Dear Old Gold
Fansided

Iowa basketball: Two hawks stand out this weekend in Summer League

By Andrew Wade

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MARCH 10: Jarrod Uthoff #20 of the Iowa Hawkeyes drives against Malcolm Hill #21 of the Illinois Fighting Illini in the second round of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 10, 2016 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Illinois defeated Iowa 68-66. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - MARCH 10: Jarrod Uthoff #20 of the Iowa Hawkeyes drives against Malcolm Hill #21 of the Illinois Fighting Illini in the second round of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on March 10, 2016 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Illinois defeated Iowa 68-66. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Iowa basketball team summer league participants had a rebound performance this weekend after a tough start on day one.

The first day of the Las Vegas Summer League didn’t quite go as expected for three former Iowa basketball players.

Jarrod Uthoff didn’t have a great day shooting. Tyler Cook’s game was canceled due to an earthquake, and Peter Jok never made it off the bench.

Things changed though during Saturday and Sunday’s games.

Uthoff, playing on Saturday when the Detroit Pistons took on the Portland Trail Blazers, played 19 minutes and shot a much-better 4 of 7 from the field while hitting 2 of 4 from downtown. He also added 5 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals in his second start of the summer league.

Cook, meanwhile, finally got to play in a game when the Denver Nuggets squared off against Peter Jok’s Orlando Magic team Sunday, and he had a good performance.

In just 11 minutes of action, Cook was 2 of 2 from the field and he recorded 2 rebounds and 1 block. His plus/minus wasn’t very good though as he recorded a team-worst -9 plus/minus.

He did have two highlight reel type of plays which will get teams talking.

This first one is a putback slam dunk by Cook.

https://twitter.com/nuggets/status/1147995711352406016

While this second is great rim protection by Cook, something we didn’t see as much with the Iowa basketball team.

With this game, I was most looking forward to seeing Cook and Peter Jok actually play against each other, but for the second straight game, Jok saw zero minutes of action for the Orlando Magic who are now 1-1.

What doesn’t make sense is the Las Vegas Summer League is supposed to be about distributing the opportunities to a large number of players and letting them show what they can do against NBA talent in front of scouts and coaches. The Magic, however, are riding their starters pretty hard with two guys playing over 30 minutes and another two playing 25 or more minutes.

Next. Five recruiting busts in Kirk Ferentz era. dark

Hopefully, that changes Tuesday, July 9th when the Magic are back in action against the Miami Heat. Cook’s Nuggets will also be playing Tuesday against the Boston Celtics and Uthoff’s Pistons are set to play today against the Indiana Pacers.