Iowa seeks to counter Marquette’s post play

IOWA CITY - Iowa's post play was a strength last year, and this year's combination of holdovers and newcomers will get its first major test Thursday.

The Hawkeyes (2-0) lost first-team all-Big Ten forward Aaron White and center Gabe Olaseni - the league's sixth man of the year - to graduation. They've got multiple newcomers trying to fill some of those roles, but they're a long way from matching last year's production.

Iowa out-rebounded its first two foes by decisive margins after stumbling in an exhibition loss. The Hawkeyes will gauge their post progress Thursday at Marquette (8:15 p.m. FS1).

The Golden Eagles (1-1) boast talented players in junior center Luke Fischer and freshman Henry Ellenson. Both stand 6-foot-11 and weigh 245 pounds. Both are Wisconsin natives with different backgrounds. Fischer originally signed with Indiana, but then transferred. He sat out a year and played at Marquette for the second semester last season.

Ellenson was a five-star recruit who picked Marquette over about everybody, including Iowa. In his two games, he's put up 21 and 18 points, respectively. He grabbed 16 rebounds in a loss to Belmont.

'I think he's a special player,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. 'Very few guys his size have the ball handling and passing skills that he has. He's obviously a tremendous scorer and he can score from anywhere on the floor. But I think what separates him is his ability to push it on the break and essentially become the point guard with that size, with that stature physically. He's a handful.

'If he comes at you on the break, but also in half-court, they can do a lot of things with him. They can post him, they can pick and pop with him, they can (isolate) him. He's a go-to guy that I think his reputation is well-deserved.”

Fischer averages 14.5 points and has posted double-doubles in Marquette's two games. In an overtime win Monday against IUPUI, Fischer hit six of his seven shots and played 44 minutes.

'I think Luke Fischer's tremendous,” McCaffery said. 'I think you're seeing it come together for him now. He's got a low-post game, he's an athlete that can get up and down the floor even though he's big. But he's a skill player and he's a competitor. When you put he and Ellenson together on the floor together, that's two big guys that can do a lot of different things. That's a lot of pressure on any defense.”

Iowa counters Marquette's duo with veterans Adam Woodbury and Jarrod Uthoff, along with sophomore Dominique Uhl, red-shirt freshman Nicholas Baer, freshman Ahmad Wagner and junior Dale Jones.

The schools have played 17 times but this is their first meeting since 1982. The teams met in the 1955 Elite Eight, which Iowa won 86-81. This game is part of the inaugural Gavitt Games, which features eight games between Big Ten and Big East squads.

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