Several Iowa basketball players commented on Tuesday that they felt the transfer woes that had plagued the program over the course of the Todd Lickliter era are over.
This from Jarryd Cole: “There were some people talking (last year) that they weren’t happy, things like that. That’s not going around right now.”
There were certainly rumors last year in early March of Jake Kelly being unhappy, and Kelly spoke to the media after the Penn State game in Carver Hawkeye and said there was nothing to those rumors. A few weeks later, he had announced his intention to leave.
There were rumors for much of the latter half of last season that Jeff Peterson, David Palmer and Jermain Davis were unhappy and those players left the program, too.
There were rumors the year before, just before Iowa’s Big Ten Tournament opening round game and during that game, that Tony Freeman was unhappy in the program. Tony would leave a few weeks later.
There have been rumors during this winter of discontent that certain players have been thinking of leaving. It’s good to see Cole and others come out and talk about that in a way that can be construed as positive.
I certainly hope Iowa doesn’t see any more players leave, because I am genuinely excited about next year’s class coming in and meshing with the kids we expect to be here. I am excited to see Brennan Cougill develop this offseason, and the same can be said for Cully Payne. We have seen Aaron Fuller blossom before our eyes this year, which should give Iowa fans hope about player development in the Lickliter era, something many people wondered about during the Steve Alford era of Iowa basketball.
Speaking of Payne, his statistics thus far through his freshman campaign stack up against those of Jeff Horner as a freshman.
Horner was 79-238 (.332) from the floor, where Payne is 77-212 (.363). Horner was 41-148 (.277) from three where Payne is 36-109 (.330). Horner had 140 assists to 77 turnovers while Payne has 106 assists to 87 turnovers. That last statistic is an area that Payne needs to really improve upon, and he would tell you that, too.
However, Payne hardly has the supporting cast that Horner had, although the 2002-2003 Iowa team was not an NCAA tournament team either. They had Brody Boyd, Jared Reiner, Glen Worley, Chauncey Leslie, Sean Sonderleiter and Greg Brunner as a nucleus.
Iowa takes the court Thursday night at Northwestern, and the Wildcats will certainly be looking for some payback. Iowa has had several days since their stinging loss at home to Michigan to put that in their rear view mirror, and the Iowa staff has had some time to practice without rushing into total focus on the next opponent. They have had some well deserved rest, too. A win at Northwestern would be a good step this season, as they have Indiana coming to town next week before ending the year with back to back road games at Wisconsin and Minnesota.
This season won’t end with any tournaments, other than the Big Ten event in Indianapolis. Once it’s over, Iowa fans can start looking forward to a hopefully more stable future, one that does not involve transfers and one that has more hope.
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