Big Ten Basketball: Ranking of 25 best players from last decade (2013-23)
By Joey Loose
1. Luka Garza
A 6’11 forward from Washington, DC, Garza was a fringe Top 100 prospect in 2017 who made his way to the Midwest. Garza chose Fran McCaffery and Iowa for his collegiate career and would spend all four years starring for the Hawkeyes. He’d become one of the nation’s very best players by the end of his career, with himself and those Hawkeyes seemingly improving with each passing year.
In his underclassman seasons, Garza averaged around 12 points a game and was a solid frontcourt contributor, with Iowa getting to the Big Dance his second season, scoring 20 points in a win over Cincinnati. As a junior, he took a major leap, averaging 23.9 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks per game for the Hawkeyes in the season that the pandemic would shorten. Garza was back with a fury as a senior, leading Iowa to a 23-win season and averaging more than 24 points a game. He had a handful of 30-point performances, including a 36-point effort in a Tourney loss to Oregon to end his college career.
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Garza achieved the rare feat of winning Big Ten Player of the Year twice in a row, leading the conference in scoring in both of those seasons. He also won the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award as the nation’s top center and was a First Team All-American in both seasons. That senior year saw him named the AP Player of the Year, putting the cherry on top of a dynamic career, even with the Hawkeyes’ limited success in the NCAA Tournament. Garza was a major weapon and one of the most explosive players in recent memory in the sport.