With the beginning of school basketball season in early November, we’ll look at the convention as a complete and Indiana’s roster over the approaching weeks.
In the present day, our crew previews proceed with Iowa.
Beforehand: Penn State, Washington, Minnesota, USC, Northwestern, Nebraska
After lacking the NCAA event final spring, Iowa is optimistic it could actually return to March Insanity this season, which will probably be Fran McCaffery’s fifteenth in Iowa Metropolis.
For the seventh straight season, the Hawkeyes’ offense was among the many nation’s high 20 and so they return three starters following an NIT look.
Senior wing Payton Sandfort is again after testing the NBA draft waters and is likely one of the Huge Ten’s high gamers. Sandfort made 94 triples final season and shot 37.9 p.c from distance. He averaged a team-high 16.4 factors and pulled down 6.6 rebounds whereas dispensing 2.7 assists in 30.5 minutes per sport.
Brock Harding and Josh Dix, two productive guards, are additionally again and Morehead State switch Drew Thelwell will be a part of them within the Iowa backcourt.
The 6-foot-5 Dix is an elite shooter. He shot 62.5 p.c as a sophomore on 2s and 42.1 on 3s whereas averaging 8.9 factors in 24.4 minutes per sport. Dix joined the beginning lineup early in convention play and averaged 10.6 factors in Huge Ten video games.
Thelwell is a 6-foot-3 grad switch who ought to assist fill a few of the void from the switch of Tony Perkins to Missouri. He averaged 6.2 assists final season and is a profession 34.8 p.c 3-point shooter. Thelwell also needs to be Iowa’s greatest backcourt defender due to his capacity to strain the ball.
The 6-foot Harding performed simply 10.8 minutes per sport final season and may share the ball-handling duties with Thelwell within the Hawkeye backcourt. Harding had an assist-to-turnover ratio of three.42-to-1 as a freshman final season and shot 37.5 p.c on 3s.
Within the frontcourt, Iowa returns co-Huge Ten freshman of the 12 months, Owen Freeman. A highschool teammate of Harding, Freeman exceeded expectations in his first 12 months. Freeman earned Huge Ten freshman of the week honors 9 occasions and performed in all 34 video games. He averaged 10.6 factors, 6.6 rebounds, 1.8 blocked pictures and 1.2 assists in 22.9 minutes per sport. The Hawkeyes will want Freeman to play extra minutes in his second season. He averaged simply 22.9 minutes per sport as a freshman.
Whereas the remainder of the rotation is essentially unproven, Iowa dipped into the switch portal for Seydou Traore, who arrives from Manhattan. The 6-foot-7 sophomore earned All-MAAC rookie crew honors final season and averaged 11.9 factors and eight.1 rebounds whereas capturing 80 p.c from the free-throw line. Traore had spectacular performances in opposition to a few of the nation’s greatest groups. He had 16 factors and eight rebounds in opposition to Kansas and 13 factors and eight rebounds in opposition to UConn.
Payton Sandfort’s youthful brother, Pryce, can also be again and can look to develop his position in his second season. Billed as an elite shooter out of highschool, the youthful Sandfort shot 17-for-49 (34.7 p.c) in his first season.
One other sophomore, Ladji Dembele, will present frontcourt depth behind Freeman. The 6-foot-8, 255-pound ahead performed 32 video games final season however shot simply 37.8 p.c general from the sphere. Dembele must up his manufacturing offensively and proceed to develop his presence defensively within the paint. Dembele was a co-recipient of Iowa’s greatest defensive participant award in his first season.
Riley Mulvey, a 6-foot-10 junior, and Even Brauns, a 6-foot-9 fifth-year senior, will present extra frontcourt depth. Mulvey redshirted final season, whereas Brauns performed sparingly after transferring from Belmont.
The Hawkeyes additionally welcome a pair of freshmen in 6-foot-8 forwards Cooper Koch and Chris Tadjo. Koch was the No. 86 participant nationally within the closing 247Composite rankings for the 2024 class. The Illinois native is the son of former Iowa participant J.R. Koch and was fifth within the voting final season for Illinois Mr. Basketball.
Tadjo, a Montreal native, performed final season on the NBA Academy Latin America. Tadjo has measurement, athleticism and has improved quickly after transferring from Africa to Montreal.
At No. 45 in Bart Torvik’s projections for the 2024-25 season, a lot of the early projections have Iowa as a fringe NCAA event crew getting into the season. The Hawkeyes will once more have one of many Huge Ten’s greatest offenses however will have to be significantly better defensively to return to March Insanity. Final season, Iowa completed thirteenth within the convention in factors per possession allowed, final in defensive rebounding proportion and twelfth in opponent free throw price.
Backside line: Getting Sandfort again provides Iowa an opportunity to complete within the high half of the Huge Ten and earn an NCAA event berth. Thelwell was a stable addition from the portal to assist soften the blow from the lack of Perkins and Freeman will probably be one of many Huge Ten’s greatest frontcourt gamers. Dix is a transparent breakout candidate and one of many league’s greatest shooters. If Iowa can develop dependable depth, the Hawkeyes may outperform expectations.
Quotable: “We at all times wished to be good defensively. We’ve made some modifications on some issues by way of how we’re going to protect stuff, but additionally really feel like the blokes we introduced in are able to doing that. Athletically generally if you don’t have a variety of depth, the protection would possibly battle slightly bit. You concentrate on two years in the past, we performed three guys a thousand minutes every. We simply didn’t have a variety of depth there, however now we do. Hopefully, that depth stage will be capable of ramp up with guys which might be some recent legs and a few recent our bodies on the market.” – McCaffery in July on his plan to enhance Iowa’s protection.
Filed to: 2024-25 Huge Ten preview, Iowa Hawkeyes
