As Iowa fans continue to bask in the glow of the basketball team's surprising and inspiring start to the Big Ten season, here are a few items that have stood out thus far.
MORE THAN TWO: Before this season began, I felt that Bryce Cartwright was the player that Iowa could least afford to lose, followed by Melsahn Basabe. While I am not going to say Iowa can all of the sudden withstand losing either of these two players, what they have shown over the past week is they are more of a TEAM than I thought they could be this year.
During the second half run against Minnesota, Melsahn Basabe played a total of two minutes. For the game, he had zero points. It wasn't a great night for Mel and Fran McCaffery chose to play a 2-3 zone in the second half, using Devon Archie and Aaron White to play the guardian near the basket and leaving Zach McCabe on the floor most of the time. McCabe played 18 of 20 minutes in the second half with White logging 15 of 20 possible minutes. Cartwright played just nine minutes in the second half and scored four points and dished out just one assist.
Matt Gatens played all 20 minutes in the second half with Devyn Marble playing 17. While Iowa didn't light up the scoreboard (just 64 total points) they were pushing the tempo on the offensive end on missed and made baskets. There was one instance off a Minnesota field goal where Iowa got the ball up the court in three seconds to a streaking (not literally) Aaron White for a dunk. Minnesota's field goal game at the 5:37 mark and cut Iowa's lead to three, White's dunk came at the 5:34 mark and pushed the lead back to five. So the Hawks were running, and conserving 'some' energy in a zone defense.
The fact that Iowa won this game without any points from Basabe and not much production from Marble speaks volumes about the direction this program is heading right now, and I would not have guessed it possible this year.
MARBLE'S EMERGENCE: This isn't something that's just happened in Big Ten play; he's been coming on since early December. But his play with the ball in his hands, given his age and build, has been remarkable to me. Seldom do you get a chance to watch a player grow up before your eyes, but Marble is doing that. It's similar to the mid-season metamorphosis we saw several years back with Jake Kelly. He was forced into the point guard position due to an injury to Jeff Peterson, and he blossomed into a great scorer. Marble is not perimeter shooter Kelly was at that time, but Devyn is showing signs of having the best 'breakdown' game of any Iowa player since Andre Woolridge.
What I mean by that is how he is breaking defenders down off the dribble. He constantly looks to attack the lane, be it from the top of the key or the wing. He's actually done more damage attacking the middle going to his left, which means using his weaker hand to key the dribble. There were two series against Minnesota where he was simply filthy as it relates to the defender trying to stay up with his head and shoulder fakes. Neither shot went down for Marble, but the shots were not forced, they were fluid and had good rotation, but just missed the mark.
That tells me that this is going to be a part of his game the rest of his career and one that will only get better with more work in the weight room. I have written items of praise related to Marble thus far this year, so I hope this isn't sounding like a broken record. But this kid could very well turn into something special, which would be a surprise given how lightly recruited he was coming out of high school. This is just the kind of diamond in the rough that an Iowa program is going to have to have to be competitive in the Big Ten.
Tom Davis didn't win with McDonald's All-Americans; he recruited very few of those. He won with a bit of a gimmick in the full court pressure, which was a preparation departure for opponents, but also a fast paced system that allowed his players to be a bit interchangeable at times and to play at a level that was higher than their basic skill set. When you are in transition and running, you don't have to have the best handles or the quickest first step or be the best shooter.
McCaffery has found three such players so far; Marble, Aaron White and Basabe. Players that the 'big boys' didn't want, yet these are players who are making winning contributions for an Iowa team that is starting to beat teams and win games that most people felt they would not.
I think Iowa has a few of these types in their 2011 recruiting class, too..we'll wait and see on that front.
GATENS NOT ALONE: Matt Gatens is playing the best basketball of his career right now, even if he's not scoring 20 points per game. He finally has several options around him that teams have to prepare for, options that can fill the rim. Matt Gatens should never have been in the role as a Big Ten #1 scoring threat. That was never his skill set. He would have been more productive in his minutes as a Jason Bohannon type for Wisconsin. However, he chose Iowa during a tough time to be a Hawkeye and has never once complained.
He's had to shoulder the scoring load for much of his time at Iowa, and he's also had the biggest target on his back during that time. This year, he's still leading Iowa in scoring at 13.6 points per game, but the pressure is not there for him to score. His points are coming in the flow of the offense and he's also focused more on a complete floor game.
In Big Ten games, he's averaging 12 points per game, good for 20th in the league. Aaron White checks in at 23rd with 11.7 and Marble at 27th with 11.0.
But Gatens is 5th in the Big Ten in rebounds per game with 8.0 per contest, something that is a huge surprise. He's also 4th in the league in assists and first in the league in assist to turnover ratio, a perfect 11 to 0.
THIS is exactly the kind of player Matt Gatens could have been for the Iowa basketball program for at least his final two seasons, in a normal era of Iowa basketball. It didn't work out that way for him, but I am so happy he is getting a chance to show how complete and heady he can be...and so happy that he is able to have fun during his senior season.
