Iowa Basketball: Nick Baer to Miss 3-4 Weeks with Finger Injury

The Iowa men’s basketball team suffered another preseason setback, as junior forward Nick Baer broke his pinky at practice over the weekend. The reigning Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year figures to play an even bigger role this upcoming season, his absence from the lineup is no small detail.

The 6-7 forward took on a primary perimeter role last year after playing most of his freshman minutes in the post, and he responded in a big way. Baer averaged 7.5 points and 5.8 rebounds in 23.8 minutes per game last year, shooting a smidge under 45% from the floor and 40% from 3-point range. He also won coach Fran McCaffery’s annual ‘Best Defensive Player’ award while leading the team in both blocks and steals.

While Baer doesn’t necessarily do any one thing great (although one could argue he’s a top tier defender, something I wouldn’t necessarily dispute) he brings value to every aspect of the game. As the numbers above show us, he’s a capable shooter, an aggressive rebounder and a trustworthy decision maker who turned the ball over more than twice just once last season.

Coach Fran McCaffery mentioned he was considering keeping Baer on the bench in his post game presser from Iowa’s final exhibition game. “I like him off the bench. He hadn’t been feeling well. Ahmad’s (Wagner) energy level at the start of the game is good and that worked for him last year, that combination. I might keep doing that, we’ll see.”

While Baer might start games on the bench, there is little doubt he will average 20+ minutes and finish the majority of games in the frontcourt alongside Tyler Cook and Luka Garza when healthy.

But if this injury does keep him out for a month, he could miss up to 10 games. Including the entire Cayman Islands Classic as well as contests against Virginia Tech, Indiana and Iowa State. Baer’s injury, coupled by Christian Williams’ last minute transfer decision, has depleted the Hawkeyes depth on the perimeter.

We’ve already taken a deep look into the options to replace Williams’ wing minutes, now it’s twice as important for an unheralded player or two to step up. It looks like coach McCaferry will turn to junior big man Ahmad Wagner first, complimenting Wagner for his improved perimeter game.

“He is scoring, shooting, and driving the ball better.  He has always been a good guy off the dribble, making plays for others” McCaffery said Thursday. “We’ll need that. If you want to play the three spot, you have to do that more than you are as a driving four.”

Wagner started the exhibition against Belmont Abbey over Baer last week, so moving Wagner to the wing doesn’t appear to be a last minute, desperation move, which is encouraging. He averaged 16 minutes as the primary starting 4 last season, but McCaffery might need to rely on him shouldering a heavier workload until Baer returns.