Iowa hoops looking for a guard under right circumstances

IOWA CITY — With one available men's basketball scholarship, Iowa is in the market shopping for another guard. But don't expect Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery to grab the first one off the shelf, either.

McCaffery, who enters his seventh season at Iowa, has no problem keeping the scholarship open if he doesn't find a player to his liking. But he's looking.

'I would think it would probably be in the backcourt if we did something,' McCaffery said Thursday.

The Hawkeyes are scouting both incoming freshmen and transfers, including those who have graduated and are immediately eligible. McCaffery remains opposed to the rule allowing graduate transfers to play right away, but he'd still take one if it's the right fit.

'We play against them. So I would definitely,' McCaffery said. 'If the right grad transfer presented himself, we would definitely take him because typically we end up playing against them.

'It would be a right fit. In fairness, that has to be the right situation. As a freshman, you're still looking for the right fit. You wouldn't be as concerned. A grad transfer, he doesn't want to go somewhere and sit on the bench. Otherwise he'd stay where he was.'

McCaffery likes his available options.

'There's still a few good players left but there's a lot of transfers, a lot of guys who are thinking about transferring, a lot of coaching changes, a lot of movement,' McCaffery said. 'So we'll see. We have one (scholarship). It's great to have in case we find the right guy this year. But it will also be great going into next year if we don't use it this year.'

The spring signing period opened on Wednesday, and the transfer market continues to fill up. According to VerbalCommits.com, 453 players have requested to transfer. That includes two former Iowa guards Brandon Hutton and Andrew Fleming, who remain on good terms with McCaffery.

'The hardest thing with both of them is they both are spectacular people,' McCaffery said. 'It's a lot easier when they're disruptive or they're just not buying in. Those kids — to a man — bought in and gave us everything they had. Those are guys you root for. They're just looking for more of an opportunity to play.'

RELATED: Hutton, Fleming say Iowa wasn't 'right fit'

Iowa finished 22-11 and won an NCAA tournament game for the second straight season and directed one of its two scholarships to red-shirt freshman Nicholas Baer, who walked on the last two seasons.

Baer, a 6-foot-7 forward from Bettendorf, averaged 4.8 points and 2.6 rebounds per game and blocked 19 shots. He scored 15 points against eventual national champion Villanova in the NCAA tournament and blocked six shots against Drake.

'Achieving a scholarship was a goal of mine when I walked on here,' said Baer, who added that his mother cried when he told her the news. 'I didn't know whether it would be this year or years down the road, that was something I wanted to accomplish.'

'I didn't give him anything,' McCaffery said. 'He earned that. I'm thrilled for him because he really worked at it. All he wanted was a chance, and he made it happen.'

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