Changes likely to Iowa basketball lineup

IOWA CITY - Iowa's perpetual problems at both ends of the court left Coach Fran McCaffery pondering changes to his starting lineup.

After a 71-55 loss to Clemson on Tuesday - Iowa's third defeat by at least 16 points - McCaffery said it's time to shift the pieces to keep the Hawkeyes (4-3) from freefalling.

Backup freshman shooting guard Josh Oglesby scored a team-high 15 points and sank all three Iowa 3-pointers. He has averaged 11.4 points in Iowa's last five games. Backup sophomore guard Devyn Marble scored only six points against Clemson, but he was in double digits the last two games. Both have provided a spark off the bench while many of the starters have been stagnant.

"Obviously we've thought about that, as you have," McCaffery said. "It may be time to put Josh in there, for sure.  I think he may have earned it.

"The problem with putting Marble in, he's our backup one (point guard). Now you start your two ones, it puts a lot more pressure on (walk-on point guard) Branden Stubbs. So it's a possibility. But I might still bring Marble's reckless abandon in off the bench. He's good at it. He plays more than one position. But, again, I may go ahead and start him, too."

Starting forwards Melsahn Basabe and Eric May have struggled at both ends of the court this year. Basabe, an all-Big Ten freshman team selection last year, has scored two points in each of the last four games. May has scored only 14 points combined in the last four games after notching 46 in Iowa's first three.

May, a 6-foot-5 junior, likely is headed to the bench for good. He had similar issues last year, starting strong then fading throughout the Big Ten season, scoring more than five points just once in the team's final eight games. He eventually was replaced by Marble in the starting lineup.

May's problems are puzzling for McCaffery, who constantly touted May's practice and workout performances all offseason.

"The hard thing for me with him is, I think any coach, I watched him from the end of last year till now," McCaffery said. "We all know where we're at. We're at a point where he's really struggling, OK? He's a great kid. He worked so hard in the spring, so hard in the summer, so hard in the fall. He was our most consistent player from Labor Day until the first game we played, every day.

"I wanted to reward that and stick with him because I've seen it. We need that from him. At the same time he may benefit from pressure off him as a starter. Watch it, give him a chance to affect the game with his athleticism defensively, maybe he can be a better rebounder and better defender."

May also is at a loss as to why he's struggling but said he remains confident. McCaffery is pressing him to drive the ball to the hoop and draw fouls.

"Any time you're struggling shooting it, that's what coach wants is get to the basket, get free throws up," May said. "We came out right away, got in right away and the next one didn't fall and that's when we started falling in love and I jacked a couple 3s. They're good looks but when they don't go, they seem a lot worse."

May was 1-of-6 from the field and played just 12 minutes against Clemson. He said he's not letting his past performance affect his outlook for this season.

"You've got to let the past be the past because we've got a lot of games coming up that we want to get after, and you can't take back what you did," May said. "I think everybody is in that mindset."

Basabe's struggles are more confounding. McCaffery and point guard Bryce Cartwright talked openly about getting Basabe more involved early in the offense. Against Clemson, he missed Iowa's first shot on a jump hook. Three possessions later he was whistled for traveling on a play originally called a foul. He missed all four first-half shots, then sank his first shot of the second half but finished 1-of-6 from the field.

Perhaps even worse than Basabe's scoring output is his rebounding effort. Against Clemson, he grabbed only one rebound. Since his 15-point, 10-rebound performance against North Carolina A&T, Basabe has combined for 13 rebounds the last five games. He averaged 6.8 rebounds a game last year as a freshman.

"The only thing that gives me hope is he practiced well," McCaffery said. "He got off to a bad start again. He had a couple chances around the rim. Had a wide-open shot that was in and out. I think that was frustrating for him.

"What I need him to do is be a little bit more of a factor defensively on the glass. I think offensively we can get him going, but he's not rebounding. He's not a defensive presence like we need him to be."

Despite the struggles and the team's challenging schedule going forward, McCaffery remains confident in his team. He said he plans to maintain an even-keel approach moving forward.

"We'll get this thing figured out," he said. "We're better than we're playing right now, and we'll get it figured out."