Hawks Rotation May Be Limited to Seven Tuesday Due to Injuries
Fran McCaffery may have very few options this week as his Hawkeyes visit Nebraska Tuesday night and host #12 Maryland on Friday.
Iowa battled Penn State to the wire Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia before losing to Penn State 89-86. The Nittany Lions moved up one spot to #20 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll which were released today, while Iowa dropped out of both polls after the loss.
In a morning conference call, McCaffery said his son Connor McCaffery was sick when he played 29 minutes in Saturday's game. After "throwing up all day yesterday," Fran said Connor is feeling better today.
A larger concern for Iowa is certainly the health of CJ Fredrick. In his postgame press conference Saturday, McCaffery said Fredrick had a foot/ankle injury that Fredrick thought he could play through. Fredrick played just under 14 minutes in the first half and didn't score. He then sat the entire second half. Fredrick averages more than 10 points per game. During his teleconference this morning, McCaffery still sounded uncertain about exactly what's ailing Fredrick. He said,
I think we’ll know a lot more about that in the next day or so. I’m not ducking the question. We’re looking at a variety of things with him. We want to make sure before we run him back out there that he’s ready to go. Clearly, he was not ready to go in the second half.
When your trainer says you can’t go, then you shut him down. You’re out, next man up. That’s kind of how it was, that’s kind of how it is right now. Until I hear otherwise, that’s how it is.
That certainly doesn't sound promising, at the very least for Tuesday night's game in Lincoln. It will be Iowa's first game against Nebraska with Fred Hoiberg as head coach. Hoiberg was born in Lincoln before moving to Ames, and later playing and coaching at Iowa State.
Frederick isn't the only player missing from the Hawks. Jack Nunge is done for the year thanks to a knee injury. Jordan Bohannon is out after hip surgery. Patrick McCaffery continues to battle medical issues that have limited him to only two games. This morning, McCaffery said that Austin Ash would be playing now if not for the fact he's recovering from mono.
So who is healthy?
- Luka Garza, who tore up Penn State for 34 points and 12 rebounds.
- Joe Wieskamp. He also had a double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds on Saturday.
- Freshman point guard Joe Toussaint. He scored a career-high 18 points Saturday and this morning was named the Big 10 Freshman of the Week. All but two of Toussaint's points came during the second half when Fredrick was unable to play.
- Ryan Kriener. Despite going down after knocking knees with a Nittany Lion player, he's fine. Ryan scored eight points off the bench Saturday.
- Connor McCaffery. After battling the flu over the weekend, he should be ready for Tuesday night's game.
- Bakari Evelyn and Cordell Pemsell are both healthy but neither one scored in Saturday's game. However, they did combine for eight rebounds.
One thing is for sure... whoever Fran puts on the floor Tuesday night will battle. That's definitely the earmark of this year's team which is a fun one to watch. Tuesday evening's game begins at 8:07 p.m. and will be televised by Big Ten Network. Nebraska is 6-8, while Iowa is 10-4.
[Iowa Sports Information]