Connor McCaffery Dishes on Iowa Basketball’s 5-Man Freshmen Class

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa Basketball team roster is made up of an interesting mix. It consists of six scholarship players that have been in the program for at least two years and five incoming freshmen. That’s unusual in today’s college game.

In addition to the guys with at least two years in the program, sophomore point guard Joe Toussaint returns after starting the last 20 games of 2019-20. Patrick McCaffery, a redshirt freshman, competed in two games before missing the rest of last season with health concerns.

Time will tell how many of the newcomers can crack the rotation with the amount of experience the Hawkeyes return. It’s too early to know which of them will contribute and how much. Unfortunately, some of it could be determined by injury, which led to Toussaint playing more last season.

It’s been a crazy initiation for the freshmen. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered training and a virus outbreak on the team shut down workouts for a few weeks. Newcomer Josh Ogundele arrived on campus late after experiencing visa issues in his native London.

“We haven’t gotten to play five-on-five with big Josh yet because he was obviously late coming in. So hopefully we can do that do that soon,” junior Connor McCaffery said.

Connor McCaffery, Patrick’s older brother and the son of head coach Fran McCaffery, is Iowa’s coach on the floor. His advanced understanding of the Hawkeye system is helpful with the new guys learning. He’s seeing the freshmen taking positive first steps.

“It’s gone really well. They all have really done well with the transition. We try to help them just by talking through everything with them,” he said.

“We didn’t really get to have a ton of team practices before we got shut down so they missed out in that regard. But I do think that this is a smart incoming group that we have. I think they’ll be able to learn everything that we’re doing pretty quickly.”

Keegan and Kris Murray, the 6-foot-8 twin sons of former Hawkeye Kenyon Murray, possess more experience than the average freshman with a year of prep school under their belts following graduating from Cedar Rapids Prairie. Connor McCaffery sees them as potential early contributors on the defensive end of the floor.

“The Murray twins are really good shot blockers. They’re really long. They’re both huge,” Connor said.

Indianapolis guard Tony Perkins (6-4, 185) was in the running for his state’s Mr. Basketball last winter.

“Tony is really, really athletic,” Connor said.

Ahron Ulis, a point guard from Chicago and brother of the NBA’s Tyler Ulis, brings some size and skill to the position for Iowa at 6-2, 185.

“Ahron has been really good with the ball,” Connor said.

The Murrays, each more than 210 pounds, have added strength and size since high school.

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“Kris and Keegan are really skilled,” Connor said.

Nobody knows when the season will start or what it will look like. There’s talk it could be played in a bubble atmosphere like we’re seeing in the NBA.

That uncertainty is handled easier by veterans. For the freshmen, it’s added piece of an already difficult transition that includes safety during a pandemic.

“That’s got to be really weird for the freshmen. Things are just different. It’s already hard enough to adjust and now you have to adjust to all these other protocols. They’ve all handled it well. They’ve played well,” Connor said.