Iowa big men want to be 'showtime' Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY — Traditional positions in basketball are becoming an endangered species.

The days of a point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center being clearly defined are not-so-slowly-but-surely coming to an end with the way coaches and programs are deploying their talent.

Guys who stand around 6-foot-8, 250 pounds are no longer just post players. The Iowa men's basketball team has five players who fit that description to a tee. Junior Dom Uhl, sophomore Ahmad Wagner and freshmen Tyler Cook, Cordell Pemsl and Ryan Kriener are players who, if you threw a traditional tag on them, would be post guys.

They'll be used that way, sure. But they'll also handle the ball, get up and down the floor with it, and shoot from outside. It's going to be new, but in a really fun way, players have said.

'We're going to look a lot different, but we've got a lot of players who can do a lot of different things, so I feel like that's going to be special for us this year,' Wagner said. 'We're extremely athletic and we're extremely fast, so you could see a lot of showtime stuff this year — especially guys like Tyler (Cook), who can jump out of the gym. You could see a show.'

Running the floor has always been part of what Coach Fran McCaffery has wanted to do at Iowa, but it was more regimented in the past.

With Mike Gesell running the show at point guard, and fewer big men who could handle the ball effectively — the Hawkeyes' post depth has not always been a strength before this year — a rebounder had to find Gesell, Jarrod Uthoff or Aaron White to bring the ball up the floor with any kind of pace.

That extra time won't be a factor now, if McCaffery can get his young squad in line before Friday's exhibition against Regis and the Nov. 11 regular-season opener against Kennesaw State.

'When you have a frontcourt that can run like our group, we take off rather than worry about who we're getting the ball to because that takes time,' McCaffery said. 'We have tremendous depth there, and that's comforting because last year at this time, we were having a conversation (about), were we going to be deep enough in the post. We had trouble sometimes.'

The concept of grab-and-go regardless of who it is can be challenging intellectually for a point guard, which is a position that most often is used to running the show.

But to ask Iowa point guards Christian Williams and Jordan Bohannon, it's not even a second thought. They'll have the ball in their hands, creating shots and directing the offense plenty. When it comes to a fast break, they're just as excited as they hope fans will be at what they'll see. Like Wagner said, 'showtime' is in play with the combination of guards and big men Iowa will have.

'I love that. I think every point guard should love that. It doesn't limit the player,' Williams said. 'Someone like Tyler (Cook), Ahmad (Wagner) or Dom (Uhl) can stretch the floor, and that helps with the other team's big men because they can't really keep up.

'We can see throughout practice, everyone's running up the floor and it's a great sight to see.'

Iowa will be giving up some size to a few Big Ten opponents — namely Purdue, among others — and every Hawkeye big man acknowledged as much.

But what will be a 'disadvantage on the block,' also will be 'an advantage on offense when guys are trying to guard us,' Pemsl said. 'When you're pushing the ball like that, it means they're running too. It means everyone's going to get tired.' It works both ways.

McCaffery isn't really worried about the post defense, though. With their strength and length, he said 'we're in a much better position this year to defend in the post than we were last year.'

McCaffery said Wednesday on a teleconference that there's still not a clear starting five, but reiterated again that Iowa will run 10 or more players deep in its rotation. McCaffery said last week each of the big men have been 'terrific' in picking up what he wants them to in terms of playing fast.

Headed into the first full game experience on Friday after a secret scrimmage Sunday against Illinois State, the trick now is to be sure the guys can be efficient in those efforts.

'It's kind of hard getting us into that mode; being able to not only play fast, but play smart while playing fast and being able to execute at the same time,' Cook said. 'We're getting it down. … We've got a lot of guys who can do a lot of different things.

'It's small things and just fine-tuning that.'

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