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Mike Gesell Honored By Big Ten Conference

By Dylan Burn

Jan 5, 2016; Iowa City, IA, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes guard Mike Gesell (10) goes to the basket as Nebraska Cornhuskers guard Glynn Watson Jr. (5) defends during the second half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa won 77-66. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 5, 2016; Iowa City, IA, USA; Iowa Hawkeyes guard Mike Gesell (10) goes to the basket as Nebraska Cornhuskers guard Glynn Watson Jr. (5) defends during the second half at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa won 77-66. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Iowa men’s basketball team has really started off strong this year and a lot of it can be credited to the play of Iowa’s point guard, Mike Gesell.  The senior earned Big Ten Player of the Week honors for his performance against Nebraska.

Mike Gesell recorded the first double double of his career when he lead the Iowa Hawkeyes over the Nebraska Cornhuskers last Tuesday in Iowa City.

Gesell scored 22 points and handed out 10 assists in the 77-66 win over the Huskers.  He did most of his damage in the second half when he scored 19 points and had 7 assists.  This is nice to see from Gesell, who has seemed to struggle late in games during his career.

Right now, Gesell is off to a way better start than I had predicted.  His points per game numbers are up, along with his assists per game, and his assist to turnover ratio.  It seems like Mike is finally starting to come into his own during the middle part of his senior season.

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The biggest question mark has got to be whether or not he’ll be able to sustain this success.  He’s been instrumental in guiding Iowa to a 3-0 start in conference play and with a scorer like Jarrod Uthoff, it’s easy to rack up those assists in a hurry.

These two give Iowa a duo that is not only experienced, but is also talented.  It’s hard to find senior leadership in college basketball now-a-days with the whole ‘one and done’ rule that is put into place, but Iowa is lucky enough to have four seniors in their starting lineup.

This could pay off come March.

Next: Football Recruiting: Taking A Look At Noah Fant

You can catch Gesell and the rest of the Hawkeyes this Thursday when they travel to East Lansing, MI for a rematch with the fourth rated Michigan State Spartans.  With the Spartans at full strength, this promises to be a good one.

Stay locked into Dear Old Gold for constant coverage of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

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