Iowa Team Report

GETTING INSIDE

   Some teams thrive in the absence of expectations. Iowa is about to find out if it’s one of those teams.

After seeing their No. 1 and No. 3 scorers transfer to other Division I schools at season’s end, watching two other veterans transfer to Div. II schools and seeing their No. 1 rebounder graduate, the Hawkeyes head into the 2009-10 season with just 10 scholarship players and two walk-ons. Sophomore guard Matt Gatens (10.8 points per game) and senior guard Devan Bawinkel (51 3-pointers) are the only guys who played the entire year and averaged at least 20 minutes for the 15-17 Hawks.

Now throw in the fact that Iowa’s roster shows just one senior and two juniors in a year when the Big Ten is loaded with top-flight juniors and seniors who’ve led their programs to the NCAA Tournament. No wonder third-year coach Todd Lickliter doesn’t quarrel with the idea that his team’s preseason residence is the Big Ten’s basement.

“I hope that we’re going to celebrate a great year,” Lickliter said. “A year that we’re going to look back on and say we weren’t predicted at the top, but we’ve proved a lot of people wrong.”

Gatens and senior co-captain Jarryd Cole (3.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg) are a decent base with which to start. Sophomore guard Anthony Tucker started his career strong (10.4 ppg, 38 3-pointers), but had his season cut short at 14 games after becoming academically ineligible. Sophomore forward Aaron Fuller (4.0 ppg), who made 19 starts a year ago, had his moments last season as well. Bawinkel, who put together one of the nation’s most amazing statistical lines last year with 139 3-point attempts, 5 2-point attempts and no free-throw tries, can shoot with the best of them.

But after that quintet, it’s up to the unproven Hawkeyes. There’s room in the post for a guy like 6-foot-9, 260-pound freshman Brennan Cougill, Iowa’s reigning Mr. Basketball. There’s room at the point for a freshman like lefty Cully Payne, who committed to DePaul and to Alabama before deciding to call Iowa home.

“One thing I will say again and again,” Lickliter said. “We’re not promising anything except for you’re going to get a great effort. You’re going to get guys that are going to compete and we’re going to accept challenges. We’re going to enjoy it.”

NOTES, QUOTES

  —Iowa lost four transfers during the first few weeks after the 2008-09 season concluded. Jake Kelly, the guard who came on so strong down the stretch, was the biggest loss as he moved on to Indiana State to be with his family after his mother, Julia, died in the summer of 2008. Kelly received an NCAA waiver that allows him to be eligible immediately. Starting guard Jeff Peterson (Arkansas), reserve forward David Palmer (Div. II Northern Kentucky) and reserve guard Jermain Davis (Div. II Minnesota State) also moved along.

• Iowa coach Todd Lickliter rewarded his two remaining upperclassmen—junior forward Jarryd Cole and senior shooter Devan Bawinkel—with the team’s captaincy. For Cole, it’s his second year in a row as a captain.

• The Hawkeyes went to Europe after the spring semester ended and went 2-1 on their trip to Italy and Greece.

   LAST YEAR: 15-17 overall, 5-13 in the Big Ten; lost in first round of the Big Ten tournament.

   HEAD COACH: Todd Lickliter (career 159-97); 3rd year at Iowa (28-36).

   QUOTE TO NOTE: “I think that we’ll be predicted at the bottom of the Big Ten this year. We look at that as just a great challenge because we’ve got great confidence in our team and in ourselves. We see it as an opportunity.”—Iowa coach Todd Lickliter.

STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL

   SCOUTING THE NEWCOMERS: After the massive defection during the offseason, Iowa coach Todd Lickliter had the chance to bring in more players than anticipated. Freshman big man Brennan Cougill, voted Iowa’s Mr. Basketball, and Iowa Class 3A player of the year Eric May are the biggest additions. The 6-foot-9, 260-pound Cougill shot 66 percent from the field during his prep career at Bishop Heelan. Meanwhile, freshman point guard Cully Payne was a college prospect for so long that he committed to DePaul the summer before he started high school. Junior-college transfer Devon Archie is an active post player who could have a role inside.

   KEY EARLY-SEASON GAMES: With the Hawkeyes trying to break in so many inexperienced players, they could use an easier schedule. Of course, that’s not what they’re going to get. As part of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic, Iowa faces Texas in the semifinal (Sept. 23) and will get either Pittsburgh or Wichita State on their final day (Nov. 24) in Kansas City. The Hawks get Virginia Tech at home in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge (Dec. 1) before running the instate gantlet (at Northern Iowa, at Iowa State, vs. Drake) from Dec. 8 through 19.

   PROGRAM DIRECTION: With Todd Lickliter in his third year at Iowa City, this is supposed to be the time to make a move. But the departures of Jake Kelly and others force the Hawkeyes to consolidate their gains in the sophomore class (Matt Gatens, Anthony Tucker, Aaron Fuller) and try to rebuild anew.

   PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP: PG Cully Payne, SG Matt Gatens, SG Anthony Tucker, F Aaron Fuller, C Jarryd Cole.

   ROSTER REPORT:

• Iowa added a recruited walk-on in freshman guard Nick Neari from the Chicago suburbs. Neari grew up in the same middle school system as classmate Cully Payne.

• John Lickliter, the redshirt freshman son of coach Todd Lickliter, is a candidate for playing time at the point. The younger Lickliter started alongside teammate Matt Gatens at Iowa City High when they won the 2008 Class 4A state title.