Iowa Basketball: Peter Jok Injury Has Been Blessing In Disguise

Iowa basketball had two of their best offensive showings of the season with Peter Jok on the bench against Ohio State and Rutgers.

No, Iowa basketball isn’t better without Peter Jok. Although Jok’s back injury that kept him out of Iowa’s last two wins helped revamp Iowa’s offense.

The Hawkeyes scored 85 and 83 points against Ohio State and Rutgers, respectively, in their past two games to earn their first road win of the year and get back to .500 in conference play. Despite being without their leading scorer, Iowa snapped a three-game skid in which they failed to reach 80 points — 0-3 and averaged 64.7 points per game during that stretch.

Jok’s absence had the same impact on Iowa as Tyler Cook going down with a finger injury earlier in the year did. The Hawkeyes had to improvise on the fly and it led to players stepping up, being more aggressive and moving the ball. Iowa went away from playing a one or two-man game and started playing team basketball.

Even with Jordan Bohannon ranking fifth in the conference at 4.7 assists per game, Iowa’s offense became passing it to Jok and seeing if he could score in one-on-one situations. Iowa got into a routine of relying on Jok to create offense for them.

As a result, the rest of Iowa would stand there watching, which made it easier to guard Jok and gave him no option to pass when he was double-teamed or didn’t have an open shot.

While relying on Jok, who averages 21.0 points per game this season, worked when he scored 27-plus points in seven games this season, it has also led to Jok shooting 33.3 percent or worse in eight games.

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Plus, Jok became a liability with his back injury. Fran McCaffery didn’t lighten his load, rather continued having Iowa rely on his outside shot, which didn’t even come close on multiple tries against Illinois. It led to Jok shooting just 30 percent from the field and a brutal 17.6 percent from three in his last three games.

With Jok out, Iowa’s ball movement has been the best of the season. They recorded 20-plus assists in back-to-back games for the first time this season. Plus, they’ve had numerous bench players step up with big scoring games.

Brady Ellingson scored 17 points and Ryan Kriener added 14 points against Ohio State, while Cordell Pemsl scored 15 points against Rutgers.

The Hawkeyes offense went away from as many isolations, including Jordan Bohannon isolations. Iowa attempts the fourth most threes in the conference due to Jok and Bohannon attempting 7.6 and 5.9 per game, respectively.

Over the past two games, Bohannon let the game come to him and didn’t force as many deep threes, which in part can be credited towards Iowa’s ball movement that created better looks. The Hawkeyes have only attempted 20.5 threes per game in the past two games compared to 23.5 per game with Jok.

It led to Iowa’s offense thriving and looking as good as it has this season. Their young supporting cast is getting a taste of what leading the team will be like in the future without Jok, too. Although, Iowa needs Peter Jok back to make a run at a top-four seed in the Big Ten to gain a two round bye in the Big Ten Tournament.

As good as they have looked, the Hawkeyes still need their star in crunch time. Jordan Bohannon looked great against Rutgers, but it’s no secret that he’s a streaky shooter at 36.8 percent from three. Also, Tyler Cook and Cordell Pemsl’s scoring is confined to inside the paint.

Jok has been Iowa’s only reliable scorer every game who can also create their own shot and score in multiple ways. Besides, Iowa won by a combined 33 points in their past two games, so their young Jok-less starting lineup didn’t have to make plays down the stretch in a close game without their leader.

Iowa might not need Jok against 10-12 Nebraska on Sunday, though, especially since they have away games at Minnesota and Michigan State next. It’d be better to make sure Jok’s back is as close to 100 percent as possible so he doesn’t have to miss more time down the stretch.