While it ended on a frustrating note in Iowa’s NCAA Tournament loss to Richmond, Jordan Bohannon had a magical career with Iowa.
The finality of any loss in the NCAA Tournament stings. The pill of defeat is even more difficult to swallow when it’s a career-ending loss. Such is the case for Iowa redshirt senior guard Jordan Bohannon.
The 6-foot-1, 175 pound sharpshooter from Marion, Iowa, leaves the Hawkeyes as the most prolific 3-point shooter in both program and Big Ten history. After connecting on 2-of-7 from distance in Iowa’s 67-63 NCAA Tournament loss to No. 12 seed Richmond, Bohannon ends his career with 455 made 3-pointers. That’s 81 made 3-pointers clear of Ohio State’s Jon Diebler and 193 in front of Iowa’s next-closest shooter Jeff Horner.
He also ended his career having played in the most games in NCAA history with 179. In Bohannon’s postgame interview with reporters, it was only natural that emotions took over when he was asked to reflect on his career with Iowa.
“Just thanks for giving me a chance. You know this has been some of the best years of my life. I can’t even put into words what the guy to my left, Keegan, what coach (McCaffery) has meant to me. There’s not a lot of people in the country that believed in me out of high school. I faced a lot of adversity coming back, you know, a couple hip surgeries, dealt with a lot of injuries. And I can honestly say this last game, I put my heart and soul into this team.
“And I just, hopefully I left this jersey in a better place than I found it. That’s all I wanted to do when I came here. That was the only goal I had. I didn’t care about my individual statistics, nothing like that. I just wanted to make coach proud, I wanted to make my family proud and this whole entire state. I just want to thank every single Hawkeye fan that hopefully I inspired them to do something great with their lives and I can’t even put into words what it’s meant to be here wearing this jersey,” Bohannon said as he fought back tears.
In trying to make sense of Iowa’s defeat inside the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y., Bohannon was quick to credit Richmond.
“Richmond is a really great team. I thought we played one of our worst basketball halves all season the first half, and we were only down one. So we knew we had a little bit of light still in us, and we made a little bit of a run, but, you know, got to credit them. They did everything great tonight. They were locked in, and they’re playing some of their best basketball this season right now,” Bohannon said.
His head coach Fran McCaffery discussed what made Bohannon special and the legacy he left at Iowa.
“It says a lot about him, the way he responded to the question. Like we care about numbers, but you think about the numbers and they’re absolutely staggering. Two thousand points. More threes made than anybody else that ever played in the Big Ten, more assists than anybody that ever played at Iowa. That’s somebody that takes great pride in wearing that jersey, which is what he said. But his leadership, his mental toughness, it epitomizes what a true competitor is, and he came here to make a difference.
“And you think back, before his hip surgeries, he played a whole season in terrible pain, never asked to come out. I didn’t even know half the things that were bothering him. He just showed up every day at practice and played in the games and gave me everything he had. And then, double hip surgery is not easy, and we’ve had two guys that have had to go through it. Two guys who were sitting on my left and that really is difficult, and it takes tremendous sacrifice and determination,” McCaffery said.
Bohannon’s return and the leadership he provided were necessary ingredients that helped Iowa win a Big Ten Tournament championship.
“Just watching him come back and perform at the level that he did and then come back to lead a team that needed his leadership. He and Connor both had to lead a young team. They had to help Keegan take his game to the next level and bring along Kris and Tony, Joe T., Patrick, incorporate Filip and that’s what character is and that’s what he has. That’s what Connor has, and, you know, when you get into this business, you hope one day to be able to coach guys like that, and so I’m really proud,” McCaffery said.
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