Iowa's Tyler Cook seeing game slow down, aggressiveness pick up

IOWA CITY — A lot of positives could be taken from Tyler Cook's freshman season at Iowa.

He averaged 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game, started all but one game he played in and returned from a broken finger sustained at the Hawkeyes' holiday tournament in Florida better than he was before the injury. His Big Ten All-Freshmen honors were bona fide.

Going into his sophomore season, Cook said the game has slowed down for him. That could be bad news for anyone not in black and gold.

'I just feel like I've got a much better understanding of everything that's going on,' Cook said Monday at Iowa's Media Day. 'It's been a gradual process.'

Still, there's a lot left to be gained, and Cook will be the first to tell you that. When asked about defense, Iowa Coach Fren McCaffery tossed a skill out about Cook that might not have been expected.

'I think you'll see a different shot blocking presence in Tyler Cook this year,' McCaffery said.

Considering Cook blocked 11 shots all of last season, that wasn't something most expected to be high on the list.

Why bring up shot-blocking specifically?

'Just being a smarter basketball player and being able to read offenses and read plays a couple moves early,' Cook said. 'Beating guys to the spot coming off the weak side. I know I've got to get over to get that roll guy. I kind of think of things I would do offensively and think about how I would stop myself.

'I just think about the game a lot better now. I think that's something I'll keep improving on.'

Cook came in last season as one of the most highly touted recruits in the McCaffery era, and the head coach stoked those flames at this time last year by saying Cook had the highest ceiling of any player he's brought in.

The St. Louis native's first year wasn't all roses. He struggled early in the season with turnovers and missed opportunities around the rim, but finished the year like an All-Conference player. In the last six games Iowa played, Cook averaged 13.8 points — including games of 21 and 18 points at Maryland and vs South Dakota in the NIT — and eight rebounds. He also shot 70.6 percent from the field in those games, including 8 of 8 and 7 of 7 shooting performances in Iowa's two NIT games.

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This summer has been about film study and building on how the season ended.

'The next step in his development is really simple; it's just consistency,' McCaffery said. 'I think what you're going to see is a guy who has much better pace to his game right now.

'He always had that skill, but sometimes he would go too fast or go too soon and turn it over. He's not doing that. He's rebounding out of his area a lot more. He got anything that was anywhere near him, but he's going out of his area now, so I think you'll see his rebound numbers go up.'

For Cook, all the above is about the game slowing down for him.

At this point, after the way last year ended and this summer played out, his confidence in himself has never been higher. Not that Cook has ever struggled in that area, but he said Monday at basketball media day that he reflects on last year and certain points like he wasn't a very good player.

Knowing what he knows now, and with an offseason of mental and physical work to combat what he saw, Cook's sophomore season could hit the ground running.

There's no doubt about it, if you ask him.

'Offensively, I feel like I'm unstoppable,' Cook said. 'I definitely feel like I can step up and be that guy.

'My focus has been to be aggressive, and I think I'm doing a good job of that. (The game has slowed down) a ton — just (because of) the fact that I've learned so much more about the game. And you're never done learning.'

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