This summer, Iowa’s Brady Ellingson tries to improve his offensive game while also trying to show that he is more than just a shooter.
By Jordan Zuniga
For the Hawkeye men’s basketball team, last year was a season to see what kind of talent it had for the coming years.
What the Hawkeye discovered is that they are very deep at guard, with a four-person battle for the two positions.
Jordan Bohannon and Isaiah Moss seem to be the front-runners right now, but close behind are two players just as talented, Brady Ellingson and Christian Williams.
Last season, the Hawkeyes used Ellingson to come off the bench and be an offensive spark plug, which at times paid off.
His problem was consistency. In some games, Ellingson was able to make a huge impact and produce as many as 23 points in 17 minutes, as he did against Savannah State.
In other games Ellingson struggled. Against Northwestern, Ellingson played 17 minutes and was unable to hit a shot from the floor. His lone 2 points came on free throws.
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Overall last year, he put up 4.4 points per game with 1.1 assists in 14.2 minutes per game while averaging .471 percent from deep.
Ellingson knows he is going to have to find a better way to create open shots for himself in order to get himself more productive minutes.
“Facilitating and making plays off the dribble are where I feel I need to improve my game the most,” he said. “I like to watch C.J. McCollum, what he does off the dribble, I think, is great and the way he changes pace and reads ball screens.”
Becoming more adept at dribbling has helped Ellingson hit the open shot consistently so far this summer in Prime Time.
Ellingson has averaged 22.8 points and 7 rebounds per game. But it’s not just his scoring that has been effective, his passing skills have made the most noticeable improvement.
Recording just 1.1 assists per game last year, Ellingson was not thought of as much of a passer, but so far this summer, he leads all Hawkeyes in assists with 5.5 per game.
“I’ve seen [Ellingson’s] confidence grow a lot,” Iowa teammate Nicholas Baer said. “He’s been shooting it really well in practice, and he’s becoming more than just a shooter, being able to really make plays off the dribble and being a really great asset to our program as a veteran.”
Some might be surprised by Ellingson’s big assist and rebound numbers. But Iowa teammate Williams knew Ellingson was capable of putting up the numbers.
“[Ellingson] adds a lot of versatility,” Williams said. “A lot of guys see him as just a sharpshooter, but he can rebound and he can really defend. I think he’s a really underrated defender.”
That praise means a lot coming from Iowa’s best defender, and defense is definitely something the Hawkeyes need to improve.
Iowa ended last season ranked No. 299 in opponent points allowed per game.
Ellingson hopes his strong summer can carry over into this next season, when he hopes to make a run at the starting lineup.