Big Ten Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season
By Tuck Clarry
8. Iowa Hawkeyes
It’s three straight seasons for Fran McCaffrey making the tournament and three straight seasons of his team losing their lead weapon to the NBA Draft. There isn’t a clear plug-and-play scorer for McCaffrey to replace Kris Murray’s elite offense, but luckily the Hawkeyes have a roster full of upperclassmen, all able to contribute within their opportunities and game.
The backcourt is loaded for Iowa, with Tony Perkins and Payton Sandfort returning and Dasonte Bowen ready for a larger role in his sophomore season. The McCaffrey bloodline continues with Patrick McCaffrey returning for his fifth year of eligibility. Those four were all in the top six in terms of impact for Iowa last year, and McCaffrey, Perkins and Sandfort were the three leading shot-takers after Murray last season.
Even more offense is added in the addition of transfer Valparaiso grad Ben Krikke, a 6-9 forward fresh off of a season where he averaged 19.4 points per game. More frontcourt help was brought in with the arrival of Belmont transfer Even Brauns, who will try and offer a semblance of interior defense.
And like seemingly every season for the Hawkeyes, it is the defense that will serve as the Achilles heel for McCaffrey’s system. Iowa was near the bottom of every defensive shooting metric you could find last season, and it’s hard to imagine things getting discernably better outside of maybe a deeper rotation to keep fresh legs and active defenders. While Brauns offers athleticism, he’s coming from a smaller conference and neither he nor Krikke offer insurmountable size to deter opponents.
Iowa will surely miss the star power that the Murray twins offered the last two seasons, but having a bevy of perimeter scorers and depth makes them a hard team to prepare for.