Big Ten Basketball: Early takeaways after first week of 2020-21 season

Analyzing Iowa’s offense

Iowa having the highest-scoring offense in the Big Ten is not much of a revelation, the fact pre-season Player of the Year favorite Luka Garza is not the main reason behind the output will be to some. After winning the first two games Iowa moved up from No. 5 to No. 3, not because their victories were against difficult competition, but the Hawkeyes were able to do what Virginia and Villanova were not, avoid being upset.

Now firmly in the No. 3 spot, with North Carolina on the horizon with a Dec. 8, 2020 matchup, then they play current No. 1 Gonzaga on Dec.19, 2020, how good of a team they are will be tested, but how well they can score will be proven.

With two games now in the record books, Garza is averaging 33.5 points per game which is good for best in the nation. That however was to be expected to some extent, the support Garza has is the interesting aspect, for it is very different than last season. Patrick McCaffery, Jordan Bohannon, and Keegan Murray are currently making valuable contributions and improving the reigning top Big Ten offense.

After returning from thyroid cancer, McCaffery, who played just 27 minutes last season is averaging 11.5 points per game this season,  point guard Jordan Bohannon played in 10 games last season and is now scoring 5.5 points with 4.5 assists. Newly acquired freshman Keegan Murray is averaging 10.5 points per game. After losing very little from last year’s offense, the Hawkeyes have added key pieces.

These key pieces make the offense more potent and it does not include Jack Nunge who was set to return after an ACL tear this season, prior to his father passing away the weekend before tip-off Wednesday.  The revelation here is that the best offense will average over 80 points per game.