Hlas: Youngest Hawkeyes team tries to spend youth wisely

IOWA CITY — Al McGuire — you college freshmen in the audience may have no idea who he was — once said the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores.

Some games this season, that will be heresy here. On others, you'll understand how McGuire was wise enough to coach Marquette to the 1977 national-title game and do so without a freshman in his playing rotation.

It can be bumpy, doing what Fran McCaffery is doing at Iowa and starting four freshmen. The Hawkeyes' 68-62 win Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena was bumpier than riding in the back of a pickup on a cobblestone road.

Even with senior guard Peter Jok and his Big Ten-best 22.4 points a game, Iowa is crazy young this winter. McCaffery is starting four freshmen with Jok. Which, according to Iowa's sports information staff, means ...

It's believed to be the youngest starting lineup in school history.

The 1943-44 Hawkeyes started a senior, a sophomore, and three freshmen. Dick Ives and David Danner — you surely remember them well — were two of the frosh. They ranked 1-2 in Big Ten scoring that season for a team that went 9-3 in the conference and tied for second place.

Freshmen were ineligible in NCAA basketball (and football) from 1953 to 1972. Only five times since '72 did Iowa have two freshmen who were among its five primary starters over a season. Never were there three.

McCaffery is starting four in Jordan Bohannon, Tyler Cook, Isaiah Moss and Cordell Pemsl.

All have shown flashes of brilliance. All have scored 20 or more points in a game at least once. Sunday, Pemsl had 13 points and 3 blocked shots. Bohannon had a personal-best eight assists, and averages 4.8.

Power forward Cook, the most-touted of the bunch, had a forgettable game. He has had his moments so far this season and will have more. It seldom kicks in for freshmen all at once, particularly bigger players.

McCaffery didn't have a primary freshman starter in any of the last three seasons. Which probably was one of several contributing factors to Iowa going to those three NCAA tourneys.

Sunday was a freshmen test, and they barely passed. Iowa was on the wrong side of a draining double-overtime game at Nebraska last Thursday night, and getting off the carpet from something like that is tough enough for a veteran squad. Although, McCaffery says it shouldn't be.

'We lost,' he said. 'So, there should never be a hangover. You should be hungry and ready to get back to work and ready to fight.

'I thought we were ready. I thought Rutgers was ready, too.'

The Scarlet Knights played a nice road game. But this was still the team that had lost its first three Big Ten games by an average of 20 points. This was still the program that came here with a 3-36 Big Ten record over its three-plus seasons in the league and had never won on the road in the conference.

But Rutgers came here with no hangover, other than one from enduring a 93-65 pounding at Michigan State last Wednesday. That terrific game in Lincoln the next night made for a tough bounce-back, for both teams. Nebraska lost at home to Northwestern Sunday.

In Iowa's case, the quick turnaround against Big Ten competition is all part of the learning process for players who have much to learn.

Playing a lot as freshmen has pros and one con, said Dubuque's Pemsl, who is averaging 10 points and is looking like he was under-billed as a consensus 3-star recruit. The con?

'In a game like the Nebraska game,' Pemsl said, 'there were a lot of learning experiences where being in those situations more, having prior knowledge, it could have gone different ways for a few of us freshmen.

'But other than having first-time situations and maybe making mistakes, that's really the only con to playing as a freshman.'

Pemsl and Bohannon combined to peel off nine straight points for the Hawkeyes as they turned a 51-48 deficit into a 57-55 lead. Vets Jok and Dom Uhl carried the team home. Uhl had his best game of the season with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 5 blocks.

Iowa is 10-7 overall, 2-2 in the Big Ten, and a long shot at best for a fourth-straight NCAA berth. That's not news. This season is a reboot, and at least it has contained plenty of entertainment value so far. Sunday's game didn't offer much, though. Again, some games will be like this.

Bohannon, Cook, Moss and Pemsl can play. That's what matters.

• Iowa's foundation firm under Fran McCaffery

Hall of Fame baseball manager Casey Stengel — Google or Bing his name, my babies — said this about a young player during a New York Mets spring training:

'I got a kid, Greg Goossen, he's 19 years old. And in 10 years he's got a chance to be 29,' Stengel said.

Goossen went on to be a career .241 hitter. The Hawkeye freshmen should have more to brag about by the time they're through.