Iowa to look at guard following Dickerson’s departure

IOWA CITY - With the departure of backup guard Trey Dickerson, Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery now will have to fill two open scholarships for next seasons.

The Hawkeyes already have four newcomers next year with shooting guard Andrew Fleming, combo guard Isaiah Moss, guard/forward Brandon Hutton and power forward Ahmad Wagner. McCaffery was looking at recruiting a center anyway, and now guard could find itself on the radar.

'We can look at a guard which we probably wouldn't have because I think we need a big guy certainly with the one (scholarship),” McCaffery said. 'The question is do we use it this year or save it?”

McCaffery has plenty of options ranging from a traditional high school, prep school or junior-college recruit or hold out for a Division I transfer or a graduate transfer who would be eligible to play right away?

'Ultimately what's important to me is our team chemistry,” McCaffery said. 'You start adding a guy who is a fifth‑year guy, a transfer that's eligible right away, you want to make sure that they fit, not only in terms of what you see on the floor, but they fit in the locker room, they fit with what we're trying to do as a program.

'So I guess the answer is we wouldn't sit around and wait and predict. We would more so react to when that happened. But we wouldn't pass a guy up that we thought maybe could help us that might be a high school guy.”

Dickerson became ill on Saturday and didn't travel to Lincoln, Neb. On Monday, he requested a transfer, which was granted. He averaged 2.7 points and played in only three Big Ten games. With juniors Anthony Clemmons and Mike Gesell ahead of the sophomore Dickerson on the depth chart, McCaffery said he wasn't surprised with Dickerson's decision.

'Trey wants more. I respect that,” McCaffery said. 'I mean that sincerely. I'm not angry at him. I'm not blaming him in any way, shape or form. He wants more. We'll try to help him find more somewhere else. It wasn't going to happen for him here. He figured that out. He's got two years left. He'll be a good player for somebody.”

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