 23.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. He also improved as a defender, blocking 55 shots this season.
The other potential star that emerged this year was shooting guard C.J. Fredrick. Like Nunge, there was plenty of praise from Fran McCaffery last year during his redshirt season. Fredrick lived up to the McCaffery hype and was the unexpected surprise this year. While he missed some time during the season due to a stress reaction and then a sprained ankle, he averaged 10.2 points per game and shot 46% from three point range.
Sophomore wing Joe Wieskamp was probably on his way to second team All Big Ten honors this year before a late season slump dropped him to third team honors. Wieskamp ended up averaging 14.0 points and 6.1 rebounds a contest. One of the tough parts of the unexpected end of the season was that Wieskamp didn’t get the chance to really right the ship with his game in post season play.
One of the feel good stories of the season was the play of Ryan Kriener. The senior big man has always played hard when given an opportunity, but when Nunge tore his ACL, he really played very well. Kriener wrapped up his Iowa career averaging 7.7 points and 4.1 rebounds while averaging 18.1 points per game.
A player I was really looking forward to watching in post season play and in the future is Joe Toussaint. The freshman guard had some really good moments and then, as with most young point guards, some really rough moments. Toussaint gave Iowa quickness and improved defense at guard and late in the year, he really started to shoot the ball from beyond the three point line pretty well. Toussaint ended his first year averaging 6.5 points and 2.8 assists per game.
The glue for this year’s Iowa team was certainly Connor McCaffery. He played every position from point guard to basically defending power forwards this season. When we talk about a glue guy, what we mean is he was the player who steadied the ship when he was on the court. McCaffery is never going to be a big scorer, but those numbers were up (6.2 points per game) and he was a low mistake guy. He had 124 assists and just 27 turnovers this season. That’s less than one turnover per game for a player that handled the ball quite a bit, playing an average of 30 minutes per game.
Coming into the season we didn’t know exactly what to expect from Bakari Evelyn. The graduate transfer from Valpo started the season slow, but his first breakout game was probably against Cincinnati in December. Evelyn averaged 3.7 points per game, but he was playing very well late in the year.
Lastly, it was an uneven season for Cordell Pemsl. The junior big man got off to a rocky start after being charged with a DWI in September, which cost him the first two games of the year. Even after that he struggled a good portion of the season, but following a second suspension following being charged with driving with a revoked license, Pemsl picked up his play. He ended up averaging 2.8 points and 3.2 rebounds per game this year.
It’s also worth mentioning that this was probably Fran McCaffery’s best coaching job since arriving in Iowa City. This team had talent, but given the injuries and the league being really strong this year, McCaffery got this team to believe and buy into what he was preaching all season long.
This season ended with the biggest question being what could they have done in March?
With an All American in Luka Garza, Iowa could have made a run in the NCAA Tournament. He could have continued to make his case for Player of the Year. That will be the unknown about this year. It was a very good season for the Iowa basketball program, but it could have possibly been an even more memorable one and you wish the players and coaches would have had the opportunity to end it on the floor in NCAA Tournament.
Fran McCaffery did his best coaching job since arriving in Iowa City.
Tom Kakert • HawkeyeReport
Publisher
@hawkeyereport
And just like that, the Iowa basketball season came to an end.
Unfortunately it didn’t end like any of us expected.
Iowa was all set to play in the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday afternoon against Minnesota in a virtually empty Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Then less than an hour before Michigan and Rutgers were set to tipoff their game, the Big Ten Conference decided to cancel the conference tournament due to concerns with the coronavirus.
While it was disappointing, at least the Hawkeyes had the NCAA Tournament to look forward to until they didn’t. One day later, the NCAA announced that it was cancelling the tournament and all D1 college sports for the rest of the academic year.
Iowa fans were hoping that the Hawkeyes would make a run in March and perhaps riding on the back of All American Luka Garza, they would return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1999. This overachieving bunch, if they had a good draw, could potentially reach that level and perhaps even more.
Right now it just feels unsatisfying.
Last year Iowa rallied to beat Cincinnati in their first game of the NCAA Tournament and pushed Tennessee to overtime in the second game before falling to the Volunteers. While it was disappointing that the Hawkeyes lost, there was satisfaction in the heart of the Iowa basketball team for what they accomplished.
This year just feels empty.
What could this team has done?
Unfortunately we will never know.
What we do know is this year’s Hawkeye team was a heck of a lot of fun to watch and be around. As mentioned earlier, this was certainly a team that overachieved this season.
In most years when the Hawkeyes lose two potential starters and possible key option off the bench, it would have sank the season. Jack Nunge to a torn ACL in the fifth game of the season. He was starting at power forward and after a slow start, Nunge started coming along six points and 4.6 rebounds per game. More than once this year, Fran McCaffery mentioned that during the summer, Nunge was the second best player on the roster. You can guess who #1 was and we will get to him.
Then Jordan Bohannon decided to shut down his season after playing in ten games. It was a poorly kept secret that the senior guard was likely to take this course of action and it was solidified when after coming back from hip surgery, he had issues with his other hip and his season came to an end after leaving his shoes on the Hilton Coliseum following a win over Iowa State. Bohannon averaged 8.8 points per game.
Lastly, there was the loss to Patrick McCaffery for the season. The freshman forward saw his season end after playing in two games. His reason was understandable. McCaffery was having issues keeping on weight and having health issues due to complications from having cancer in his early teen. His cancer did not return, but the issues related to it made it impossible for him to play a full season.
Then there was the early season pasting at the hands of DePaul. While some though the Blue Demons could be improved, Iowa was a nine point favorite and ended up losing 93-78 and the game didn’t even feel that close.
At that point an Iowa team that some thought could potentially be a bubble team in March looked like there was almost zero chance to make the Big Dance. There was a run of very difficult games coming up and most of them were away from home. The overall view from even some of the more optimistic fans was this could turn into a long year.
A funny thing happened on the way to the basement of the Big Ten standings, Iowa found a leader and an identity and the outlook on the season changed as quickly as the dire straits they appeared to be in back in early November.
Iowa went out to Las Vegas and beat last year’s national runner-up, Texas Tech. They lost the next night to San Diego State, but as we learned during year, they were one of the top teams in college basketball this year. The Hawkeyes then we to Syracuse and won by double figures and lost on the road to Michigan. In that game Luka Garza gave us a preview of his great season, scoring 44 points against the Wolverines.
The Hawkeyes went out and beat Minnesota by 20 points. Traveled to Ames and won by 16, and beat Cincinnati in Chicago by six. Iowa completed a stretch that some thought they might get two wins and emerged with five victories.
After dropping their first two games in their return to Big Ten play, including a disappointing performance at Nebraska, the Hawkeyes rolled to five straight victories. Iowa went 5-6 the rest of the way to finish up with a 20-11 overall record and 11-9 in conference play. That earned Iowa the five seed in the Big Ten Tournament and then the season came to a close.
The story of this season was Luka Garza. After sharing the low block for two years with Tyler Cook, Garza emerged and became the Big Ten Player of the Year, an All American, and potentially the Player of the Year in college basketball.
The list of accomplishments for Garza this season are nothing short of amazing. We already mentioned the 44 point game against Michigan. The junior center ended the year scoring more than 20 points in 16 straight games and he averaged 23.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. He also improved as a defender, blocking 55 shots this season.
The other potential star that emerged this year was shooting guard C.J. Fredrick. Like Nunge, there was plenty of praise from Fran McCaffery last year during his redshirt season. Fredrick lived up to the McCaffery hype and was the unexpected surprise this year. While he missed some time during the season due to a stress reaction and then a sprained ankle, he averaged 10.2 points per game and shot 46% from three point range.
Sophomore wing Joe Wieskamp was probably on his way to second team All Big Ten honors this year before a late season slump dropped him to third team honors. Wieskamp ended up averaging 14.0 points and 6.1 rebounds a contest. One of the tough parts of the unexpected end of the season was that Wieskamp didn’t get the chance to really right the ship with his game in post season play.
One of the feel good stories of the season was the play of Ryan Kriener. The senior big man has always played hard when given an opportunity, but when Nunge tore his ACL, he really played very well. Kriener wrapped up his Iowa career averaging 7.7 points and 4.1 rebounds while averaging 18.1 points per game.
A player I was really looking forward to watching in post season play and in the future is Joe Toussaint. The freshman guard had some really good moments and then, as with most young point guards, some really rough moments. Toussaint gave Iowa quickness and improved defense at guard and late in the year, he really started to shoot the ball from beyond the three point line pretty well. Toussaint ended his first year averaging 6.5 points and 2.8 assists per game.
The glue for this year’s Iowa team was certainly Connor McCaffery. He played every position from point guard to basically defending power forwards this season. When we talk about a glue guy, what we mean is he was the player who steadied the ship when he was on the court. McCaffery is never going to be a big scorer, but those numbers were up (6.2 points per game) and he was a low mistake guy. He had 124 assists and just 27 turnovers this season. That’s less than one turnover per game for a player that handled the ball quite a bit, playing an average of 30 minutes per game.
Coming into the season we didn’t know exactly what to expect from Bakari Evelyn. The graduate transfer from Valpo started the season slow, but his first breakout game was probably against Cincinnati in December. Evelyn averaged 3.7 points per game, but he was playing very well late in the year.
Lastly, it was an uneven season for Cordell Pemsl. The junior big man got off to a rocky start after being charged with a DWI in September, which cost him the first two games of the year. Even after that he struggled a good portion of the season, but following a second suspension following being charged with driving with a revoked license, Pemsl picked up his play. He ended up averaging 2.8 points and 3.2 rebounds per game this year.
It’s also worth mentioning that this was probably Fran McCaffery’s best coaching job since arriving in Iowa City. This team had talent, but given the injuries and the league being really strong this year, McCaffery got this team to believe and buy into what he was preaching all season long.
This season ended with the biggest question being what could they have done in March?
With an All American in Luka Garza, Iowa could have made a run in the NCAA Tournament. He could have continued to make his case for Player of the Year. That will be the unknown about this year. It was a very good season for the Iowa basketball program, but it could have possibly been an even more memorable one and you wish the players and coaches would have had the opportunity to end it on the floor in NCAA Tournament.
