On a Sunday that saw Iowa men’s basketball honor its seniors, retire Luka Garza’s No. 55 jersey, and pick up a 77-73 win over No. 25 Wisconsin, not all was as well as it seemed for the Hawkeyes.

With 8:16 remaining in the first half, junior guard Joe Wieskamp hit the deck and grabbed his ankle. While the Muscatine, Iowa, native writhed on the hardwood in pain, his teammates, Hawkeye head coach Fran McCaffery, and Iowa’s athletic trainer Brad Floy all rushed to his side.

Eventually, Wieskamp was helped to his feet and then taken back to the locker room. He exited the floor with heavy assistance and did not put any weight on his right ankle.

At halftime, Iowa men’s basketball announced that Wieskamp would not return to the game with a right lower leg injury.

Wieskamp did, however, return to Iowa’s bench in the second half sporting a medical walking boot.

After the game, McCaffery offered no updates on Wieskamp’s condition. But senior point guard Jordan Bohannon did provide some insight.

“I think [Wieskamp] will be ready to go,” Bohannon said. “I don’t think that’s going to be a question knowing what we have at stake this year. Obviously, he’s dealing with a tough injury right now, rolling his ankle. At the end of the day, I know he’s a warrior and will do whatever he can to get back out on the floor. We got a couple days to get ready. I think that’ll be huge for him. I’m not too worried about him. I know he’s a tough kid, and he’s going to do everything he can to get back out there.”

While McCaffery wasn’t as bullish as Bohannon postgame, he did emphasize that he would not rush Wieskamp back to the floor.

“We would not rush [Wieskamp] back,” McCaffery said. “I want him to play when he’s ready to play, and we’ll see how long it will take for that to happen.”

If Wieskamp was sidelined for any of Iowa’s upcoming games, the Hawkeyes would lose a significant portion of their offensive production.

Wieskamp is second on Iowa’s roster in scoring, behind only senior center Luka Garza. On the year, Wieskamp has averaged 15.1 points per game.

Before he went down on Sunday, Wieskamp scored 12 points in as many minutes, shooting 5-of-5 from the field.

“[Wieskamp] looked like he was on his way to 40 [points] today,” McCaffery said. “I thought he was really moving well with the ball, without the ball, played with great confidence. If he’s unavailable, obviously, Keegan starts, we know that. You know, I think we go with Patrick [McCaffery] and Joe Toussaint and then you’ve got Kris [Murray], Tony [Perkins], and Ahron [Ulis] ready to go. It’s next man up.”

“Now, you can move some people around,” McCaffery said. “I can play Connor [McCaffery] in the backcourt. There’s a lot of ways we can go. We’ve got some versatile guys, and we’ll just kinda play each game with that in mind, knowing we have various options.”

Wieskamp and the Hawkeyes will now have five days to rest and recover before their next game tips off at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

With Sunday’s win in its pocket, Iowa clinched the No. 3 seed for the Big Ten Tournament and earned a coveted double-bye, meaning the Hawkeyes will not have to play in the first two rounds of the league’s tournament.

So, on Friday at approximately 8 p.m., the Hawkeyes will take on Penn State, Nebraska, or Wisconsin depending on the results of early-round matchups.

“I think, you know, when the season starts, obviously, you want to win the championship,” Fran McCaffery said. “Your next goal is to see if you can get that double-bye, which is really difficult in this league because that means you have to be consistently good and overcome whatever comes your way. You know, tough loss, an injury, whatever. So, I’m just really proud of how these guys have continued to compete and stay together.”