Iowa's Josh Oglesby has the green light, and he's not afraid to shoot it

IOWA CITY - Josh Oglesby no longer has to wonder if Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery has faith in him to shoot an open shot.

The freshman from Cedar Rapids was called into McCaffery's office on Wednesday, not for a scolding, but for an apology. McCaffery told Oglesby Wednesday he should have played in the second half after a tough performance Monday night, and McCaffery wouldn't bench him again.

McCaffery also told him to shoot at will. Oglesby obliged Thursday night against Northern Illinois with 16 points in an 88-55 Iowa win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

"I have seen very few shooters that shoot the ball like he does in 29 years, and when you have them like that, what they have to know is that I have every bit as much confidence in him as he has in himself," McCaffery said. "And he can shoot it whenever he wants to, early in the shot clock, at the end of the shot clock, off one pass, in transition, doesn't matter."

Oglesby missed his first 3-point attempt with about 8 minutes, 30 seconds left in the first half. But as McCaffery told reporters Wednesday, he wanted Oglesby to keep shooting. And that's what Oglesby did.

Two possessions later, Oglesby was open and drained a 3-pointer to put Iowa up 28-20. He then completed a 12-1 run with another 3-pointer to keep Iowa ahead 37-21.

"In high school if I missed my first couple of shots, I'd get down on myself," Oglesby said. "Basically almost every player does that.

"I missed my first one, but I made a couple in a row and basically got me in the game and into the groove of things."

Oglesby drained his third 3-pointer with 3:07 left in the first half. Two possessions later he passed up an decent 3-point shot and instead drove inside the arc and hit a mid-range jumper.

He finished the night by shooting 6-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range. He led the team in minutes played with 23 and also had five rebounds and two assists.

"I'm a firm believer that a shooter has to have that type of green light to be the kind of player that they can be," McCaffery said. "Because the thing about him is once he makes a few, they start flying at him, they start running at him, he can make a play off the dribble. He is not a guy that just moves it on, has to run around and get it back again. He's got great vision, got the ability to put it on the floor, he's got size, and I mean, he is a weapon every time he catches the ball."

Oglesby hardly was Iowa's only weapon. Matt Gatens hit 5-of-6 shots, including three 3-pointers to score 15 points. Gatens moved into 25th place on Iowa's all-time scoring chart with 1,152 points, passing Bobby Hansen and Kevin Kunnert.

Senior point guard Bryce Cartwright finished with nine assists and no turnovers in 19 minutes. Junior Eric May added 14 points and scored twice on alley oop dunks.

"I was really impressed with how Bryce was distributing," said sophomore Melsahn Basabe, who  scored eight points. "He had a bunch of assists in one half and the game was kind of out of hand so he didn't play a lot."

Iowa now gets its first challenge this year on Sunday against Creighton (3-0). It's a neutral-site game at Des Moines' Wells Fargo Arena on Sunday afternoon.

"Not only is it a step up, it's not here," McCaffery said. "It's not in their place, either, but there will be fans from both programs."

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