It’s going to be a new-look Iowa men’s basketball team. That much is obvious after Keegan Murray was selected No. 4 overall by the Sacramento Kings and Jordan Bohannon has officially moved on.
There’s been some transfers away from the Hawkeyes, too, but Iowa still has a strong corps of players returning. That group is led by forwards Patrick McCaffery and Kris Murray.
Patrick McCaffery returns after averaging 10.5 points per game in 24.2 minutes per game on 42.2% shooting, including 33.0% 3-point shooting. Kris Murray averaged 9.7 points per game and 4.3 rebounds per game off the bench. The 6-foot-8, 220 pound forward from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, netted 47.9% of his field goal attempts and 38.7% from 3-point distance.
That duo headlines a group that has Iowa in the receiving votes category of the preseason USA TODAY Sports Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll. In all, three Big Ten teams were ranked ahead of the season: No. 14 Indiana, No. 22 Michigan and No. 23 Illinois. Fellow Big Ten teams Purdue, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Rutgers also found themselves in the receiving votes category.
The No. 1 team in the preseason Coaches Poll is last season’s national runner-up in the North Carolina Tar Heels. After UNC, the top five looks like this: No. 2 Gonzaga, No. 3 Houston, No. 4 Kentucky and No. 5 Kansas. The rest of the preseason top-10 teams includes No. 6 Baylor, No. 7 UCLA, No. 8 Duke, No. 9 Creighton and No. 10 Arkansas.
The rest of the Hawkeyes’ nucleus includes guards Ahron Ulis, Josh Dix, Dasonte Bowen, Payton Sandfort, Connor McCaffery, Amarion Nimmers and Tony Perkins. Iowa also has bigs Josh Ogundele, Riley Mulvey and Filip Rebraca.
Perkins averaged 7.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game last season, while Rebraca added 5.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Sandfort averaged 5.0 points per game while connecting on 36.6% of his 3-pointers. Ulis delivered 3.1 points per game, while Connor McCaffery chipped in with 2.5 points per game and Ogundele added 1.5 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.
“As far as our team, I’m excited about this team. I think everybody that stands there at this time says the same thing. I said this last year. I didn’t know what we had. Everybody last year was in a new role. I had never coached a team before where everybody on that team was in a new role. We ended up doing really well.
“This is a different team. We’re not as big as we’ve been, but I think we’re every bit as deep and versatile. I’m really excited about the blend of youth and experience we have. We have three starters returning. We put together, without question, the most difficult schedule that I’ve ever put in front of our team. So obviously I feel like they can handle it. I’m excited for the challenge,” Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery said of his group at Big Ten Media Days.
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