Riley Mulvey Approach More Serious

Iowa Sophomore Center Focused on Big Step Forward in '22-23

Riley Mulvey wasn’t about to use his age as a reason why he struggled last season at Iowa.

Mulvey, a 6-foot-11 center, was listed as a freshman. He was playing for the Hawkeyes in what should have been his senior season in high school, since he reclassified to be in the 2021 recruiting class.

That’s not why he barely played last season. The reasons were a lot deeper.

“I’m not going to say anything about it,” Mulvey said of the decision to arrive early on campus. “I was a freshman. I should have been taking it more seriously. I should have treated it more like a job, and less like something I was doing for fun.”

It’s why Mulvey has dedicated himself in the offseason to a more mature approach to the game.

“I was a freshman,” Mulvey said this week. “Now I’m coming in as a sophomore who is much more experienced. I’m not a kid anymore, is how I would put it.”

Mulvey could have sat out last season as a freshman. Instead, he played just 80 minutes in 18 games.

Those few moments, though, were part of the education.

“I felt like the moments I was in, I needed them,” Mulvey said. “If I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t have had that moment of realization that I didn’t play because I didn’t work hard enough. It would have been, ‘I redshirted.’”

Mulvey didn’t face crucial minutes until a 3-minute workload in Iowa’s Big Ten Tournament championship game win over Purdue. It was a day when the Hawkeyes, playing their fourth game in four days and facing frontcourt foul trouble, needed everyone.

Two minutes into his appearance, Mulvey fouled Purdue’s Trevion Williams.

“I had the moment of, ‘OK, I’m not going to bring the team down. I’m going to stay in here and work out,’” he said. “After that play, I started playing better.”

The lesson has carried into the offseason. Mulvey said last season his work outside of practice wasn’t so much about getting better. Often he would go in and get shots up without working with an assistant coach.

“This year, I’m getting in more with the coaches,” Mulvey said. “I’m still getting in on my own. I’m definitely more serious about it. I thought I was being more serious about it. But after looking back on what I was doing, I wasn’t being serious about it.”

“He’s gotten a lot more physical,” said senior forward Filip Rebraca. “He’s using his body better. I want to see him keep shooting, keep being more aggressive on the offensive end.”

There are minutes to be had in the post, and Mulvey understands that.

“As long as I can prove myself, I can actually get into the lineup,” he said.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery looked in the offseason at trying to get an experienced post player in the NCAA’s transfer portal. Mulvey understood that.

“How I felt it was me, Josh (Ogundele) and Filip didn’t prove ourselves enough to be a strong ‘5’ man,” Mulvey said. “Now that we didn’t get one, we’re going to have to prove ourselves to take that spot. And if we can do that, it’s worth it.

“(Last season) wasn’t harder than I thought it would be. The only reason I didn’t make it into the lineup was because I wasn’t as committed as I thought. Now that I’m actually thinking about it, and putting myself out there now, I’m going to try to do my best.”