Garza's Return Leads To High Expectations For Iowa
Iowa didn't move in too many way-too-early preseason men's basketball rankings after Luka Garza's announcement on Sunday that he would withdraw his name from the NBA Draft process and return for his senior season.
Garza, a consensus first-team All-American last season, was expected to return.
That meant the Hawkeyes kept their high expectations for next season.
Jeff Goodman of WatchStadium.com had the Hawkeyes at No. 4 nationally in his preseason rankings.
Rob Dauster of NBCSports.com had the Hawkeyes at No. 8.
Garza was the national player of the year by six outlets after last season, and he was the Big Ten's player of the year.
His return means the Hawkeyes have all five starters returning from last season's team that went 20-11 overall, 11-9 in the Big Ten. With those five starters — Garza, Connor McCaffery, Joe Wieskamp, CJ Fredrick and Joe Toussaint — plus the return of fifth-year senior guard Jordan Bohannon, Iowa will have more than 10,000 minutes of playing time coming back.
"It would be one of the best teams I've ever played for," Garza said during his Sunday video conference announcing his decision.
"I think any time you have a veteran club, you know what they're capable of, in terms of winning on the road, the ability to win close games" Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. "This group has consistently shown their ability of sharing the basketball, how to move the basketball. I thought we were much better defensively last year — I think we'll be better again.
"We have a team of competitors that are fearless."
"It brings a whole different dimension to our team," Fredrick said of Garza's return. "He was the most dominant player in college basketball last year. Obviously, when you bring that back, we're going to be really excited about that."
Connor McCaffery knows the Hawkeyes understand the expectations.
"We've talked about that," said McCaffery, a fourth-year junior guard. "I think with our team, we're all extremely motivated and mentally tough. We agree that nothing is going to be given to us just because of our preseason ranking. This is all going to be for our hard work this upcoming season. We are all extremely hungry. We have been."
