Fran McCaffery is still waiting to break through with his Iowa Hawkeyes in the Big Ten. It seems as if his teams are always on the verge of contention, but fizzle near the end of each season. He’s hoping that 2019-20 is different with some key returnees.
Tyler Cook has decided to forgo his senior season for the NBA draft after nearly leaving a year ago and Nicholas Baer has exhausted his eligibility but those are the only two losses on a team that averaged 78 points per game.
Don’t sleep on this team with Luka Garza, Jordan Bohannon, Joe Wieskamp, Isaiah Moss and Ryan Kreiner back. This team can shoot the lights out and it never quits no matter what kind of deficit it faces — just ask Cincinnati and Tennessee. The Hawkeyes nearly reached the Sweet 16, but a monster comeback effort was all for naught vs. Tennessee.
Iowa is bringing in top-100 recruit, and coach’s son, Pat McCaffery along with three-star New York point guard Joe Toussaint.
Scoring won’t be a problem for the Hawkeyes in 2019-20, but if the defense can improve, we could be looking at a dark-horse Big Ten contender.