Hi, newcomers, now get in the game

IOWA CITY - The first thing you notice with Dom Uhl is the remnants of a mohawk. No, he's never gone full mohawk and that's not in the plans.

'Everyone tells me to trim it up a little bit, but I keep it that high,” the freshman forward said during Thursday's Iowa media day at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. 'I always leave a little on the top.”

So, here's an Iowa basketball freshman who's showing some very good judgment. The next thing you'll notice about Uhl is a sturdy 6-8 frame, long arms and decent ball-handling skills. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery hopes you'll notice all of that in a game and very, very soon.

Iowa needs depth at forward and so Uhl is probably the most important of Iowa's three newcomers, but sophomore guard Trey Dickerson and freshman guard Brady Ellingson are also in the plans.

Forwards Melsahn Basabe and Zach McCabe have graduated. Some semblance of those minutes will go Uhl's way. He's in the plans. Exactly where and how many minutes obviously remains to be seen, but make no mistake. Iowa needs a forward body and Uhl is that body.

'If you look at it, Dom Uhl has to play a lot,” McCaffery said. 'We lose Basabe. We lose McCabe. Who is that next forward in the game at that position? Obviously, you have Aaron White. Jarrod Uthoff. So, I think Dom is the guy.”

White, the senior and go-to for the 2014-15 Hawkeyes, offered this assessment of Uhl: 'Dom is extremely athletic, a freak athlete. Versatile, can play multiple positions, skilled. The potential is unlimited with him.”

Of course, Uhl, a 6-8, 195-pounder from Frankfurt, Germany, hears McCaffery talk about an opportunity for him to play and he wants in. He sees his opportunities at the small and power forward positions.

'I think my ball handling and my speed [are strengths],” Uhl said. 'I'm working on my shot and being strong around the basket.”

Iowa has point guards. It could use someone to take the position and make it theirs. Dickerson could be that player.

Dickerson has seen the abyss, coming in from Williston State, a junior college in North Dakota. That was a different place, but Dickerson appreciated the experience.

'It was really different, a small town,” said Dickerson, one of the top-rated junior college point guards last season. 'It helped me on and off the court. I was more focused. It helped me a lot.”

Simply put, McCaffery brought in Dickerson, a 6-0, 170-pounder, because Iowa didn't have a jet-quick guard.

'He's the guy who's different,” McCaffery said. 'The reason why we brought him in, he's different from everything else we have. He's a creator. He's great in the pick-and-roll. He can score.”

Some examples from McCaffery on the 'creator” label: 'If you have shooters on the floor, like, for example, if he was on the floor with Pete [Jok] and Josh [Oglesby] and Jarrod [Uthoff], he's going to find those guys for open shots. If you have your longer athletic lineup, he's going to be able to penetrate in the lane, find guys near the basket, throw alley-oop passes up near the rim.”

Iowa has juniors Mike Gesell and Anthony Clemmons at point guard. Iowa will need and use all three at the position.

'Point guard play will be an interesting situation,” McCaffery said. 'When you have your starting point guard back, it's not usually a discussion. But when you sign a junior college all-American and you have Mike Gesell, who is capable of playing the 2, then it becomes a discussion.”

Dickerson and Clemmons had a small joust on social media this summer about who was bringing what to the point guard position. That's the kind of mind-set you want to see, Clemmons said.

'He understood where I was coming from and I understood what I was saying, so there's no beef,” Clemmons said. 'At the end of the day, we push each other. I'm giving him knowledge that I didn't have. That can help him at this level.”

There was less said about Ellingson, a 6-4, 190-pound guard from Sussex, Wis. He suffered a broken foot this summer and missed the Prime Time League. He had surgery in July and is almost 100 percent, 'It's been a slower process than I hoped,” Ellingson said.

The conversation with Ellingson starts at shooter. He hit 48 percent (86 of 179) at Sussex High School in 2013. It doesn't end there, however.

'In the workouts that I've watched, that we've had with him, he knows how to play,” McCaffery said. 'And he's a really effective player, really good shooter, but incredibly smart and kind of a winning player, which is what we thought we had when we signed him.”

Ellingson is White's sleeper in this recruiting class.

'He's got a lot of game,” White said. 'Really crafty, can shoot, always open, makes plays for others. He's got a lot of game.”

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