Hawkeyes Begin Life Without Bohannon
The rest of the season without Jordan Bohannon begins Saturday night for Iowa, when the Hawkeyes play Cincinnati.
It’s not a surprise — the Hawkeyes worked all summer without the senior guard as he recovered from hip surgery in May, and they knew as they were around Bohannon all the time at the start of this season that this was going to happen as he battled with the pain in both hips.
Bohannon had surgery on his left hip on Thursday — the surgery in May was on the right hip — and recovery time is anywhere from 6-9 months.
So, the rest of this season for the Hawkeyes will be a different lineup, a different look.
“People have just got to step up and adjust to playing without him,” said junior center Luka Garza. “It’s going to be tough, at first. But we’ve got guys who are ready.”
“When he’s on the floor, he brings kind of a comfort level because everyone knows he’s a natural leader out there,” sophomore guard Joe Wieskamp said. “We kind of have to lean on each other out there. It may take a little bit of time at first. But as the season goes on, we’ll get better at it.”
The Hawkeyes (8-3) didn’t have Bohannon at his full strength all season. He said after Thursday’s 84-68 win at Iowa State that he had been fighting the pain.
So, his decision to skip the rest of the season, have the surgery, and apply to the NCAA for a medical redshirt season wasn’t a surprise.
“We kind of suspected it, I think,” guard Connor McCaffery said. “We knew kind of what he was dealing with, what he was going through, the pain he was in. I don’t think it surprised people a ton.”
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery spent part of the morning at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, where Bohannon had the surgery.
“The surgery went well, and that’s the important thing,” McCaffery said.
Bohannon played in 10 games this season — the maximum he could play to be eligible for a medical redshirt season — averaging 8.8 points and 3.3 assists. He started the last six after skipping the Cal Poly game on Nov. 24 because of “hip soreness.”
“I think he did what he wanted to do,” Fran McCaffery said. “The other surgery went well, and it felt good. This was obviously discomforting to him. The question was would (the latest surgery) be done now, or later. He clearly made the right decision to do it now.
“The important thing was to manage him properly. In the beginning, it was we’re going to bring him along slowly, see how he felt, see what he wanted to be accomplished. Once it became evident that he could be effective, we moved him back into the starting lineup. He was very comfortable in that role and wanted to play.”
Bohannon was averaging 25 minutes per game. Those minutes, McCaffery said, could be divided a number of ways.
It will mean more time for freshman Joe Toussaint and graduate transfer Bakari Evelyn in the backcourt. It could mean more time for senior forward Ryan Kriener, junior forward Cordell Pemsl and junior forward Riley Till in the frontcourt.
Iowa’s fifth starter for Saturday’s game at the United Center is listed as TBD. McCaffery said the choices would be either Toussaint or Kriener, but both figure to see more playing time, no matter the choice at starter.
“My mindset stays the same — be aggressive, get a win for Coach,” Toussaint said. “That’s my main goal, it’s to get a win for Coach.”
“I think it creates kind of a different dynamic,” Connor McCaffery said. “Jordan brings a whole other aspect of spacing and shooting. But I think there’s advantages to having different lineups out there.”
Bohannon has built a reputation of making big late-game shots.
“Clearly, he’s established that role — he was remarkable in a lot of games last season,” guard CJ Fredrick said. “It’s something I’m willing to take on for the team.”
“It’s going to have to be a lot of different players at different times,” Fran McCaffery said. “Somebody’s going to have to step in. But it’s going to be different.”
