Hlas: Peter Jok rocks the scoring charts, and more

It's highly likely Peter Jok will give Iowa a first-team All-Big Ten men's basketball player for the fourth-straight year.

According to the conference's media guide, the Hawkeyes had never had first-teamers for more than two consecutive seasons. They had none between 2008 and 2013.

But this season is different from the last three. Previous first-teamers Devyn Marble, Aaron White and Jarrod Uthoff had good experienced players alongside them. Jok is surrounded primarily by freshmen and sophomores.

Thursday night, Iowa's underclassmen had strong games to supplement Jok's 23 points, and the Hawkeyes had their best effort of the season in defeating Iowa State, 78-64. But this young team will go in and out of focus over an 18-game Big Ten schedule.

That said ... Jok.

What the senior is doing so far is something we just haven't seen from a Hawkeye player unless we're quite old. First and foremost, he's averaging 23.8 points per game.

No Hawkeye has averaged at least 20 points per game in a season since Adam Haluska's 20.5 in 2006-07. None have averaged 23.8 or better since Fred Brown's 27.1 in 1971.

Jok's average may decrease a bit come Big Ten play, but don't set that in stone. Against the five of Iowa's 10 opponents from the biggest conferences — Seton Hall, Virginia, Memphis, Notre Dame and Iowa State — he's averaging 24.2 points.

Entering the weekend's games, Jok was fifth nationally in scoring. He has done this playing 30.0 minutes per game and averaging 16.9 field goal tries. The nation's top four scorers average from 32.7 to 38.0 minutes and 18.1 to 19.8 field goal attempts, and none play in Power Five conferences.

Jok is averaging four points more than any other Big Ten player. Over half his shots have been 3-pointers, but he isn't a conscienceless gunner. He has made 40.9 percent (36-of-88) of his threes, stellar for someone who shoots almost nine per game.

On top of that, he leads the Big Ten in free throw shooting at 90.6 percent (48-of-53). The school single-season record is Luke Recker's 88.5 percent in 2001-02. The Iowa career-best is Jeff Horner's 86.0 percent. Jok is at 86.4 percent.

But here's the best part about Jok: He isn't one-dimensional. He was sixth in the Big Ten in steals last year, and is second on his team to Nicholas Baer in that stat so far this season.

Plus, the 6-foot-6 swingman leads the Hawkeyes in rebounding with 6.2 per game, almost twice as much as he had last season. He had a game-high nine against Iowa State.

That's a lot of numbers. What about intangibles?

Well, Jok's teammates seem to like him and vice versa despite the age gap. If he's had the attitude of 'Give me the ball and get out of my way, rookies,' he has disguised it cleverly.

No two seasons are the same for any college program. Like Iowa State this season, Iowa was stacked with seniors last year. Outside of the truly elite programs, there isn't one that wouldn't have to rebuild after losing four senior starters.

OK, so Iowa almost surely won't win 22 games for the third-straight year. 'It's going to be an interesting journey,' Hawkeyes Coach Fran McCaffery said Thursday. 'It's not going to be smooth.'

But Jok is a constant, someone who scores points in piles without being averse to doing everything else asked of him.

Iowa will again have better teams than the current one. But until then, few other teams will feature individuals as talented and entertaining as Jok.