Iowa guards close Prime Time League having some fun

NORTH LIBERTY — The Prime Time League championship game on Sunday was far from beautiful basketball.

Neither the eventual champs, Vinton Merchants — featuring Iowa's Brady Ellingson and Jack Nunge — nor the runners-up, Westport Touchless Autowash — led by Maishe Dailey, but missing Luka Garza — shot the ball particularly well. Both teams turned it over and missed layups.

But Ellingson and Nunge's team won the title, 96-92, in overtime and despite the at-times ragged game play, a close game made for some good fun to close out the summer league.

That fun was a microcosm of the summer for guys like Dailey and Ellingson, who with Jordan Bohannon, Christian Williams and Isaiah Moss represent a guard group that has been tasked with replacing a whole lot of scoring from some guy named Peter Jok and his 19.9 points per game. Rather than let the competition for minutes and roles stress them out, the Hawkeye guards have turned it into what the PTL championship game became: fun.

'I don't think there's any reason to stress out,' Dailey said. 'We're all having fun battling for minutes every day in practice.

'It picks up our level of play and our level of focus.'

Given his limited role last season as a freshman, Dailey had a lot of work to do and plenty to prove to himself and his team this summer. He figures to have an increased role this year, thanks to his style and size, but also because Iowa's guard group isn't nearly as deep as its forwards.

Dailey said Sunday he likes his progress through the PTL and in team workouts, but that what he's accomplished through mid-July should just be the beginning.

Every player wants that to be true. For the Hawkeyes to have their guards fill the role of Jok as a group effectively, what Dailey said has to be true.

'I haven't done everything yet, but I feel like I'm in the right direction,' Dailey said. 'I've taken the first couple steps there, but I've got to take leaps now. I've got to take my game to another level. Just more confidence, more reps.'

Williams, whose team was eliminated last week from the PTL, said then that he's proud of the work Dailey's done, and has very much noticed a change in Dailey's demeanor.

The junior-to-be has his own role to worry about, given he'll almost certainly come off the bench again, as he did in all but the first few games of last season. His minutes were sporadic on the way to 2.3 points per game, but his defense got him back on the floor. Williams' efforts to be more consistent offensively have dominated his summer.

Even through his own concerns, Williams noticed Dailey because he's helped raise the level of play among the guards.

'I think we have the right guys and right pieces to do it,' Williams said. 'I've seen Maishe's game improve the most of anybody. I kind of compare him to myself my freshman year; kind of being timid and not being sure what to do. He's learning to play his game.'

Moss and Ellingson got the most run last season — scoring 6.5 and 4.4 points per game respectively — even with Jok around, but talked multiple times this summer about having their own gains to make to pick up their part of the slack.

Ellingson gave a small laugh Sunday after his team's win and stated the obvious: no one guard is going to slide right in and be Jok for the Hawkeyes. It'll be by committee, he said, and that's fine with them. Similarly to Dailey, Moss had confidence-building to do. Ellingson had some bravado-building to do, especially in the scorer's mentality department.

All of them still have work to do with the upcoming trip to Germany.

But they wanted to make one thing clear: there's no reason to stress about it.

'That's a big void, and I don't think any of us are going to straight up outscore him, but we've got to work together,' Ellingson said. 'Coaches are instilling confidence in us and telling everyone to be aggressive. Those are points we need to replace, but we've got the talent to do it.'

As for the final day of PTL play: Nunge was named PTL MVP, leading the league in scoring and rebounding. He finished his MVP campaign with 42 points and 14 rebounds. Ellingson and Northern Iowa's Klint Carlson were given the Chris Street Award. Williams was named Best Defender.

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