Iowa to red-shirt one, maybe two players

IOWA CITY - With six holdovers, two red-shirt freshmen and six newcomers - including five true freshmen - Iowa men's basketball coach Fran McCaffery knows he can't offer minutes to 14 different players.

So McCaffery plans to red-shirt at least one and maybe two freshmen before next week's season opener. Both the decisions and the discussions are on the way.

'I think we need to make it pretty soon, yeah,” McCaffery said Wednesday. 'I think you need to make it pretty soon, and then make sure that what we think makes sense as a red-shirt is exactly what the player thinks, because if the player doesn't agree, that's a problem. So there will be discussion there in regard to why and what we think is best, and then hopefully everybody is all in.

'Could be more than one. Probably at least one.”

The likely red-shirt candidates are wings Isaiah Moss (6-5) and Brandon Hutton (6-5). Moss played five minutes and Hutton played only two in the Hawkeyes' exhibition last week against Sioux Falls.

One freshman who won't red-shirt is guard Christian Williams. At nearly 6-7, Williams has the length and versatility to play multiple positions. He's getting plenty of time at the point, which he played as an all-stater at Decatur (Ill.) St. Theresa. Iowa has two senior point guards in Mike Gesell and Anthony Clemmons, but Williams is the only other point guard after this season.

'We're going to need a primary one,” Williams said. 'I'm usually in here as much as I can.”

Williams and McCaffery met about a month ago when McCaffery said he had no plans to red-shirt Williams. In last week's exhibition, Williams played nine minutes and scored three points.

'He's a really good wing player, and that's the tough thing with him, because we are working him in at the point and we do need him to play point moving forward,” McCaffery said. 'But he is almost 6-7. He's got a 6-11 wingspan. He's really good in transition. He's a really good offensive rebounder. Your point guard doesn't offensive rebound, you get him back on defense.

'So he's got a unique skill set that ultimately you like to take full advantage of and not pigeonhole him into one spot that limits maybe some of the things he can do. So that's going to be interesting to see how that unfolds.”

Freshman forward Ahmad Wagner was the first post off the bench in the exhibition. He had four fouls in nine minutes.

'Ahmad is rock solid,” McCaffery said. 'He really understands kind of what we're doing. So he's going to be in there.”

Freshman guard Andrew Fleming scored eight points in 14 minutes. McCaffery said defensive strides are vital for Fleming and junior-college transfer forward Dale Jones.

'They've got to get it figured out defensively,” McCaffery said. 'They're good offensive players.”

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