Iowa’s Fran McCaffery: Mike Gesell has ‘got my full confidence’

IOWA CITY — Mike Gesell's shooting slump is well known, but Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery remains staunchly in his senior point guard's corner entering the regular season's final week.

Gesell has connected on only five of 25 shots in No. 8 Iowa's last three games, two of which were losses. He has put up double figures just twice since Iowa's third Big Ten game. But Gesell's impact goes beyond scoring, and McCaffery was unwavering in his support.

'The No. 1 thing is he knows I'm going to stick with him. He's our guy,' McCaffery said Friday morning. 'He's got my full confidence. Even if I jump him, which I did in one of the timeouts, he knows I'm not going to bench him. He's our guy. He's been terrific. I love him.

'His shot hasn't been going in, but his game has been solid. He's like anybody else. He's going to give you every ounce of effort and be solid. If his shot's going in, then he's going to be an all-league player. But he can still be a guy — even if his shot's not falling — then is one of the main reasons we win.'

Gesell, who averages 8.3 points a game, connected on two of nine field-goal attempts in the Hawkeyes' 67-59 loss to Wisconsin on Wednesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The misses were from everywhere — a couple at the rim, some jumpers — and he acknowledged it after the game.

'I got great looks,' Gesell said. 'I missed a couple layups, easy buckets I usually make. That's how it goes sometimes.'

Unlike a 3-point specialist whose misses nullify his best attribute, Gesell's value exceeds his scoring average. Gesell ranks 20th nationally (third in the Big Ten) in assists per game at 6.1. He has 516 career assists, one behind B.J. Armstrong for fourth place in school history. Gesell is the first Hawkeyes since Armstrong to record 10 or more assists in at least four games in a season. Gesell is one of only four players in school history with more than 1,000 points, 500 assists and 150 steals.

Concurrent with his scoring slump, Gesell has dished 19 assists with only one turnover in the last three games. He also has recorded six steals and ranks 12th in the Big Ten (1.2 per game).

'He's a terrific on-the-ball defender,' McCaffery said. 'He's smart. He executes our offense. He moves the ball. He doesn't turn it over. He gets to the rim. He can break the defense down with his quickness and penetration.

'We all know he can score, and you all know he's got a great in-between game. So I think eventually he'll get that figured out and be effective there. When he is, then we're a much better team.'

Gesell's scoring consistency is vital for the Hawkeyes (20-7, 11-4), who now are 1 1/2 games behind Indiana (23-6, 13-3) with three left to play. Forward Jarrod Uthoff and guard Peter Jok have shouldered a heavy scoring load for the Hawkeyes. In their last five games, Uthoff and Jok have scored 207 of Iowa's 364 points. Of the last three, only guard Anthony Clemmons (twice) has scored in double figures.

'You're going to get scoring from everybody,' McCaffery said. 'Obviously you identity we have two primary scorers. You look at the stats, that's pretty evident, and that's OK. But the rest of our scoring has to come from everybody. I don't think we can pick one guy.'

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