Experienced Hawkeyes look to make push in 2011-12

AMES - It's been five years since the postseason was even a somewhat reasonable goal at Iowa.

No one expects to Iowa to challenge for a Big Ten championship this season after going 11-20 a year ago, but the Hawkeyes bring back nearly everyone from a team that got progressively better last year. The experience earned through a year playing under coach Fran McCaffery should put Iowa in position to be competitive in the Big Ten.

The Hawkeyes haven't posted a winning season since former coach Steve Alford's final team went 17-14 in 2006-07.

"There's a lot of pieces now," McCaffery said. "You look at it collectively, what you have is a team that's got a little more size, a little more depth, and you need that if you're going to play up-tempo and you're going to play defense."

The Hawkeyes bring back four starters, including two stars McCaffery brought in a year ago; senior point guard Bryce Cartwright and sophomore forward Melsahn Basabe.

Cartwright was thrust into the starting role when the since-departed Cully Payne got hurt, and all he did was lead the Big Ten in assists during league games while averaging 10.9 points. McCaffery's hoping he can get more out of Cartwright, a junior college transfer, on both ends of the floor by giving him a breather every now and again.

"I really was impressed with his ability to come in, learn a new system, run the offense, be a double-figure scorer, lead the Big Ten in assists, and be a really good late game, late clock player," McCaffery said. "I don't know that I expect that much more from him at the offensive end. What he has to be able to give me is better effort at the defensive end."

Basabe, a 6-foot-7 power forward with athleticism, was a pleasant surprise a year ago with 11 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds a game. McCaffery believes he's got a chance to blossom into one of the best players in the league.

Basabe's put on about 20 pounds and looks ready to be more of a force in the paint now that center Jarryd Cole has graduated.

"I think we saw last year against some of the best post players in the country he performed pretty well, so next step for him is to be just a little bit more consistent," McCaffery said.

The Hawkeyes will get leadership and scoring from senior guard Matt Gatens, who averaged a team-high 12.6 points in 2010-11. Devyn Marble, who is nursing a concussion, had a nice freshman season with 5.7 points a game while playing just under 20 minutes, and McCaffery believes he and fellow sophomore Zach McCabe should make strides this season.

No one knows quite what to make of junior forward Eric May.

At 6-foot-5, May is one of the Big Ten's athletic players, and he's got a penchant for using those skills to make plays that get the faithful at Carver-Hawkeye Arena out of their seats.

But May got hurt early in the league season and wasn't quite the same after that. May ceded his starting spot to Marble and his numbers were down from his freshman season.

"He's in phenomenal shape physically," McCaffery said. "He's 221 (pounds) and he can run for days and he's jumping well and he's defending. He's making shots. He made shots last year but he's doing a few more things off the dribble which we need him to do at the wing position. But we need him to be a lock-down defender."

The Hawkeyes appear thin in the frontcourt after Basabe. Reserve Andrew Brommer was expected to get the first crack at replacing Cole at center, but a knee injury will hamper him for a few weeks. Iowa has a pair of freshmen who could contribute in forward Aaron White and center Gabe Olaseni, a 6-foot-10 project originally from London.

Iowa could also get a boost in the backcourt from freshman Josh Oglesby, a Cedar Rapids product who led the state in 3-pointers last year.

Despite winning just 11 games, McCaffery's first season was a success. The Hawkeyes got better as the season wore on and attendance grew by 23 percent, the fifth-largest spike in the country.

McCaffery's style was a hit with the fans, but playing fast will only keep their interest for so long if it doesn't translate into wins.

That could very well happen this season, which could be Iowa's first winning one in five years if things go the Hawkeyes way.

"I think what we have to do is get off to a good start, play well at home, and then show that we have enough toughness to go on the road and take our style and make it successful," McCaffery said.

Iowa opens its season against Chicago State on Nov. 11.