Decision Time Is Closing In For Iowa's Bohannon
Jordan Bohannon’s mindset hasn’t changed— his decision to either keep playing for the rest of the season or take a medical redshirt season is a “day-to-day” process.
But the Iowa senior guard knows those days are running out.
Bohannon played almost 25 minutes in the Hawkeyes’ 72-52 win over Minnesota at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Monday. He didn’t score, but had 10 assists and no turnovers.
He said he planned on playing in Thursday’s game at Iowa State. When Bohannon does that, it will be his 10th game of the season, the limit he can play to be eligible to get a medical redshirt season for next year.
“I’m trying not to make it as much of a drama or dilemma as a lot of people are trying to around here,” Bohannon said. “I’ve always been someone to care more about the team than myself. My mindset coming in was if I’m going to play 10 games, I’m going to try to win every game we’ve got.”
Bohannon had hip surgery in May, and said then he would not play a full season unless he was at his best physically.
He repeated that on Monday.
“Like I said before I had my surgery in May — I want to get my body right and be happy for once,” Bohannon said. “The decision’s coming up, you’re right. But I’m still taking it day by day.”
Bohannon was 0-for-4 shooting in Monday’s game, including 0-for-2 in 3-pointers. He has made just 3-of-15 shots in Iowa's last two games.
But Bohannon was creating shots for others, including sophomore Joe Wieskamp, who scored a season-high 23 points.
“Kind of a priority for me was to get Wieskamp going to start the game, because I knew he struggled a bit in the last game,” Bohannon said of Wieskamp, who had just seven points in Friday’s 103-91 loss at Michigan. “I’ve said it since I got here — it’s the point guard’s job to get those guys going.”
"He's just so good at getting other guys open shots," Wieskamp said.
It was the seventh game of 10 or more assists in Bohannon’s career. He became the sixth Hawkeye to have 1,000 points and 500 assists in his career.
“Ten assists, 0 turnovers,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said of Bohannon’s play. “I thought his defense was good too. I thought he really competed. I thought he really understood what we wanted to get on offense, whether we were going to get something in transition, whether we were in motion, whether we were running a set, where are we going with the ball, if the set breaks down what have we got. And, yeah, he was moving pretty good tonight.”
Bohannon missed the Nov. 24 game against Cal Poly, which gave him a chance to play in the game against Iowa State. That was part of the reason why he sat out, Bohannon said, but he also knew, with the Hawkeyes playing back-to-back games in the Las Vegas Invitational the following week, he wanted to get some rest.
“I knew this was going to be a tough stretch. My body was pretty banged up at that point,” Bohannon said.
Asked how he was feeling now, Bohannon grinned.
“Just fine,” he said. “Just fine.”
But he admitted his return from surgery hasn’t been easy.
“It’s been tough,” Bohannon said. “It’s nothing I haven’t encountered since I got here.”
Bohannon said playing against the Cyclones is important because of the rivalry.
“It’s a game we circled since we lost there two years ago, in my sophomore year,” Bohannon said. “As a Hawkeye fan growing up, you would die to play in these games. That’s kind of where my mentality is at.”
The time for a decision is getting closer.
“Every single game doesn’t care about your past, doesn’t care about your future,” Bohannon said. “It’s all about the present.”
