Owen Freeman’s blockin’ gets Carver rockin’ in Hawkeyes 103-78 win

IOWA CITY — Many flashes of what Owen Freeman could be as a college basketball player have been visible in Iowa’s first seven games.

What the Hawkeye freshman center did in the space of five seconds Wednesday night, however, was a bright red flag for his team’s future opponents.

With about four minutes left in Iowa’s 103-78 win over North Florida Wednesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, UNF’s Oscar Berry swiped the ball from Iowa’s Patrick McCaffery and drove for what appeared to be an uncontested layup.

The 6-foot-10 Freeman had other ideas. He swatted Berry’s shot off the glass. The Ospreys’ Dorian James collected the rebound, put a shot up, and Freeman blocked it. James caught it, put up another shot, and Freeman swatted that one, too.

This time, Iowa got the rebound. Tony Perkins fed a streaking Freeman in transition, he got fouled, and made two free throws for the last of his career-high 16 points in 19 minutes. To go with his career-high five blocks.

Wow. Just wow.

To hear Freeman tell it, he was the one who lost the ball at the start of the sequence that set off the roars of the night from the announced crowd of 8,641.

“As soon as I turned it over,” he said, “I knew I had to make up for it so I kind of decided that no matter what, I was going to get this right there.”

Freeman already had a great game going against a team that had no one to counter his height. He had 12 points and two steals in the first half. He is averaging 10.3 points through seven games, five of them victories.

“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised in myself,” said Freeman. “I’m saying I’m just kind of stepping into like how good I can be. Potential, that’s the word.”

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Potential can turn into production slower for freshman college centers than other players. This has not been the case with Freeman, who had three steals and three offensive rebounds Wednesday, and made six of his eight field goal tries and all four of his free throws.

“He’s been really special in a number of ways,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “His awareness has been really good. He’s no mistake-maker. He’s an effort guy.

“The scary thing is he’s going to keep getting better. That’s a great thing.”

Helping Freeman’s adjustment to the college game is he isn’t a big man trying to get his basketball to match his physical tools.

“He’s an athlete,” Fran McCaffery said. “He runs. He slides his feet. He jumps.

“I let him play. I let him run and dribble the ball and shoot the ball and drive and play in traffic.

“He came ready. We’ve worked with him, but you don’t do what he’s doing as a young player unless you come ready.”

It wasn’t all kid stuff here Wednesday, not at all. Seniors Tony Perkins, Ben Krikke and Patrick McCaffery scored 21, 21 and 16 points, respectively. Perkins had 12 points before the game was eight minutes old.

Monday, Perkins learned of the death of his grandmother. He was too emotional to practice that day. He called her his biggest fan, saying she used to rebound for him when he was a youngster shooting at the basket at her home.

Not playing Wednesday, Perkins said, was not an option. “My grandma would never allow me to sit out a game,” he said.

Perkins will go from Iowa’s game at Purdue next Monday night to Indianapolis for the Wednesday memorial service.

That’s No. 1 Purdue, with last season’s National Player of the Year, 7-foot-4 senior Zach Edey. He averages 21.9 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.9 blocks. If Freeman blocks one of Edey’s shots, the sellout crowd at Mackey Arena will be stunned.

“A little different than the centers I’ve played before,” Freeman said.

“I’m looking forward to going to Mackey. I want to surprise people.”

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