Iowa basketball notebook: Jordan Bohannon’s status uncertain for 2019-20 season

ROSEMONT, Ill. — With the season five weeks from starting, the availability of senior guard Jordan Bohannon to the Iowa men's basketball team remains unknown.

'I would have said eight weeks ago, seven weeks ago, we're playing without him,' Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said at the Big Ten Conference's men's basketball media day Wednesday at the Hilton Rosemont. 'Now there's, I think, a possibility.'

Bohannon had hip surgery in May. The Hawkeyes began practices for the 2019-20 season last Saturday. Bohannon hasn't been practicing with the team.

'He's dribbling, he's shooting, doing some things,' said McCaffery.

Bohannon has 96 career starts and 264 3-pointers. He averaged 11.1 points and 3.4 assists last season.

'We're trying not to put pressure on him in any way, shape or form,' McCaffery said. 'I want him to be able to play his senior year as pain-free as possible. So we're planning as if he's not playing. If he plays, we'll be thrilled that he is.

'And he'll be able to jump back in because of how good he is and because he's a senior leader.'

Iowa's first game is at home Nov. 8 against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

Joe Wieskamp named preseason All-Big Ten

Sophomore Hawkeye guard Joe Wieskamp was named to the 10-player All-Big Ten preseason team. Wieskamp averaged 11.1 points and made 42.4 percent of his 3-pointers last season.

'It's exciting.' Wieskamp said. 'It's motivation for me to go out there and prove I'm worthy of being on that list. That shows how much people respect my game. At the end of the day, I've got to go out and prove I'm worthy of being on there.'

McCaffery said 'I have the expectation of (Wieskamp) being one of the best players in this league. He has worked to that end.

'He's really consistent in with his effort, execution, performance, how he lives his life. He's a zero-maintenance guy.

'So I want to see him step up and lead. He's a quiet kid, but I watched him lead Muscatine in the state tournament, which was a lot for him. He made those kids better. He made those kids feel part of a team.'

Where Luka Garza wants to improve

Junior forward Luka Garza said his offseason priorities were working on his 3-point shot and adding moves to his low-post game.

'I worked on a plethora of moves,' he said. 'One I was focused on was the Dirk (Nowitzki) fadeaway. When I get in a tough situation with a jump hook, just to be able to fade away and get a nice look.'

Nowitzki, the highest-scoring international player in NBA history, had a favorite move in which he leaned back at a steep angle, jumped off one foot and shot over a defender. When done with Nowitzki's excellence, it was one of the hardest shots in the league to stop.

Garza is a borrower of post moves from NBA greats. He has favored a reverse pivot to a midrange jumper on a move Jack Sikma made his own.

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