After missing the NCAA tournament last season, the Iowa men’s basketball team looks to flip the script in the 2024-25 season. The Hawkeyes will have a stiff challenge ahead of them as the Big Ten expands to 18 teams this year.
At Big Ten Media Days on Thursday, 15-year head coach Fran McCaffery acknowledged the new landscape of the sport, especially the transfer portal. Iowa snagged Manhattan forward Seydou Traore and Morehead State guard Drew Thelwell from the portal in the offseason.
“It’s different,” McCaffery said. “There’s more teams in the league. Each team’s got a ton of new players. Recruiting is completely different. Guys weren’t free agents for the longest time. Now they are.”
McCaffery believes that the Big Ten is one of the nation’s best conferences despite realignment, as perennial powerhouses UCLA and Oregon join the league.
“We have a lot of really good programs,” McCaffery said. “It’s indicative of what the state of college basketball is. I still believe it’s the best conference in college basketball.”
Second-year center Owen Freeman shared Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors last season and hopes he can help lead the Hawkeyes to great success in 2024-25.
“I think coming off of last year, obviously the NIT is a great tournament, but we know what our goal is,” Freeman said. “When we didn’t accomplish that, it stung a little bit. So, knowing what happened last year and not wanting to go through that again is just fuel for us. We feed off of that. We all took that to heart.”
Despite the disappointing finish in 2024, fourth-year forward Payton Sandfort noted Iowa’s consistent play in the Big Ten in recent years. The Hawkeyes haven’t finished in the bottom tier of the league since an 11th place finish in 2017-18.
“I think the last three years, we’ve been one win away from finishing in the top four of the Big Ten every year,” Sandfort said. “Two years ago, we were one win at home away from finishing second. Last year, one win at home from finishing fourth. It’s right there. There’s just the little things that we need to clean up.”
McCaffery and the coaching staff have placed emphasis on starting fast in non-conference play but knows his team is closer to competing than most people think.
“I thought we stumbled a little bit in the non-conference last year,” McCaffery said. “We can do better there. We probably missed by one game, so we’re not going to be [making] dramatic changes.”
Freeman explained his offseason preparation to become a more balanced player and develop an outside shooting game, something he lacked during his freshman campaign.
“I spent a lot of the offseason working on my body, becoming a lot stronger,” Freeman said. “I’m getting more confident. I definitely see a huge jump and a lot of growth on my part.”
The Hawkeyes competed in most of their conference games last year but blamed their struggles on several blown second half leads. Sandfort hopes Iowa can develop more consistency this year.
“We’ve finished well, and we need to continue to do that at the end of the year,” Sandfort said. “We’re so close. We need more consistent play over the 40 minutes of every game, clean up a few things on the defensive end. With the guys and the determination and the confidence that everybody has, I think we’re super excited going into the season.”