Tyler Cook, Luka Garza meshing quickly for Iowa

IOWA CITY — If there's anything that came out of the Iowa men's basketball team's pair of exhibition games the last two weeks, it's that there could be something brewing with Tyler Cook and Luka Garza.

Strike that: there is something brewing.

The pair of Hawkeye big men combined for 42 points, 19 rebounds and six assists in Iowa's 96-64 win against Belmont Abbey on Thursday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and did it while playing many of their minutes simultaneously.

Both have versatile games that allow them to play inside and out, which means when one gets a rebound, the other is sprinting to the block and the trailer is setting up outside. Apart from a directive from coaches on who the trailer is and who isn't, the rest has been instinctive, Garza said.

Two options like that, meshing like that could spell trouble for those with whom they cross paths.

'It makes us really dangerous,' Cook said. 'Obviously the last piece is getting connected defensively for a full game, but offensively I just think having guys — as many bodies as we do at the 4 or 5 spot — that can come in and affect the game in different ways, that's going to be huge for us.

'Sometimes it just happens, sometimes it doesn't. Obviously, me and Luka just kind of happened as soon as he got here. You kind of find what works and what doesn't work as well. I think me and Luka will see a lot of time on the floor together.'

Cook led the Hawkeyes with 24 points, seven rebounds and four assists while going 7 of 12 from the field and 10 of 16 from the free throw line. Garza finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two blocks. He also hit his first 3-pointer in a Hawkeye uniform.

Garza said after the game he hasn't been away from the team for more than a week since he got to campus this summer, which included Iowa's trip overseas and their four games in Europe.

It was that experience that head coach Fran McCaffery said has been as big a catalyst as anything for them meshing as well as they have.

'They've been playing together since June, which is a little earlier than you would be normally,' McCaffery said. 'They both know how to play. They're both unselfish. They're both strong. I think their skillsets complement one another really well.

'They both have room for growth. Luka, he needs to go through it. Tyler's been through it, so you're seeing a different player this year.'

Exhibitions can leave lots to be desired, but the Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd got at least one moment to get out of their seats Thursday. Cook had a thunderous one-handed dunk in traffic, in transition in the first half that had everyone on the Iowa bench up, akin to one of his stare-down dunks in Big Ten play last year.

It was one example of how the pair of starting big men can affect the game in multiple ways, given Cook got the ball before half court and finished by dribbling through multiple Belmont Abbey defenders.

Their playing this way together has helped Garza tremendously, he said, and put him at ease on the floor — something he said wasn't there right away in the first exhibition.

'I'm very excited to play with him and since I got here, I've been comfortable playing with him; just as soon as we started it was great,' Garza said. 'We want to establish ourselves as a very big inside presence.

'It's going to be hard for teams to match up with any set of bigs we have.'

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