Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery won’t admit it, as well he shouldn’t, and neither will any of his players, but the Hawkeyes are not realistically looking at getting a bid into the NCAA Tournament this March.
As far as rebuilding years go, this season would qualify. Losing four starters from a team that climbed all the way up to No. 3 in the rankings a year ago makes it a necessity to rebuild, unless your campus is in Lexington, Kentucky, or Durham, North Carolina.
Having said that, there has been a ton of good that has come out of this season and this young team.
Sure, after losing two-straight road games at Minnesota and Michigan State, it looks like Iowa won’t finish in the top half of the Big Ten with Wisconsin and Maryland still left on the regular-season schedule.
But there should be no panic surrounding this team, because it has already proven to everybody what it is going to be in the future.
Tyler Cook is going to average 12 or more points every single year he stays at Iowa. Jordan Bohannon is going to hit his fair share of 3-point shots. Cordell Pemsl is going to be able to create his own shot in the post. Nicholas Baer and Ahmad Wagner will do the dirty work.
The list goes on with freshmen and sophomores.
On one hand, it is frustrating that the Hawkeyes have managed one road win all season, dropping their last two. However, on the other hand, you have to recognize that Hawkeyes were one (bad) call away from winning in Minneapolis and got beat up by their schedule as much as anything else in East Lansing. The 77-66 loss to the Spartans was Iowa’s third game of the week and second road trip in three days.
Last season, we got Red Fran seemingly on a weekly basis. McCaffery was heated in press conferences and got technicals called against him on the court. There’s a calmness about him this season, though, because he seems to be coaching a different way than he has used the past two seasons.
The last time Iowa went through a true roster makeover like this was in 2012, when McCaffery brought in Mike Gesell, Adam Woodbury, Anthony Clemmons, and Josh Oglesby. The four freshmen that year shared 83 starts among them. That team finished at .500 in conference play, won only two games on the road in the regular season, ended up qualifying for the NIT, and made a run to the championship game.
The year after that, the Hawkeyes were in the NCAA Tournament. The two years after that, they were nationally ranked and won opening round games in the NCAA Tournament.
So while the past two games — and basically every road game — have been disappointing this season, it’s wise to look ahead. If this group of freshmen is like the one in 2012 (in my opinion, they’re better), Iowa will be back toward the top of the Big Ten standings soon enough.