Hlas: Hawkeyes kiddie corps Saturday was fab

IOWA CITY — Twenty-five years ago next month, the Michigan men's basketball team started five freshmen for the first time.

You may have heard of them, being the most-famous Big Ten team to never win a conference title and all. They were called the Fab Five, and it was truth in advertising.

They reached the national-championship game as freshmen and again as sophomores. Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose and Chris Webber went on to play a combined 47 seasons in the NBA.

Iowa isn't a Fab Five this season, but no one ever is outside of every other Kentucky team. The Hawkeyes don't have a Webber, a Rose, or a Howard. They almost surely aren't going to the NCAA tourney, let alone its title game. They haven't even won a true road game.

Nonetheless, things were pretty fab Saturday night in Carver-Hawkeye Arena when Iowa started three freshmen and two sophomores, and supplemented them with two more freshmen, two more sophs, and old man junior Dom Uhl (who had a career-high six assists).

Minus senior scoring star Peter Jok, who sat out to rest his balky back, the kiddie Hawks soared for 40 minutes. They out-shot, out-rebounded and out-defended the elder Buckeyes and thoroughly earned an 85-72 victory that halted a three-game losing streak.

Sophomore guard Brady Ellingson assumed the role of Jok, raining in 5-of-7 3-pointers and scoring 17 points. Ellingson had totaled one basket and five points over his previous six games. He played with Jok's confidence and lack of hesitation.

'My shot felt good,' Ellingson said. When it was suggested an airball he had in the middle of his great run might have caused him to become shier in the past, he said 'I honestly thought it was going in.'

Freshman power forward Ryan Kriener had a terrific game of his own, showing a knack for being in the right places at the right times and knowing what to do with the ball when he got it.

Kriener had 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes. This is someone who didn't even play in three games this month. He's playing now. He'll play a lot more.

'In all honesty,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said, 'he should have been playing earlier. He was just behind some guys that I felt I needed to get them going, and a lot of guys, they don't handle that well. They shut down, 'I want to transfer.'

'He just kept coming after it every day, and he made me play him. I think — I hope he's as proud of himself as I am of him for doing that.'

On down the line, Nicholas Baer, Jordan Bohannon, Tyler Cook and the rest of Iowa's 10-man rotation had multiple moments this night. Freshman Bohannon swished a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the first half that was taken near the edge of the Tiger Hawk logo, as close to midcourt as the free throw line.

That was one of Bohannon's four 3s, giving Iowa a 40-29 lead. The Buckeyes were kept at bay the rest of the way.

Beyond their skills, we've seen a group of freshmen who seem to have the right mental makeup to do good things in their Big Ten lives. They all seem to have plenty of confidence, and little hesitation to put it to work.

'I do think it is unusual for a group of freshmen,' McCaffery said. 'I think that's a fair statement. We've all seen freshmen that sort of make that seamless transition from high school to college, they just do the same things that they did when they were in high school, shoot the ball late, 'I want the ball, I'm going to make free throws.'

'But to have a group that collectively is that way I think is special.'

The records of 4-5 in the conference and 12-10 overall have fit the outside world's expected story of the season for this green team with obvious potential. There would be good wins that leave people relishing the future instead of groaning about the present. And there would be lumps — some the size of grapefruits — taken on the road.

The key, McCaffery said, 'is doing it on the road. 'That's the next step for this team.'