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The world doesn’t agree, but Hawkeye men’s basketball team could be pretty good
Iowa has depth and dudes, not that you’d get that impression by checking out Big Ten predictions from hither and yon
Oct. 7, 2024 4:31 pm, Updated: Oct. 8, 2024 2:51 pm
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IOWA CITY — Having been to a bunch of Iowa men’s basketball media days, I assure you few have been as lightly attended as Monday’s in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The reasons are multiple. For one, college football season isn’t even half over. For another, there is a little less media all the time. For a third, Hawkeyes men’s hoops isn’t the focal point it once was in the state.
Iowa routinely had or approached a sold-out home season in the late 20th Century and the dawn of the 21st. These days, influenced in no small part by he lousy weeknight starting times thrust upon everyone by the Big Ten’s television partners, attendance has been hurt.
However, Iowa’s has dipped more than most. It averaged an announced 9,961 fans per home game, ranking 10th in the Big Ten.
Another factor is many fans feel the Hawkeyes program has stalled. Those who stopped paying attention have missed highly entertaining teams and some of the best players to ever wear an Iowa uniform. Still, without a late-season charge at a Big Ten regular-season title or a deep run in an NCAA tourney, faith has waned.
If you doze on the 2024-25 Hawkeyes, however, you might miss something pretty good.
A poll of those who cover Big Ten basketball had Iowa 11th this season. The Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, a respected publication in basketball circles with the heft of a weighted blanket, has the Hawkeyes 16th.
I think not. Iowa may not be a surefire Big Ten title contender, but it will be closer to that than 16th place. The team has some dudes.
Senior forward Payton Sandfort (16.6 points per game last season) is a true dude. Sophomore center Owen Freeman (10.4 points ppg, 6.6 rebounds) is another. Junior guard Josh Dix (three straight Big Ten games of 20-plus points in late February/early March) is a third.
“Everybody’s picking us last” said Iowa sophomore forward Pryce Sandfort. “I think we’re very, very competitive.”
In an era in which it’s nigh impossible to keep a four-player class of major-college basketball together for more than a year, Iowa’s four sophomores are back for more.
Freeman was the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year. Sandfort, forward/center Ladji Dembele and point guard Brock Harding got to play a lot last season for a Hawkeyes team that went 10-10 in the Big Ten.
By the way, Iowa has averaged 11.6 league victories and 21.2 overall over the last five years.
The four sophomores stayed put, Pryce Sandfort said, because “I think we all saw. We all see what the team’s looking like this year.”
“It’s going to be a great year,” said older brother Payton Sandfort. “We have a ton of pieces. We’re loaded in a ton of spots.”
Though he is tall timber at 6-foot-10, Owen Freemans don’t grow on trees.
“I feel like we just have a lot of everything,” Freeman said.
Iowa has a pair of 6-8 freshmen, Cooper Koch and Chris Tadjo, who have different roles and big upside. It has 6-7 sophomore transfer Seydou Traore, who averaged 11.3 points and 8.2 rebounds for Division I Manhattan last season. It has a fifth-year guard named Drew Thelwell, the Ohio Valley Conference assists leader and a leader of the Morehead State team that won the OVC last season.
The wild card may be Harding, if he’s less wild. He showed great flashes and great inconsistency as a freshman, which means he was a freshman. He put on needed weight in the offseason and worked on changing his jump shot.
They play mighty good high school ball in Illinois, and Moline’s Harding was Illinois’ 2023 Mr. Basketball and a big-school state champion because he has serious game. Like his three classmates, Harding got considerable experience last season. Now, he gets the ball and the responsibility it brings.
“A lot of the guys felt the trust the coaching staff had in our class,” Harding said, “and they’ve kind of talked about the possibilities that we had if we stay here and kind of build this base. And after building on a strong freshman year, we knew we could do something special.”
None of this is likely to move you in early October. Give this team a look after the New Year, and see if the prognosticators didn’t shoot an air ball.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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