Hawkeyes hoops' youth not a concern for McCaffery

IOWA CITY — "Youth and inexperience" is a phrase that's going to get quite a bit of use this college basketball season in reference to the Iowa men's basketball team.

Of the 14 players on the roster, seven have never stepped on the court for the Hawkeyes. Three of the other seven were either used sparingly or were injured for most of last season. Just three upperclassmen on the roster means a whole lot of question marks precede Iowa's exhibition on Nov. 4 and the regular season opener on Nov. 11 against Kennesaw State.

But youth and inexperience doesn't have to be a bad thing — at least from their perspective — especially when they're having as much fun with each other as the Hawkeyes have had so far.

'I think we're really ready,' said freshman guard Jordan Bohannon. 'I think when you see us walking around, we have a really good chemistry. From Day 1, we've all gotten along with each other.

'If we're coming off a loss, wherever it's at, we know we've got guys that can pick us up. Whether we have a good game or bad game, there's always somebody that's going to pick us up, and turn negative energy into positive energy.'

Bohannon is one of those young guys who was cutting it up at Iowa's annual media day on Oct. 5. He joins Tyler Cook, Cordell Pemsl, Ryan Kriener, Maishe Dailey and Riley Till as true freshmen for this season, and each of them told anyone who would listen about how much fun they'd all had together so far.

No, fun isn't everything, and neither is getting along. And given how seriously Coach Fran McCaffery takes what they do at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, there has to be a balance between fun and maturity.

When asked if his team would be mature enough to get what they wanted accomplished, McCaffery was blunt.

'No question in my mind, yes,' McCaffery said.

The freshman group's attitude for the game is infectious, and McCaffery was as eager as he's ever been to get this team together for full practices that started at the beginning of October. Before that, the waiting and wondering was difficult.

Through the summer and now into full practices, McCaffery has seen what he wants to see from them, and it's reinforced what he anticipated coming in. Working with them every day has been good, McCaffery said, but it 'was more exciting in June when they first got here.'

'I'm excited about this group. We've got some work to do. But (getting excited about working with them) didn't happen Saturday necessarily. For me it happened in June,' McCaffery said. '(The first practice) was a little different. That's the first time we went 2 1/2 hours. Because we gave them a couple days off, OK, this is really the official first day, and our effort and intensity level was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. So that tells me that it's a mature group, even if it's a young group.'

The freshman group, specifically, is very much going to have an impact on this year's team, which is different from McCaffery's teams of the past. Cook, Bohannon, Pemsl and likely Kriener will have a spot in the 10-12-man rotation, so their maturing at a rapid pace is vital to whatever the Hawkeyes are going to accomplish this season.

Bohannon said he believes the group is going to be 'really ready' based on what he's seen so far in practice and what the coaches tell them.

McCaffery was asked at media day how patient fans will have to be with this year's version of the Hawkeyes, and he gave a nod to what he called 'a sophisticated fan base' that he doesn't have to worry about 'going to give up on us if we're 1-3.' He said he believes in the group he's assembled and their ability to grow into the system quickly, and that the young guys will have the impact he's predicted they will.

Maybe it's a confidence-boosting technique; maybe not. But McCaffery's message so far has made them listen.

'Coach says all the time how much a better team he thinks we have than last year,' Bohannon said. 'I don't know if that means we're less experienced or not, but we're all really talented, and we're all ready to step in our roles.'

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