By Blake Dowson
If fans are looking for the Iowa men’s basketball players to look like they did a year ago, they’re going to be disappointed.
They really should know better. Head coach Fran McCaffery lost four starters off his team from last year, and Peter Jok is really the only player who has played a big chunk of minutes in his career.
The Hawkeyes look a lot different this season. Gone is 7-1 Adam Woodbury, who took up a lot of space in the middle of the paint. But for a bunch of the guys who are still in Hawkeye jerseys, there’s a silver lining to losing Woodbury — the team gets to run even more now.
“While we don’t have a 7-1 center, we have way more length and size than we had last year,” McCaffery said. “When you look at the physical makeup of our team in terms of strength and length, we’re in a much better position this year to defend in the post than we were last year.”
Iowa’s roster is a bit odd this season. The Hawkeyes only have one player shorter than 6-5 on the team (freshman point guard Jordan Bohannon), but they also have no one taller than 6-9.
The starting lineup — and basically every rotation — will end up being guys with a lot of length who can all guard and play two, three, or even four positions.
One of those guys is Isaiah Moss, who Hawkeye fans aren’t accustomed to because he redshirted last season during his first year on campus. Moss, at 6-5, has looked like one of the team’s best scoring options early in practice, and he’s excited to finally get to play.
“I’m just doing anything Coach asks me,” Moss said. “If he wants me to play the 2, 3, 1, I’ll do it.”
The entire roster is basically built in the same mold as Moss: long, fast, athletic, capable of handling the ball.
And most of them are guys that were waiting on the bench last season, as the four seniors had their last go.
Maishee Dailey (6-6) is a freshman combo guard who can jump out of the gym. Christian Williams (6-5) seems to be the starting point guard heading into the year. Ahmad Wagner (6-7) can play any forward position, as can Cook (6-9), Nicholas Baer (6-7), and Dom Uhl (6-9), and Jok (6-6) will be looked upon to play three positions throughout the year.
The thing that makes you believe the Hawkeyes can have success in an offense with an even more frantic pace than last year is the look in the players’ eyes when they talk about it.
Cook, who McCaffery said has the highest ceiling of any player he’s coached, can’t wait to get out and go.
“It’s super exciting,” Cook said. “It wasn’t [fun] trying to get into shape, but it’s really exciting. We have a super long and athletic team. So watching us run and get a bucket in three seconds, five seconds, it’s ridiculous.”
Point guard might be the most intriguing one to watch, because there are realistically five guys that can bring the ball up the court for Iowa.
Williams is the front-runner, but Jok, Bohannon, Moss, and Dailey are capable.
“I think it’s easier knowing that I’ll be getting lots of minutes and just knowing what to expect, I’ll be a lot more consistent,” Williams said. “I think my strength is that I can play multiple positions. I can do a lot of things; I can rebound, I can pass, I can score, I can do pretty much anything.”