Iowa basketball: Patrick McCaffery on track for big minutes in 2019

Iowa basketball recruit and Fran’s 2nd son Patrick McCaffery is one of the highest recruits in program history, and he will be getting big minutes in 2019.

It’s weird to think a top-100 recruit in the nation may redshirt in his first season with an Iowa basketball program that could use some reinforcements after losing 2 (and possibly 3) starters from their 2018-2019 team, but that was the case not too long ago.

When Tyler Cook left for the NBA, we wrote a piece about possible replacements but noted that Fran McCaffery made it clear his second son Patrick McCaffery needed to gain weight.

With just 175 pounds on his 6’8” frame, his father didn’t think it would be sustainable to play in the tough Big Ten like that, which is unfortunate because the Iowa basketball squad needs all the help it can get.

Fortunately, things are trending upwards for the freshman forward.

Rob Howe of Hawkeye Nation posed the question to Fran, asking what the plan was for Patrick heading into the season.

"Right now would be to play him. If we get closer to the season, and we feel like it’s going to benefit him to redshirt. We will see where he is weight-wise, he’s getting a lot stronger, he’s been lifting, His game is at a really good place. He might be a valuable piece."

I cannot understate how big this is.

Patrick McCaffery is not your typical forward. He has the ability to run the point and defense 4 of the 5 positions on the court, and he has been tirelessly working on improving his three-point shot as well.

He also would provide Fran significant flexibility with lineup combinations to counter-attack certain teams lineups. Iowa can go big with Patrick at the 1 or 2 if it makes sense or they can go small with Patrick at the 4. Either way, it is one more lineup combination that opposing teams will need to account for.

One more thing to add, if McCaffery doesn’t redshirt, he’s going to see quite a bit of playing time. For a team with as much frontcourt depth as the Hawks, you don’t burn the redshirt opportunity to put a guy on the court for five minutes a game.

An asset like that could be huge for the Iowa basketball team as they attempt to make another NCAA Tournament appearance.