Again, no hype for men’s basketball Hawkeyes, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing

IOWA CITY — An 88-degree day with college football’s season not half over, and the first men’s basketball game more than a month away.

Monday’s Iowa men’s hoops media day was as low-key as a lullaby. No one’s talking college basketball yet, at least not around here. The Iowa women’s basketball media shindig Wednesday morning is likely to be a different matter, with all antennas in Hawkeye World pointing toward this year’s national runner-up.

The Hawkeye men? Tickets are still available.

For the third-straight year, an All-America player has left, it’s still been 1999 since the program has reached the second week of the NCAA tournament and 1979 since the last Big Ten regular-season title and … never mind that, what will Caitlin Clark do as a senior?

The Fran McCaffery teams of Luka Garza, Keegan Murray and Kris Murray in the last four years, though, weren’t exactly handing the ball off to those stars and going through the motions for five months.

Iowa was 91-42 in that time, 47-33 in the Big Ten. Entertaining, high-scoring games have been the norm, and three of those four teams finished the season ranked. There was a conference tournament title in 2021.

Yet again this year, the Hawkeyes are projected by many to finish in the Big Ten’s second division. Which is something they haven’t done in the last five years.

“We really like our team, the maturity in that locker room, McCaffery said. “You’ve got a lot of different guys who can play, a lot of different guys who can bring things to the table.

“Oftentimes when you’re maybe not thought of as much, it’s because they don’t think you can score. We’re not going to have a problem there. We’ve got a lot of guys that can make 3s, we have way more size than we’ve probably had in the last five years so we should be able to rebound pretty well.”

Its 2023-24 players may keep Iowa in the upper half of the league. There’s no NBA first-rounder-in-waiting this time. There are, however, several players who have either proven they can score or who are freshmen that appear ready to be plugged into the rotation.

Senior guard Tony Perkins, senior forward Patrick McCaffery and junior wing Payton Sandfort are known quantities and a good trio to build around.

Perkins has 47 career starts, McCaffery 46. Sandfort averaged 10.3 points off the bench last season and would be a 20-points-a-game threat on a team with fewer other scorers.

Then add 6-foot-9, 245-pound fifth-year senior forward Ben Krikke, a transfer from Valparaiso. The native of Edmonton, Alberta, led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring last year at 19.4 ppg. He made 55 percent of his shots. He has 90 career starts and scored 1,596 points while in a good basketball league.

“I have a versatile game,” Krikke said. “I’m trying to shoot more 3s than I did at Valpo. I also have my back-to-the-basket game which I’ve used at Valpo and also have the ability to shoot mid-ranges and shoot them with confidence.”

“He’s an incredibly smart, very skilled player,” Sandfort said. “I was really impressed with that the first day he got here, just how he moves and how he has a knack for finding a lot of open space.”

Fran McCaffery described Krikke as big, smart, tough, aggressive and versatile. That would work.

The Iowa women’s basketball team will share occupancy with the school’s football team within the next two weeks, playing before stadium-sized crowds. The men’s basketball team will toil for the next month in privacy.

Then, we’ll see if it can begin to make its own impact.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com