With Garza's Decision Ahead, McCaffery Plans For All Options
There were times when Fran McCaffery talked during his Thursday video conference with the media that he sounded like he thought Luka Garza will return for his senior season.
But McCaffery, Iowa's men's basketball coach, knows he has to plan for any option since Garza, a consensus first-team All-American, has entered his name in the NBA Draft process.
Garza, a 6-foot-11 center, said he plans on retaining his eligibility for his senior season, but would leave if he found the right opportunity. He has until June 3 to make his decision on whether to return.
"I guess we’ll find out in the next couple of weeks what he ultimately decides," McCaffery said. "I think what we would do is prepare as if he’s coming back, with an eye on the fact that he might not come back."
Garza averaged 23 points per game overall last season, 26.2 points in Big Ten play. He was the conference's player of the year, and was named the national player of the year by six organizations — Sporting News, Basketball Times, ESPN, FOX, Stadium, and Bleacher Report.
Garza scored 20 points or more in 16 consecutive Big Ten games to close the season, the longest streak in the conference since 1987.
"I would argue," McCaffery said, "that nobody had a better year than he did."
McCaffery said he put together the current roster with an eye on the possibility of Garza leaving — he added 6-foot-11 prep center Josh Ogundele in the 2020 recruiting class, and 6-11 forward Jack Nunge, who came in with Garza in the same recruiting class, redshirted in the 2018-19 season to get stronger after playing as a freshman.
"The thought process has gone into how we put our team together if Luka’s not back," McCaffery said. "Obviously, whenever you get a guy like Luka, you hope you get to coach him for four years, you’d love to coach him for 40 years. That’s how great he is to be around. We all saw what he did, and we all know what he’s capable of doing next year, which is kind of scary to think about.
"Right now, I’m trying to give him the space he needs to make the decision he needs to make, and we’ll plan on him coming back. And if he doesn’t, we feel good about the rest of the roster to try to figure out how we can play without him, which is obviously going to be a huge hole when you take a guy out who’s averaging 26 a game."
Garza returned to his home in the Washington, D.C., area after the remainder of the season was canceled because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. He is back in Iowa City, and his self-quarantine after his return is over.
McCaffery said Garza and his father, Frank, have received feedback from the NBA office. But because of the pandemic, this season's process for players who have declared for the draft will be different.
Iowa guard Joe Wieskamp, who went through the draft process last season after his freshman year, announced on Saturday he would not go through it this season.
"Everybody’s affected," McCaffery said. "It’s not the optimum situation for somebody who put their name in. When you do that, you’re looking for an opportunity. First of all, you’re looking for feedback, but you’re looking for an opportunity. So not only will there not be any Combine, or team workouts, or (in-person) interviews, there was no Big Ten tournament or NCAA tournament. Those are opportunities missed by Joe and Luka.
"I think both felt confident if, given those opportunities, they would have performed well. And I agree, they would have," McCaffery said. "The thing about Luka that makes him special is when you watch him play against other players, that’s when he lines up against somebody and outplays the guy across from him. He’s going to benefit more from those opportunities. Since he doesn’t have those, that’s unfortunate."
