What did we learn?
Bakari Evelyn might have worked his way into the starting lineup for the forseeable future.
Tom Kakert • HawkeyeReport
Publisher
@hawkeyereport
Usually I open this column with some sort of theme or a story.
This week it’s simply a note of thanks.
With the holidays coming up this week, many of us will be hitting the road to spend time with family and friends. In many ways, all of us here are friends and family to each other. Sure we are wildly dysfunctional at times, but we are connected to each other through this site and the community that all of you have helped to build as we follow the twists and turns of Iowa athletics.
It’s hard to believe that I will be starting my 17th year this spring working for Rivals.com and I wouldn’t be here and continuing to do what I do each and every day without the support all of you have shown. I wouldn’t be here without the tireless work of Blair Sanderson. I say this all of the time that Blair is the best in the business. We are extremely fortunate to have him here in our corner of the world.
This is my long way of saying thank you for your support of the work we do. I’m not sure it’s even work because if you love what you do, it’s really not work. As we move on to another decade in about a week, thanks for being a part of our community here at HawkeyeReport.com. Here’s to another great year and hopefully another decade together.
Now on to the week that was and some thoughts on the Hawkeyes.
1. This past week felt like the true end of an era for Iowa athletics. With the recent passing of Bump Elliott and Hayden Fry, Hawkeye fans lost the faces of a generation. There were other important figures in Iowa athletics, like Dan Gable, Vivian Stringer, Lute Olsen, and Tom Davis, but for many folks, the leaders of the Hawkeyes were Bump and Hayden.
We all knew this day was going to eventually come, but that doesn’t make it any easier when it became reality. Iowa athletics wouldn’t be in the place it is today without the leadership provided by Elliott and the return to prominence of Hawkeye football engineered by Hayden Fry.
2. I think it’s rather fitting that Iowa ended up in the Holiday Bowl this year given how that game played a role in the success of Hayden Fry. I suspect that the bowl will do a terrific job of honoring Fry prior to the game given how they have mentioned him quite a bit when they extended the invitation.
Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa program will also honor Fry in a fitting manner on their uniform and I suspect they will also do something on the field to remember him as well. And if Iowa is fortunate enough to beat USC, you can bet there will be a Hokey Pokey in the Hawkeye locker room to celebrate the victory.
3. The Hawkeyes have officially arrived in San Diego to continue their preparations for the Holiday Bowl. We will dive into the actual game much more this week, but it’s a really interesting match-up on paper.
On one side you have an Iowa team that has made no bones about the fact that they are coming into this contest wanting to win their tenth game of the season. You always look at a bowl game and try to figure out which team is there and which one is there to win. For USC, what is their motivation? Not covering their team, it’s hard for me to say what their motivation level will be, but it’s very apparent that many USC fans weren’t happy that head coach Clay Helton was retained. What we don’t know for sure is how the players are feeling about him. My sense is they will find their motivation from Helton being retained and showing everyone that they want to play for their coach.
4. One last note on the bowl game and it’s really more about the bowl prep. Usually this is a time of year when position changes take place and there’s quite a bit of developmental work that the coaches put in with younger players.
This year because of the way that the calendar fell for football with a later Thanksgiving, Iowa’s finals week, and playing in an earlier bowl game, any position changes were put on hold and much of the developmental work couldn’t fully take place.
According to Kirk Ferentz, what that means is that spring football for the Hawkeyes will take on even more importance. Not only will Iowa be searching for a new starting quarterback, but the developmental side of the program will have to ramp up very quickly in March and April.
5. On to basketball where Iowa not only survived the brutal stretch that Hawkeye fans were concerned about heading into the season, but they actually thrived.
The stretch that we are talking about is the seven games starting with the tournament in Las Vegas and ending with game this past Saturday in Chicago. Many Iowa fans had dire predictions, especially following the loss to DePaul, yet here the Hawkeyes sit at 9-3 overall and they went 5-2 in this seven game stretch. They accomplished all of that while eventually losing two starters to season ending injuries.
That stretch included two solid to strong neutral site victories and a road wins at Iowa State and Syracuse, which is never easy to do. And the only losses came to San Diego State, who remains undefeated, and Michigan, who is still nationally ranked.
I’ve written this a few times in the past few weeks, but this might be the most mentally tough team of the McCaffery era. We saw that again on Saturday night when Cincinnati erased a 15 point deficit and took a lead with 4:30 left in the game. Instead of fading, Iowa thrived, outscoring the Bearcats 15-6 the rest of the way. That’s the sign of a pretty good basketball team.
6. Speaking of McCaffery, another thing worth mentioning once again is that he’s probably doing his best coaching job of his tenure with this team.
Iowa is now down three key contributors and it will likely be that way the rest of the season given his comments about his son, Patrick, late last week. Yet with a short bench and limited options, Fran McCaffery has pushed all the right buttons with this team. He said after Saturday’s game that this has been one of his best teams at sticking to the scouting report and that always gives you a chance when your players do that.
7. While the win on Saturday night at the United Center was a good one. Sure it was ugly at times with 24 turnovers by the Hawkeyes and some poor free throw shooting mixed in, a big concern for some fans was the play of Joe Toussaint.
Right off the top, I think Toussaint will be fine. He’s a tough minded competitive young player who will get better with experience, but my sense is in addition to him apparently having an issue with his shoes, Toussaint probably just let the moment get to big for him. His first start in the United Center and he seemed like he was playing at 200 mph. That led to early turnovers and two fouls in just 3:22 of action on the court. As we know with McCaffery, when you pick up two fouls in the first half, more often than not, you are sitting the rest of the first 20 minutes.
Then when he did get his chance in the second half, he was in the game for about ten seconds and committed his third foul and was back on the bench. His night was finished, but I’ll share with you a little story from behind the scenes.
As we were interviewing Bakari Evelyn (more on him in a minute), Toussaint walked by and was shouting “BK” which is Evelyn’s nickname on the team. He was happy for his teammate and showed no signs of being down or disappointed. Like I said, I think Toussaint will be fine.
8. Now on to two players who really shined on Saturday night. The first was Evelyn, who was in line for more minutes the rest of the season following the announcement that Jordan Bohannon was shutting down for the rest of the season to have hip surgery.
Evelyn hadn’t done a whole lot for the Hawkeyes up until Saturday night. He’s a veteran as a graduate transfer, but he probably hasn’t played with a whole lot of confidence. That’s what made Saturday so interesting because it was his confidence that shined. He subbed in for Tousstaint early and immediately knocked down a three pointer, assisted on a basket, and then hit another jumper from beyond the arch.
Then late in the second half with Iowa nursing a one point lead, Evelyn hit another three and followed that up with a two point field goal and Iowa was on their way to victory lane.
Evelyn started the second half in place of Toussaint and I think that might be the move for Iowa for the immediate future.
The other player to highlight is C.J. Fredrick. I know more than a few fans wondered about his credentials coming out of high school and just how much he would end up contributing early in his career.
He's answered those doubters early in the season, including his 21 point performance against Cincinnati on Saturday night. Fredrick is just a good solid basketball player with a toughness to him. He's shooting over 50% from three this season and while there may be some regression coming, I don't think it will be too big of a drop. I think Iowa's found a really good one in Fredrick, who will make a big impact on the outcome of games for years to come.
Bakari Evelyn might have worked his way into the starting lineup for the forseeable future.
Tom Kakert • HawkeyeReport
Publisher
@hawkeyereport
Usually I open this column with some sort of theme or a story.
This week it’s simply a note of thanks.
With the holidays coming up this week, many of us will be hitting the road to spend time with family and friends. In many ways, all of us here are friends and family to each other. Sure we are wildly dysfunctional at times, but we are connected to each other through this site and the community that all of you have helped to build as we follow the twists and turns of Iowa athletics.
It’s hard to believe that I will be starting my 17th year this spring working for Rivals.com and I wouldn’t be here and continuing to do what I do each and every day without the support all of you have shown. I wouldn’t be here without the tireless work of Blair Sanderson. I say this all of the time that Blair is the best in the business. We are extremely fortunate to have him here in our corner of the world.
This is my long way of saying thank you for your support of the work we do. I’m not sure it’s even work because if you love what you do, it’s really not work. As we move on to another decade in about a week, thanks for being a part of our community here at HawkeyeReport.com. Here’s to another great year and hopefully another decade together.
Now on to the week that was and some thoughts on the Hawkeyes.
1. This past week felt like the true end of an era for Iowa athletics. With the recent passing of Bump Elliott and Hayden Fry, Hawkeye fans lost the faces of a generation. There were other important figures in Iowa athletics, like Dan Gable, Vivian Stringer, Lute Olsen, and Tom Davis, but for many folks, the leaders of the Hawkeyes were Bump and Hayden.
We all knew this day was going to eventually come, but that doesn’t make it any easier when it became reality. Iowa athletics wouldn’t be in the place it is today without the leadership provided by Elliott and the return to prominence of Hawkeye football engineered by Hayden Fry.
2. I think it’s rather fitting that Iowa ended up in the Holiday Bowl this year given how that game played a role in the success of Hayden Fry. I suspect that the bowl will do a terrific job of honoring Fry prior to the game given how they have mentioned him quite a bit when they extended the invitation.
Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa program will also honor Fry in a fitting manner on their uniform and I suspect they will also do something on the field to remember him as well. And if Iowa is fortunate enough to beat USC, you can bet there will be a Hokey Pokey in the Hawkeye locker room to celebrate the victory.
3. The Hawkeyes have officially arrived in San Diego to continue their preparations for the Holiday Bowl. We will dive into the actual game much more this week, but it’s a really interesting match-up on paper.
On one side you have an Iowa team that has made no bones about the fact that they are coming into this contest wanting to win their tenth game of the season. You always look at a bowl game and try to figure out which team is there and which one is there to win. For USC, what is their motivation? Not covering their team, it’s hard for me to say what their motivation level will be, but it’s very apparent that many USC fans weren’t happy that head coach Clay Helton was retained. What we don’t know for sure is how the players are feeling about him. My sense is they will find their motivation from Helton being retained and showing everyone that they want to play for their coach.
4. One last note on the bowl game and it’s really more about the bowl prep. Usually this is a time of year when position changes take place and there’s quite a bit of developmental work that the coaches put in with younger players.
This year because of the way that the calendar fell for football with a later Thanksgiving, Iowa’s finals week, and playing in an earlier bowl game, any position changes were put on hold and much of the developmental work couldn’t fully take place.
According to Kirk Ferentz, what that means is that spring football for the Hawkeyes will take on even more importance. Not only will Iowa be searching for a new starting quarterback, but the developmental side of the program will have to ramp up very quickly in March and April.
5. On to basketball where Iowa not only survived the brutal stretch that Hawkeye fans were concerned about heading into the season, but they actually thrived.
The stretch that we are talking about is the seven games starting with the tournament in Las Vegas and ending with game this past Saturday in Chicago. Many Iowa fans had dire predictions, especially following the loss to DePaul, yet here the Hawkeyes sit at 9-3 overall and they went 5-2 in this seven game stretch. They accomplished all of that while eventually losing two starters to season ending injuries.
That stretch included two solid to strong neutral site victories and a road wins at Iowa State and Syracuse, which is never easy to do. And the only losses came to San Diego State, who remains undefeated, and Michigan, who is still nationally ranked.
I’ve written this a few times in the past few weeks, but this might be the most mentally tough team of the McCaffery era. We saw that again on Saturday night when Cincinnati erased a 15 point deficit and took a lead with 4:30 left in the game. Instead of fading, Iowa thrived, outscoring the Bearcats 15-6 the rest of the way. That’s the sign of a pretty good basketball team.
6. Speaking of McCaffery, another thing worth mentioning once again is that he’s probably doing his best coaching job of his tenure with this team.
Iowa is now down three key contributors and it will likely be that way the rest of the season given his comments about his son, Patrick, late last week. Yet with a short bench and limited options, Fran McCaffery has pushed all the right buttons with this team. He said after Saturday’s game that this has been one of his best teams at sticking to the scouting report and that always gives you a chance when your players do that.
7. While the win on Saturday night at the United Center was a good one. Sure it was ugly at times with 24 turnovers by the Hawkeyes and some poor free throw shooting mixed in, a big concern for some fans was the play of Joe Toussaint.
Right off the top, I think Toussaint will be fine. He’s a tough minded competitive young player who will get better with experience, but my sense is in addition to him apparently having an issue with his shoes, Toussaint probably just let the moment get to big for him. His first start in the United Center and he seemed like he was playing at 200 mph. That led to early turnovers and two fouls in just 3:22 of action on the court. As we know with McCaffery, when you pick up two fouls in the first half, more often than not, you are sitting the rest of the first 20 minutes.
Then when he did get his chance in the second half, he was in the game for about ten seconds and committed his third foul and was back on the bench. His night was finished, but I’ll share with you a little story from behind the scenes.
As we were interviewing Bakari Evelyn (more on him in a minute), Toussaint walked by and was shouting “BK” which is Evelyn’s nickname on the team. He was happy for his teammate and showed no signs of being down or disappointed. Like I said, I think Toussaint will be fine.
8. Now on to two players who really shined on Saturday night. The first was Evelyn, who was in line for more minutes the rest of the season following the announcement that Jordan Bohannon was shutting down for the rest of the season to have hip surgery.
Evelyn hadn’t done a whole lot for the Hawkeyes up until Saturday night. He’s a veteran as a graduate transfer, but he probably hasn’t played with a whole lot of confidence. That’s what made Saturday so interesting because it was his confidence that shined. He subbed in for Tousstaint early and immediately knocked down a three pointer, assisted on a basket, and then hit another jumper from beyond the arch.
Then late in the second half with Iowa nursing a one point lead, Evelyn hit another three and followed that up with a two point field goal and Iowa was on their way to victory lane.
Evelyn started the second half in place of Toussaint and I think that might be the move for Iowa for the immediate future.
The other player to highlight is C.J. Fredrick. I know more than a few fans wondered about his credentials coming out of high school and just how much he would end up contributing early in his career.
He's answered those doubters early in the season, including his 21 point performance against Cincinnati on Saturday night. Fredrick is just a good solid basketball player with a toughness to him. He's shooting over 50% from three this season and while there may be some regression coming, I don't think it will be too big of a drop. I think Iowa's found a really good one in Fredrick, who will make a big impact on the outcome of games for years to come.
