Iowa walk-on bears down on the details

DES MOINES — Nicholas Baer arrived at Iowa last year as an under-recruited, 6-foot-7 center from Bettendorf High School. That designation sends most walk-on players to the scout team with few chances to play meaningful minutes.

But after a red-shirt year of growing and competing against Iowa's starters, Baer, a red-shirt freshman, has become a valuable and versatile member of Iowa's roster. He remained a solid rebounder, which he showed by grabbing seven boards against Drake on Saturday. He became an outside shooting threat, as determined by his three 3-pointers. He's also a shot blocker after setting a Wells Fargo Arena college basketball record with six.

In all, Baer scored 13 points in 30 minutes. He added two assists and a steal without a turnover in Iowa's 70-64 win. Those are numbers that key contributors make, not overlooked practice players.

'Obviously, we're going to have to give him a scholarship at some point,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'That's safe to say. I don't know when it's going to be.

'What was interesting for me was the only thing he asked for was he wanted to red-shirt his first year. He said, 'Coach, I'm not ready physically.' So as the season wore on, he was so good in practice. I remember saying, 'Boy, I wish we didn't red-shirt him.' But what he did figure out was, 'If I'm going to be a good player at this level and if I can sit back and watch it, then I've got to expand my game.''

Baer did that last year with assistant coach Kirk Speraw, who is the program's primary voice when it comes to jump shots. Speraw praised Baer's work habits and intelligence, along with how quickly Baer picks up concepts on both ends of the floor. Baer spent countless hours improving his shot and increasing his range.

'As far as shooting it, we just talked with him about making it a smooth, rhythmic shot,' Speraw said. 'Get the ball high and shoot it with confidence. I told him a year ago, I said, 'Nicholas, if you get on the floor with everything else you bring, you've got to be a knockdown 3-point shooter.' He just took that, took a couple little things that we talked about and worked on it. He's developed tremendous confidence in it.'

Baer has hit 11 of 24 3-point shots this year, a 45.8 percentage. Some walk-ons would be too timid to fire up 3-pointers in clutch situations. Baer seems to thrive in it, and his teammates have noticed.

'He's always going to play hard, he's going to crash the boards,' Iowa senior guard Anthony Clemmons. 'He's fearless of any type of moment. He took a few shots where I'm like, 'Geez, Baer.' But he'd make them. How he practices, that's how he plays. It's nothing surprising for us besides being in big moments and knocking down shots.'

Against Drake, Baer buried a 3-pointer midway through the second half to break up a 45-45 tie. Two possessions later, he hit another 3-pointer to put Iowa ahead by eight. On Iowa's next offensive trip, Baer saved a ball from going out of bounds and tipped it to forward Dominique Uhl. Point guard Mike Gesell scored on a three-point play on that series.

Later, when Drake went on a 9-2 run, Baer drilled another 3-pointer with 4:23 left in the game.

'He's the ultimate hustle guy,' forward Jarrod Uthoff said. 'He's always bringing energy and being everywhere. We joked around in the first pickup game. He's diving for loose balls. We all look at him like he's crazy. That's Baer for you.'

Through 11 games, Baer averages 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 14.2 minutes a game. Based on Saturday's performance, it's likely he'll see those numbers increase.

'When it's all said and done, you can be athletic, you can be big and strong, and you can be a great shooter, but you really have to understand how to play this game to be good,' McCaffery said. 'I think when you watch him play, it's a beautiful thing.'

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com