The Iowa men’s basketball team isn’t garnering much preseason attention, but the players say they don’t mind.
By Ian Murphy
ROSEMONT, Illinois — With five returning veterans, a third-place finish in the conference last season, and an NCAA Tournament win, the Iowa men’s basketball team should spark some conversation heading into the season.
But the Hawkeyes received very little attention at the Big Ten media day on Thursday. Senior Jarrod Uthoff drew preseason All-Big Ten honors, but aside from him, the Hawkeyes have not attracted the fanfare of years past.
Big Ten Network analysts even picked the Hawkeyes to finish ninth in the conference this year, despite the returning veterans.
But the Hawkeyes said they don’t pay any attention to the preseason chatter.
“You can’t really look at the standings,” senior Anthony Clemmons said. “They never end up right.”
The Hawkeyes are not in the conversation in part because of No. 3 Maryland, which is the preseason favorite to win the conference and arguably be the top team in the country. Sophomore guard Melo Trimble — who earlier this week was picked as the Big Ten preseason Player of the Year — seems to be the star of the league.
Couple Maryland with an impressive crop of incoming players littered throughout the conference and teams with high expectations such as No. 24 Purdue and No. 15 Indiana, and it’s easy to understand why the Hawkeyes aren’t among the favorites.
But Iowa remains undeterred.
“As a player, you have to really stick to the main focus of your team and the goals of your team,” Clemmons said.
That focus, at least early on, appears to be sustaining the recent success the Hawkeyes have had.
Each year of head coach Fran McCaffrey’s tenure has seen improvement in the Hawkeyes, which started with him winning 11 games in 2011 and culminating with 22 wins and an NCAA Tournament win last season.
With veteran leadership, tournament experience, traceable improvement, and a touted recruiting class, the program should attract more notice.
But McCaffrey said he harbors no hard feelings about the lack of hype and credits the depth of the league as a major factor.
“I think it’s a function of how good everybody else is,” he said. “I don’t think it’s disrespect. I think it’s respect for really good teams.”
The depth of the Big Ten lends itself to someone being left out, in both the preseason conversation (five Big Ten teams are ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll) and postseason play, but the Hawkeyes echo their coach’s attitude, paying little attention to expectations.
“That’s totally fine if we’re under the radar,” senior Adam Woodbury said. “The underdog role, we’ll play that; if they’re picking us where they’re picking us, that’s totally fine.”
The Hawkeyes will not often find themselves in the underdog role if this season goes similar to last.
And besides, the season hasn’t started yet.
“I don’t look at it anyway. We just kind of do what we do,” McCaffrey said. “If you think about it, who really cares who was picked where now; it’s where you end up.”
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