Iowa Basketball: Jarrod Uthoff's Crazy Journey

Iowa Men’s Basketball star, Jarrod Uthoff, has had a long and crazy journey through college. Seeing as he went over 1,000 points last night, I thought I’d take a look at it.

Uthoff’s journey was a long one and it starts 30 miles north of Iowa City.

Jarrod is a native of Cedar Rapids, IA. He attended Jefferson High School where he was named Mr. Basketball his senior year, which was 2010-11. I actually had the privilege of playing against and watching him play in high school. I graduated a year before he did, but we actually met on the court my senior year and his junior year. Back in 2009-10 my team (Clinton River Kings) took a double digit lead into the fourth quarter before he decided to take the game over.

I think he scored 18 points in the fourth quarter and they went on to beat us. However, that wasn’t the moment when I knew Uthoff would be a special talent. The year before we traveled to Jefferson and watched the sophomore game, which he was playing in. He had more points than our entire sophomore team. It was unreal.

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From there, he decided to attend the University of Wisconsin to play basketball for Bo Ryan. Iowa had missed on yet another talented kid from the area. Uthoff redshirted his freshman year, which would’ve been 2011-12. In the middle of the summer of 2012, Uthoff decided he wanted to transfer. Ryan gave him the option to transfer anywhere outside the Big Ten, but after a really long struggle, Uthoff finally got his wish and was able to transfer back to play for the Hawkeyes.

Due to the NCAA’s rules, Uthoff would then have to sit out the 2012-13 year. That left him with three more years of eligibility.

There was a lot of speculation as to how he would fit in when he was finally eligible for the 2013-14 season. Iowa went as many as 11 players deep that year, which is as deep of an Iowa team as I can remember. Uthoff averaged 7.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game that year.

With Zach McCabe, Melsahn Basabe, and Roy Devyn Marble all graduating, that meant Uthoff would be primed for a bigger role the following year.

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It figured to be the Aaron White show for most of the year, but he would need help. Uthoff jumped up to around 13 points and 6 rebounds per game being Robin to White’s Batman. Some questioned how the pair would co-exist, but they led Iowa to their second straight NCAA tournament appearance and their first win in the tournament since 2001 with their win over Davidson.

Well, with Aaron White now out of the picture, everyone looked at Uthoff. It was his team. Some questioned whether he had the leadership ability it took to take a team to the NCAA tournament. I’ll admit it, I was one of them.

So far this year, Uthoff is proving all of his doubters wrong. He’s averaging a league best 18.7 points per game to go along with 6.3 rebounds. He was named to the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 list and could be on his way to a potential Big Ten Player of the Year honor.

What started out in Cedar Rapids, IA, made it’s way to Madison, WI before making it’s way back home to Iowa City, IA where he scored his 1,000th point on Thursday night in a Hawkeye uniform.

While the journey has been long and crazy, it’s not over. Uthoff and company have their sights set on a regular season Big Ten title. They’ll be back in action on Sunday when they welcome the Purdue Boilermakers into Carver Hawkeye Arena to play in front of a sell out crowd. That includes standing room only.

Carver should be rocking.

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

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Iowa Basketball: Jarrod Uthoff’s Crazy Journey

By Dylan Burn | Jan 22, 2016

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