Iowa Basketball: It's Time To Start Talking About Jordan Bohannon

Iowa has benefitted from the play of freshmen this season, but none more so than Jordan Bohannon

Jordan Bohannon, the state of Iowa’s Mr. Basketball last year as a high school senior, is already building a great legacy as a member of Iowa basketball. The freshman point guard’s averages of 9.0 points, 5.1 assists and 0.5 steals per game has seemingly cemented him as Iowa’s starting point guard for the next four seasons.

After starting the season on the bench, Bohannon found his shot once moved up to the starting lineup in favor of a struggling Christian Williams. Bohannon went from shooting 29.6 percent from three in six games coming off the bench to shooting 39.7 percent from deep in 12 games as a starter.

Maybe Bohannon didn’t earn his way into the starting role, rather Williams’ inability to effectively lead Iowa pushed him into the role, but, either way, Bohannon has not looked back.

Here’s a look at his per 40 minute averages as a reserve compared to as a starter:

Starter: 14.2 points, 7.2 assists, 3.4 rebounds, 38.9 FG%, 39.7 3P%
Reserve: 9.5 points, 7.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 24.3 FG%, 29.6 3P%

Bohannon averages 8.6 more minutes per game as a starter, therefore it’s expected that his production would increase. Although, this is telling of how much more efficient he is as a starter than coming off the bench.

Everything outside of his assists per 40 minutes went up as a starter. That said, he is coming off games of eight and nine assists against Rutgers and Purdue, respectively, when he attempted fewer than eight shots in back-to-back games for the first time as a starter.

Plus, it doesn’t factor in how much better Iowa’s offense runs with Bohannon at point. There is more flow, and Bohannon’s scoring forces teams to guard him and not have a floater on defense like they could have with Williams at point guard.

Understandably, Bohannon had a buffer period at the beginning of the season when he need to adjust to the speed of the game and regain confidence in his outside shot. After being one of the best high school shooters in the nation a season ago, starting 8-of-27 from three before having his first game of three-plus threes made is mentally tough to bounce back from as a freshman.

Even though Bohannon still has questionable shot selections at times, he’s regained his confidence and is one of Iowa’s most consistent outside shooters.

Iowa is only a little more than quarter of the way through conference play, therefore his shot selection will only get better. Luckily for Iowa, Bohannon hasn’t been to trigger happy like other freshmen.

For instance, Purdue’s freshman guard Carsen Edwards is shooting just 37.8 percent from the field and 30 percent from three this season. He still ranks second on Purdue with 10 shots per game, though, because he’s struggling with his shot selection and thinks most shots are good shots.

Sure, Bohannon forces threes at times, especially against Purdue when he and Dakota Mathias traded multiple threes before Bohannon missed badly on a deep forced three. Although, for the most part, Bohannon’s lack of aggressiveness is his problem.

In fact, Bohannon has only attempted double-digit shots three times this season and hasn’t been second in field-goal attempts on Iowa since he attempted nine in late December against North Dakota.

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Bohannon’s desire to pass and set up his teammates, which has landed him fifth in the Big Ten in assists per game, cost Iowa against Nebraska. With Iowa down three in double overtime, Bohannon had a clean look from three to try to tie the game but passed it to Brady Ellingson for a contested three instead.

To be fair, Ellingson has made 16-of-30 threes this season and Bohannon was 2-of-7 from three against Nebraska, but, with Peter Jok out, he’s Iowa’s best perimeter player and has to be more selfish in that situation. It would be different if he passed up a contested shot, however Bohannon had an open look.

Of course, it’s no gimme Bohannon would have made the shot or Iowa would have won even if he did. Although, it’s a learning experience, nonetheless, for a point guard who is gaining valuable experience in close games early in Big Ten play. So far in conference play, four of Iowa’s five games were decided by six or fewer points.

It will help Bohannon be calmer late in games and be as good of a playmaker as he is during the rest of the game. It seemingly helped against Purdue on Thursday night when Bohannon made two clutch free-throws to ice the game with 11 seconds left, to go along with his eight point, five assist second half.

When it comes down to it, there are a lot of very good young players on Iowa. Tyler Cook is arguably the best recruit Fran McCaffery has landed at Iowa, Cordell Pemsl shined during Cook’s finger injury and is now starting, the Big Ten named Isaiah Moss Freshman of the Week in December, and Nicholas Baer and Ahmad Wagner are sophomores shining off the bench.

Despite it all, Iowa would not be 11-7 with two wins over ranked teams without Bohannon. Besides the fact he averages 10 points, 6.5 assists, three rebounds and shot 4-of-9 from three in Iowa’s two wins over ranked teams, he is the leader of the offense.

Iowa Basketball: It’s Time To Start Talking About Jordan Bohannon

By Jeremy Karll | Jan 14, 2017

Iowa has benefitted from the play of freshmen this season, but none more so than Jordan Bohannon