The Iowa Hawkeyes will enter the 2024-25 males’s faculty basketball season on the lookout for a return to the NCAA Match.
It stays to be seen whether or not the mix of in-house growth, a number of switch portal additions and a hopeful return from its greatest star can propel Iowa again into the NCAA Match.
In his Might rendition of bracketology, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Iowa Hawkeyes within the combine for an NCAA Match berth, however, in the end, on the surface wanting in.
Iowa is amongst Lunardi’s “Subsequent 4 Out” groups, becoming a member of the Large 12’s Colorado and TCU and the West Coast Convention’s San Francisco in that distinction.
Iowa completed with a 19-15 (10-10 Large Ten) document and missed out on the Large Dance in 2024 for the primary time since 2018, ending a stretch of 4 straight NCAA Match journeys beforehand.
The Hawkeyes did earn an invitation into the Nationwide Invitation Match to cap final season. Iowa topped Kansas State, 91-82, earlier than falling at Utah, 91-82, within the second spherical of the NIT.
Now, as Iowa turns the web page to subsequent season, the Hawkeyes have turned to the switch portal to assist retool their roster. Iowa has introduced in Morehead State guard Drew Thelwell alongside Manhattan switch ahead Seydou Traore to bolster its ranks.
Thelwell averaged 10.0 factors, 6.2 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per recreation, whereas taking pictures 43.5% from the ground, 33.8% from 3-point vary and 64.5% from the charity stripe.
Traore averaged 11.8 factors, 8.2 rebounds and a pair of.3 assists per recreation whereas taking pictures 43.3% from the sphere, 25.6% from 3-point vary and 80.0% from the charity stripe.
The 6-foot-7, 215 pound swingman simply accomplished his freshman season the place he scored in double figures in 18 contests. That included 16 factors and eight rebounds in a recreation at Kansas on Nov. 10, 2023.
Traore additionally registered 10 video games with double-figure rebounds, together with 4 contests the place he pulled down a dozen or extra boards.
Iowa is awaiting a stay-or-go choice from its main scorer a season in the past, ahead Payton Sandfort. The 6-foot-7 ahead from Waukee, Iowa, averaged 16.4 factors, 6.6 rebounds and a pair of.7 assists per recreation and shot 44.6% from the sphere, 37.9% from 3-point vary and 91.1% from the foul line.
Sandfort has till June 16 at 4 p.m. CT to withdraw his title from the 2024 NBA draft.
If Sandfort returns, Iowa would put collectively a pleasant nucleus of gamers that will characteristic Sandfort, freshmen forwards Cooper Koch and Chris Tadjo, sophomore forwards Owen Freeman, Ladji Dembele, Pryce Sandfort and Seydou Traore, sophomore guard Brock Harding, junior guard Josh Dix and senior guard Drew Thelwell.
A trio of Hawkeyes made choices to play their subsequent collegiate seasons elsewhere. Guards Dasonte Bowen and Tony Perkins transferred to St. Bonaventure and Missouri, respectively, whereas ahead Patrick McCaffery transferred to Butler.
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Story initially appeared on Hawkeyes Wire
