Good story from the Gazette.
Mike Hlas
Jun. 23, 2024
IOWA CITY — The NCAA basketball transfer portal is closed until next spring and the early-entries for this week’s NBA draft are finalized.
The Iowa men’s basketball team knows what it has for next season, and it may be enough to return to its normal station. It was in Associated Press’ Top 25 during each of the previous five seasons, and finished three of them ranked.
This year, the 19-15 Hawkeyes were excluded from the NCAA tournament for the first time in the last five seasons in which one was staged. Seven of their 10 Big Ten home games had announced crowds of 10,000 or less.
As summer workouts have commenced, the men’s team may be getting ready for brighter lights this winter. It has a senior forward in Payton Sandfort, who already has earned all-Big Ten honors. It has a sophomore center in Owen Freeman, who had a terrific first year for a freshman big man. It has a junior guard in Josh Dix, who peeled off three straight games of 20-plus points late in the Big Ten season.
It has four sophomores who played a lot as freshmen, and incoming frosh forwards in Chris Tadjo and Cooper Koch, who come in with good buzz. It has transfers in point guard Drew Thelwell and forward Seydou Traore, who averaged 10 points at Division I programs last season.
“I think this is probably our deepest team maybe since the 2016 group,” Fran McCaffery said in an interview last week, five months from the start of his 15th season as Iowa’s head coach.
“I think we have a great deal of versatility with this team, multiple-position players, players that can play fast like we want to play. And I think we're probably bigger and stronger, potentially more physical, which should clearly help us at the defensive end of the floor.
“We feel really good about it. Really good.”
Thelwell will share time at point guard with soph Brock Harding. Thelwell averaged 6.2 assists in his fourth season at Morehead State, which won 26 games and trailed Illinois by just a point at halftime of their NCAA tournament game.
“I spoke to (Illinois Coach) Brad Underwood,” McCaffery said. “He said ‘Man, that kid’s really good.’
“Getting ready to play them in the NCAA tournament, Brad probably watched 10, 12 tapes, I’m guessing.
“Not only is Drew talented, he has leadership ability. He speaks up. He’s confident. He’s cerebral. You know, it’s hard to win 26 games anywhere. That was really impressive.”
So McCaffery has a roster he likes in a moment in time when assembling and maintaining college rosters is like herding cats. He had less than a month this spring to recruit and get to know Thelwell and Traore.
“We recruited Adam Woodbury for two years,” he said.
Though McCaffery hates to call it such, recruiting has become transactional. Agents had been taboo in college sports. Now, especially in basketball, coaches better be able to deal with them.
“There’s a lot of money involved here,” McCaffery said. “There’s enough money for an agent, if he has a substantial amount of clients, to make a living shopping guys on the NIL market.
“Now you have the top agencies — the ones who sign lottery picks, the ones who have Hall of Famers — they have an NIL faction of their business.
“Frankly, that isn’t a bad thing because these are the best organizations in that arena.
“But you have high school players now. I’m talking about sophomores, juniors, seniors. All the top ones have agents. You look at the top 150 players in the country that are in high school, they all have agents.”
Where does Iowa fit in this? It’s in the mighty Big Ten and is worlds away from the poor house. But it’s not a major player in NIL, and so far its fan base hasn’t shown a great inclination toward pumping major-player money into NIL.
“I remember you’re sitting down to have lunch with a prospect,” McCaffery said. “The bill comes. He got a sandwich. What do you do with the check? You split it. That’s what we did for years. And you know what? Some of our competition didn’t split the check.
“That might have put me at a disadvantage, but we had NCAA rules, we followed them. Now, who’s worried about a sandwich? There might be a seven-figure deal on the table.”
McCaffery just turned 65. He still recruits like crazy. He has always seemed to enjoy it, in fact.
“My life hasn’t changed since my first year in this business, which was 1983. I still do the same things. We have staff meetings, skill-development workouts. We have recruiting meetings, we make recruiting calls. We get in our car and drive or we get on a plane and fly.
“Last week all four of us (Iowa coaches) were at the NBPA Top 100 camp in Orlando. watching the top 100 players in the country. And we’re on the phone with them. Saturday afternoon (June 15) was the first day we could talk to sophomores. I was on the phone all day talking to sophomores.”
This weekend, McCafferyy was in Minnesota and Indiana to watch prep players he is recruiting.
McCaffery’s youngest son, Jack, is an Iowa City West senior-to-be who played at that Top 100 camp. He has said he won’t be playing at Iowa.
Oldest son Connor lives in Indianapolis where he works for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. Middle son Patrick has transferred to Butler for his final season after being in his father’s program for five years. Daughter Marit is an Iowa student, a political science major on the UI’s president’s list (4.0 GPA) with hopes of going to law school.
When his nest is empty next year, will Fran McCaffery depart, too?
“It’s time for them to go on their journeys,” he said. “I’m locked in here with helping our program continuing to be successful in a completely changing environment.
“I feel really good. We’ve got practice today. I’m excited to get out on the practice floor. I love this team.”
www.thegazette.com
Fran McCaffery is wading in rougher recruiting waters now, but could pull up a winter winner
Iowa had a streak of NCAA tournament appearances snapped last season, but McCaffery’s Hawkeyes could jump back in the Top 25 picture quicker than some may think
Jun. 23, 2024
IOWA CITY — The NCAA basketball transfer portal is closed until next spring and the early-entries for this week’s NBA draft are finalized.
The Iowa men’s basketball team knows what it has for next season, and it may be enough to return to its normal station. It was in Associated Press’ Top 25 during each of the previous five seasons, and finished three of them ranked.
This year, the 19-15 Hawkeyes were excluded from the NCAA tournament for the first time in the last five seasons in which one was staged. Seven of their 10 Big Ten home games had announced crowds of 10,000 or less.
As summer workouts have commenced, the men’s team may be getting ready for brighter lights this winter. It has a senior forward in Payton Sandfort, who already has earned all-Big Ten honors. It has a sophomore center in Owen Freeman, who had a terrific first year for a freshman big man. It has a junior guard in Josh Dix, who peeled off three straight games of 20-plus points late in the Big Ten season.
It has four sophomores who played a lot as freshmen, and incoming frosh forwards in Chris Tadjo and Cooper Koch, who come in with good buzz. It has transfers in point guard Drew Thelwell and forward Seydou Traore, who averaged 10 points at Division I programs last season.
“I think this is probably our deepest team maybe since the 2016 group,” Fran McCaffery said in an interview last week, five months from the start of his 15th season as Iowa’s head coach.
“I think we have a great deal of versatility with this team, multiple-position players, players that can play fast like we want to play. And I think we're probably bigger and stronger, potentially more physical, which should clearly help us at the defensive end of the floor.
“We feel really good about it. Really good.”
Thelwell will share time at point guard with soph Brock Harding. Thelwell averaged 6.2 assists in his fourth season at Morehead State, which won 26 games and trailed Illinois by just a point at halftime of their NCAA tournament game.
“I spoke to (Illinois Coach) Brad Underwood,” McCaffery said. “He said ‘Man, that kid’s really good.’
“Getting ready to play them in the NCAA tournament, Brad probably watched 10, 12 tapes, I’m guessing.
“Not only is Drew talented, he has leadership ability. He speaks up. He’s confident. He’s cerebral. You know, it’s hard to win 26 games anywhere. That was really impressive.”
So McCaffery has a roster he likes in a moment in time when assembling and maintaining college rosters is like herding cats. He had less than a month this spring to recruit and get to know Thelwell and Traore.
“We recruited Adam Woodbury for two years,” he said.
Though McCaffery hates to call it such, recruiting has become transactional. Agents had been taboo in college sports. Now, especially in basketball, coaches better be able to deal with them.
“There’s a lot of money involved here,” McCaffery said. “There’s enough money for an agent, if he has a substantial amount of clients, to make a living shopping guys on the NIL market.
“Now you have the top agencies — the ones who sign lottery picks, the ones who have Hall of Famers — they have an NIL faction of their business.
“Frankly, that isn’t a bad thing because these are the best organizations in that arena.
“But you have high school players now. I’m talking about sophomores, juniors, seniors. All the top ones have agents. You look at the top 150 players in the country that are in high school, they all have agents.”
Where does Iowa fit in this? It’s in the mighty Big Ten and is worlds away from the poor house. But it’s not a major player in NIL, and so far its fan base hasn’t shown a great inclination toward pumping major-player money into NIL.
“I remember you’re sitting down to have lunch with a prospect,” McCaffery said. “The bill comes. He got a sandwich. What do you do with the check? You split it. That’s what we did for years. And you know what? Some of our competition didn’t split the check.
“That might have put me at a disadvantage, but we had NCAA rules, we followed them. Now, who’s worried about a sandwich? There might be a seven-figure deal on the table.”
McCaffery just turned 65. He still recruits like crazy. He has always seemed to enjoy it, in fact.
“My life hasn’t changed since my first year in this business, which was 1983. I still do the same things. We have staff meetings, skill-development workouts. We have recruiting meetings, we make recruiting calls. We get in our car and drive or we get on a plane and fly.
“Last week all four of us (Iowa coaches) were at the NBPA Top 100 camp in Orlando. watching the top 100 players in the country. And we’re on the phone with them. Saturday afternoon (June 15) was the first day we could talk to sophomores. I was on the phone all day talking to sophomores.”
This weekend, McCafferyy was in Minnesota and Indiana to watch prep players he is recruiting.
McCaffery’s youngest son, Jack, is an Iowa City West senior-to-be who played at that Top 100 camp. He has said he won’t be playing at Iowa.
Oldest son Connor lives in Indianapolis where he works for the NBA’s Indiana Pacers. Middle son Patrick has transferred to Butler for his final season after being in his father’s program for five years. Daughter Marit is an Iowa student, a political science major on the UI’s president’s list (4.0 GPA) with hopes of going to law school.
When his nest is empty next year, will Fran McCaffery depart, too?
“It’s time for them to go on their journeys,” he said. “I’m locked in here with helping our program continuing to be successful in a completely changing environment.
“I feel really good. We’ve got practice today. I’m excited to get out on the practice floor. I love this team.”
Fran McCaffery is wading in rougher recruiting waters, but could pull up a winter winner
Iowa had a streak of NCAA tournament appearances snapped last season, but Fran McCaffery’s Hawkeyes could jump back in the Top 25 picture quicker than some may think.
www.thegazette.com
