With Kansas’ 72-69 rally over North Carolina in the NCAA Tournament’s national championship game, the 2021-22 college basketball season is officially a wrap. While Iowa’s stay in March Madness was an abbreviated one, the season itself was a big surprise to many prognosticators.
Iowa was picked to finish ninth by the league’s media entering last season. With Iowa replacing national player of the year [autotag]Luka Garza[/autotag], it made sense why some media members might be down on the Hawkeyes at the beginning of this past season.
Instead of the projected ninth-place finish, Iowa wound up ending the Big Ten regular season with a 12-8 league mark to earn the No. 5 seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Of course, the Hawkeyes went on to win the Big Ten Tournament by dispatching of then-No. 9 Purdue in the championship game, 75-66.
Sophomore forward [autotag]Keegan Murray[/autotag] emerged as one of the nation’s best players, upping his points per game average by more than 16 points. Murray averaged 23.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game to place himself in the conversation for all of the major national player of the year awards.
Now, with Murray having declared for the 2022 NBA draft and guard [autotag]Jordan Bohannon[/autotag] having exhausted his eligibility, Iowa finds itself in similar circumstances to the beginning of last season. Plenty of analysts will be expecting a step backwards for Iowa given the production the Hawkeyes are losing.
That means more opportunities for those returning to campus, though, and Iowa will be hoping for a pair of forwards to make significant leaps during the 2022-23 men’s college basketball season. [autotag]Kris Murray[/autotag] and [autotag]Patrick McCaffery[/autotag] are both great candidates to make serious strides entering next season. In fact, 247Sports writer Isaac Trotter included McCaffery as one of his potential breakout stars for next season.
Kris Murray is going to be the trendy pick to step up for Iowa after Keegan Murray’s departure for the NBA. Kris Murray is going to be a star, but McCaffery could also be one, too. McCaffery really had a polished offensive game. His usage rate should get a big bump next year, and the 6-foot-9 forward will form a powerful 1-2 punch with Kris Murray. – Trotter, 247Sports.
Again, both Murray and McCaffery will be popular picks to take steps forward in their production. Murray averaged 9.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in just 17.9 minutes of floor time on average. Meanwhile, McCaffery was one of Iowa’s three players to average double-figure scoring last year. McCaffery averaged 10.5 points and 3.6 rebounds per game in 24.2 minutes of floor time on average.
It’s easy to see both Murray and McCaffery seriously improving upon their averages from this past season. Beyond that, Iowa will need to add some talent from the transfer portal to go along with the pair of three-star guards the Hawkeyes are bringing in. According to 247Sports, Iowa signed three-star point guard [autotag]Dasonte Bowen[/autotag] from Brewster Academy in New Hampshire and three-star shooting guard [autotag]Josh Dix[/autotag] from Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
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