Three takeaways from Iowa's 109-63 win

Three takeaways from Iowa's 109-63 win against Maryland-Eastern Shore:

1. Point guard shuffle continues. It should come as no surprise that Iowa flipped sophomore Mike Gesell back to point guard and senior Devyn Marble to off-guard. Coach Fran McCaffery has shuffled those two and sophomore Anthony Clemmons around numerous times over the last 41 games.

Gesell started the first seven games at the point last year, then shifted to the two. Anthony Clemmons stepped in at the point and Marble moved down to the wing for the next 13 games. In late January, McCaffery moved Gesell back to the point, Marble to the two and put Clemmons on the bench. That lasted seven games until Gesell suffered a stress reaction in his foot and missed the final four regular-season games. Marble shifted to the point, and Clemmons continued to come off the bench.

When Gesell returned for the Big Ten Tournament, he started at the two and Marble continued at the one. Gesell, whose foot continued to hinder him, came off the bench in Iowa's final four games last year.

This year Marble started the first two games at the point with Gesell at the two. They merely flipped positions on Thursday, and that's their likely starting positions for at least a while.

"It think it's what we're going to do," McCaffery.

The moves didn't seem to bother either player. Gesell said in the summer Prime Time League that he considers himself a point guard. They alternate in practice and both are comfortable at either position. Gesell prefers the point and runs the offense with efficiency, but he also played off-guard alongside current North Carolina point guard Marcus Paige in AAU ball. Marble is good off the ball, but is Iowa's best guard at breaking down a defense.

McCaffery wanted to get Marble a few more looks without the ball, and it appears Gesell does a better job of getting in the flow on offense with control of the ball. Thursday, it was a win-win.

"Whatever position I'm at, I'm just going to go out and play my game, and Dev's going to do the same thing," Gesell said. "It could change every game, it can change within games, too. I could run the two the first half and the one the second half. Each game has different dynamics and different match-ups and whatever we feel we can best exploit the other team with."

"I think it just depends, game-to-game, match-ups, stuff like that, whatever we need," Marble said

Since the start of the 2012-13 season, Iowa's point guard starting totals:  Gesell 15, Marble 13, Clemmons 13. Don't be surprised if they move around a few more times this season.

2. White lightning. Iowa junior forward Aaron White continues to dominate, regardless of his position or minutes. White scored 22 points in 17 minutes against Maryland-Eastern Shore. He didn't return after the second half's first media timeout. Otherwise he would have destroyed his personal-high of 27 points.

"He's really been working on his game, and you can tell," McCaffery asid. "His jumper looks really good. I mean, he's moving without it (the ball). He's driving it. He's getting to the free-throw line. Playing with great confidence, I think, and that's what you want to see."

White picked up the night's highlight reel play, dunking a Marble pass off the backboard. Both players were scolded by McCaffery for showing up the other team, and they had a tail-between-the-legs expression afterward. But White was dynamic in multiple ways, along with that dunk.

He knocked down a jumper on Iowa's first second-half possession, then dunked an alley oop pass from Marble. White drained another jumper on the next series. White finished 9-of-10 from the field and knocked down 4-of-5 free throws. He hit his last nine shots from the field.

"It was great to finally see them go in," White said. "I missed my first corner 3, but I hit a couple of pull-ups and I felt good. I'm shooting the ball well when I'm working out and in practice. So it's good to see them go in in a game."

3. Late opponent. Iowa's late entry into the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament forced the program to go schedule hunting for most of the summer.

The Hawkeyes were granted one home game connected to the tournament, but finding an opponent was more difficult than expected. Well into August, Iowa didn't have that opponent locked up. That prevented the release of its non-conference schedule and had McCaffery weighing all options to fill that date.

"There was a stretch there where we thought we were going to have to play a non-1 (Division I) because we got into the tournament late and there are a lot of parameters that exist with regard to the tournament for this team," McCaffery said. "They have to play two teams, then they have to play in a four-team tournament.  So you need open dates, you need a lot of things that have to fall into place, and by the time we got in the tournament, everybody else was already in a tournament.  So we were struggling to find a Division I team to play."

Iowa (3-0) finally picked up an opponent in Abilene (Texas) Christian, which is in its first year of a transition to Division I. Abilene Christian long had been a power in the Division II Lone Star Conference and now is moving back to its Southland Conference roots. The Wildcats will play Xavier, Iowa's first opponent at the Battle 4 Atlantis, and then compete in the mainland tournament in Baltimore.

Crisis averted.

"Obviously we want to play an all-Division I schedule, but we were actually considering playing a non-I as a one-year exception because we couldn't find anybody," McCaffery said. "They became available, and it worked out."

The Wildcats (0-3) produced a shocking start at Maryland on Tuesday, leading 44-38 with 14:12 left to play. Abilene Christian sank 10 of its first 16 3-point attempts while the Terrapins started just 1-of-11. Then, as expected, the teams' fortunes reversed. The Wildcats missed their last 18 shots, and didn't score the rest of the game. Maryland finished with a 29-0 run, outscored Abilene Christian 45-12 in the paint and 36-0 off the bench.

Still, it was the first 25 minutes that has McCaffery concerned. Iowa beat Maryland in the NIT semifinals last spring, and the Terrapins join the Big Ten next year.

"I don't care if you're the Lakers. You're going to have a hard team beating a team that makes 10 3s," McCaffery said.

"If you're on the road at Maryland and you're up six with 14 minutes to go, you've got some talent."