By Blake Dowson  | [email protected]

The Peter Jok era at Iowa is over.

Realistically, the “Peter Jok era” was only this past year, and before this year, there were some questions about how great of a leader he would be for a young team.

But to his credit, the freshmen and sophomores on this year’s squad really took a liking to Jok’s leadership, and he turned out to be the latest in a long line of good team leaders for head coach Fran McCaffery.McCaffery has had a propensity to announce each year who’s the outright leader of each of his teams. In 2013, it was Devyn Marble, who got drafted after the season. In 2014, it was Aaron White, who earned the same distinction during the draft. Two seasons ago, it was Jarrod Uthoff, who should have been drafted and is now playing for the Dallas Mavericks.

This past season, it was Jok, who ended up being Iowa’s fourth first-team All-Big Ten performer in as many years (the three just listed are the others).

There is no clear-cut favorite for next year’s team, however. No easy decision for McCaffery. There’s no reason he has to declare it someone’s team at all, really.

But if he does, who will it be? Here are the leading candidates.

Nicholas Baer

Baer more than likely won’t be a starter next year — he just doesn’t affect the game as much when he does. So on the surface, it would seem odd for McCaffery to give the honor to Baer.

McCaffery has always given the nod to a senior, which Baer will not be next season. It will, however, be his fourth year on campus because of his redshirt season a few years ago.

Baer’s hustle and passion is contagious on this team, and his teammates say he took a more vocal leadership role than even Jok did this season.

Another year in the weight room and in the practice gym can only help, too.

“He’ll have an expanded role,” McCaffery said about Baer back at Iowa’s media day. …He’ll continue to get better as he gets stronger … He truly understands the game plan and how we do our scouting and preparation.”

Jordan Bohannon

If McCaffery picks out the most talented player, it may well go to Bohannon.

Bohannon played like a first team all-conference point guard at the end of the year, finishing his freshman campaign with three-consecutive double-doubles.

The Marion product has a really good head on his shoulders as well and never gets rattled. That’s important in a leader.

“A lot of times when you have freshmen who play well, one of two things happen,” McCaffery said. “They either continue to get better through experience, or teams figure them out, and they’re not as good … He has great feel for how to play. His defense is improving. He’s just going to keep getting better as he gets stronger.”

Tyler Cook

“He probably has the highest ceiling [of any freshman I’ve had],”

McCaffery said before the season started.

Cook didn’t do anything this season to make people think that isn’t still true. At times, he would be the most dominant player on the floor during Big Ten games. Other times, however, Iowa seemed to go away from him.

The top-40 recruit from a season ago didn’t show an outside touch like McCaffery thought he might this season, but he showed an ability to get his own shot down in the post, which will serve as a nice balance with Bohannon’s shooting ability.

Cook is a future NBA player and a prime candidate to be named first team All-Big Ten next season.

“What’s been impressive about him is when he’s struggled … as long as I go back to him, he’ll come back, and he still ends up with 16 and 5,” McCaffery said.