Walking through the tunnel of historic Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the 6-foot-10 second-year center Owen Freeman of Moline, Illinois, stood out from his teammates — and not from his towering height.
With a towel over his head, Freeman slowly jogged out of the tunnel with laser focus, envisioning one thing.
An Iowa win.
The starting center resembled NBA legend Carmelo Anthony, where Anthony warmed up before games with the same ritual of wearing a hooded sweatshirt — coining the term “Hoodie Melo” from avid NBA fans.
The second-year starter recorded 15 points and nine rebounds in Iowa’s first game of the season against Texas A&M Commerce on Monday. And Freeman, who is physically much bigger from last year on the court, was a force to be reckoned with for the Southern University Jaguars on Thursday night.
Freeman finished two timely and-ones for Iowa in the early minutes of the first half — keeping Iowa a distant lead from Southern in what was a very sloppy early few minutes of play.
To open up the second half play, Freeman proved to Southern defenders that despite last season’s less efficient shooting, he is more than capable of capitalizing from behind the arc — splashing a clutch three for the Hawkeyes too.
As a first-year starter, Freeman did not make a three last year, going 0-4 from behind the arc. Currently, the Moline native is 100 percent from deep this year, going that 1-of-1 on Thursday.
“I was cheesing down there,” Freeman said. “Yeah, yeah, I was pretty happy.”
Freeman followed his second-half three with a statement “back-scratcher” dunk — giving the Hawkeyes a much-needed confidence boost in what was a close game to start the second half with the Jaguars.
After a questionable call from the officials, Freeman headed to the bench to be saved for the later minutes of the second half. Upon reentering the game, Freeman picked up right where he left off and recorded his third and-one on the night after fooling Jaguar defenders with a textbook pump fake.
But he sat out after picking up another foul shortly after, head coach Fran McCaffery believes Freeman’s gain in size contributed to the lack of minutes in the second half.
“Well, he got tired,” McCaffery said. “I think he struggles when he gets tired, so he put on all that weight, and it’s been helpful in some respects … He’s an athlete; he’s a runner; he’s a rim runner. And so you want to be able to sustain that a little bit better so that you don’t have to take him out.”
No. 32 finished with 15 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and three blocks for the Hawkeyes, moving Iowa to 2-0 on the season.
Freeman contributed one of the 18 three pointers for the Hawkeyes tonight, the latter just two shy of a school record.
“We just wanted to do our thing,” Freeman said. “We have a lot of good shooters, and obviously that’s what helped us tonight. I think we can go inside; we can go out. Obviously, the three-ball was killer tonight.”
While Freeman may not have seen the usual minutes in the second half, his performance was still crucial in Iowa’s 89-74 victory.