Iowa kicks off Big Ten play at No. 15 Purdue

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Wide open and uncertain.

Those are two terms that can be applied equally to both the race for the Big Ten Championship and the Iowa men's basketball team headed into Big Ten play.

The league has a handful of really good teams, several teams trying to find themselves and a few who've looked better out of some very lean years. The Hawkeyes have a team that runs the floor and can score with just about anyone, but doesn't yet know exactly what it has for Big Ten opponents — nor how forward Tyler Cook will work himself back into the fold.

Cook's return is the highlight of the start to Big Ten play for an Iowa team that found a rhythm without him, but relishes his return in time for the toughest part of the season. Coach Fran McCaffery was non-committal on whether or not Cook would start Wednesday against No. 15 Purdue, but clear in that he's a 'full go.'

'It is difficult because we have a unit that's playing well. The thing about Tyler is, whether he starts or doesn't start, he's going to play starter's minutes,' McCaffery said. 'I'm going to have him out there. We'll just work it out the best we can.

'It affects everybody's minutes when you add a guy who's going to play those kind of minutes. But we're going to be a better team with him on the floor.'

Having Cook back will be vital because the way McCaffery sees it, there won't be a night in the 18-game league schedule where his Hawkeyes won't be tested. Granted, McCaffery is defending his league and what it has to offer, and there won't be a single Big Ten coach who would offer a different opinion on what they're up against.

But even among teams who finished at or near the bottom of the conference last season, there seems to have been real improvement through 12 or 13 games. Rutgers enters conference play at 11-2 — though without any major wins, there's at least hope. Northwestern also sits at 11-2, and has wins against Dayton and Wake Forest. Only Nebraska and Penn State look like they're in some trouble at the moment, sitting at 6-6 and 8-5 respectively, with Nebraska's win against Dayton the best among them.

Everyone else offers intriguing and engaging battles at least, and at best, in the cases of No. 14 Wisconsin, Purdue and No. 16 Indiana, among the highest level of competition anyone will face. Iowa has been picked by various experts and outlets to finish between eighth and 10th.

'You look at a lot of leagues, and you could say, 'Look at these three teams; they're great, but look at those three teams at the bottom — they're not any good.' I don't think that's the case (in the Big Ten),' McCaffery said. 'We have some teams with a few more losses, but I think every team has really good players and every team has really good wins. I think that's what's going to make the league wide open.'

The Hawkeyes (8-5) get things started with the Boilermakers on Wednesday night at Mackey Arena — a team that has a solid chance of taking the regular season conference crown.

Iowa faces a team that features one preseason All-Big Ten pick, a talented 7-footer, an experienced point guard and a freshman wing who averages more than 10 points per game.

When Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Haas are on the floor together, size and talent matchups are hard to meet. When Vince Edwards comes on for one or the other, the smaller lineup provides different but still lethal scoring potential. P.J. Thompson, Carsen Edwards and Dakota Mathais make up the 11th best 3-point shooting backcourt in the country.

There are no easy answers. Cook's return, McCaffery said, will be made most difficult by his anticipating things on defense instead of reacting. Cook, Cordell Pemsl, Ahmad Wagner and Dom Uhl will have to be versatile defensively to deal with the different frontcourt combinations.

But whether it's Purdue on Wednesday, Michigan on Sunday or anyone else, McCaffery doesn't plan to let his opponents dictate what the Hawkeyes do. That's not his style.

How it works out this Big Ten season remains to be seen.

'The only thing you can really do there is just decide to play the guys that you want to play, and not have it dictated strictly on who they have on the floor,' McCaffery said. 'We're going to play the guys we want to play, and whoever's on the floor is going to have to play whoever (Purdue has) on the floor. That's kind of how I've always done it. I've never really tried to match up my defenders to their offensive players.

'I'm not going to worry about that. Quite honestly I don't ever coach that way.'

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