Iowa basketball: Joe Wieskamp shines as Hawks beats UMKC

It was a little closer than expected, but the Iowa basketball team won their season opener, and freshman Joe Wieskamp was a bright star in his first game.

The Iowa basketball team got off to a good start by winning their first regular season game against the University of Missouri – Kansas City Kangaroos 77-63 last night in Carver Hawkeye Arena. Although nobody is going to be giving the Hawkeyes style points for the win considering the Kangaroos were one of the worst teams in the nation last year and Fran McCaffrey’s team was unable to really pull away until halfway through the second half. There were a few bright spots on this relatively ho-hum game, and most of them belonged to freshman Joe Wieskmap who showed that he is going to be a force to reckon with in the Big Ten.

Not that this is anything out of the blue as Fran McCaffrey spoke glowingly of the Muscatine, Iowa native at Wednesday’s media conference.

"Joe is incredibly mature, incredibly focused, organized. And so that really helps a seamless transition from high school to college, when you’re taking that approach. We put something new in, he’s got it figured out. We’re playing Missouri, okay, I know what I have to do. We’re playing — he’ll study the scouting report."

Against the Kangaroos, Wieskamp got off to a hot start hitting four of his first five three pointers and accounting for 12 points in the first half as the Hawkeyes built an eight-point lead. The Iowa basketball team, however, seemed to be pressing as they were more willing to pop a three-pointer than to put it down low to their star forward Tyler Cook. In the first half, the men’s basketball team doubled their number of two-point attempts with three-pointers.

Not exactly a winning combination, especially when, outside of Wieskamp, the shots weren’t falling.

Coming  into the second half, the Kangaroos did a great job of setting the tempo and not letting Iowa get into a rhythm right away to build on their lead. It was only a matter of time though before Iowa’s length, deep bench, and superior talent would seal the deal against the overmatched UMKC.

Although the win wasn’t exactly pretty, and it certainly wasn’t as big as it should have/could have been, the Hawkeyes had the most important statistic of the night and that was a win. Four players were double digits in scoring (Wieskamp -15, Jordan Bohannon – 12, Tyler Cook – 12, and Maishe Dailey – 11). Two players pulled in eight boards (Cook and Ryan Kriener) and Cook paced the veteran Hawks squad with 29 minutes. Right behind Cook was none other than freshman, Joe Wieskamp followed by team captain Jordan Bohannon.

The shining star though, again, was Wieskamp who finished with 15 points on 5-10 shooting from the field (including his tip-in dunk) and added four rebounds.

Last night’s game was the first in the 2K Empire Class Tournament, and Sunday the Iowa basketball team gets another warm up game against the University of Green Bay. I don’t know about you, but I am excited to see what Wieskamp can do for an encore performance.