Iowa basketball: Joe Wieskamp earns preseason B1G award

The season hasn’t even begun and Iowa basketball player Joe Wieskamp is getting well-deserved recognition for his potential this season.

After a marvelous freshman season for the Iowa basketball team, big things are expected in year two for Muscatine, Iowa product Joe Wieskamp.

That’s what happens when you come off one of the best freshman seasons in Iowa basketball history and your previous years’ NCAA-qualifying team is depleted by injuries, transfers, and graduation.

At this point, Wieskamp is just one of two returning starters for the Iowa basketball team along with Luka Garza. While point guard Jordan Bohannon has a chance to be the third returning starter, we still don’t know much about the status of his injury.

So while big things are expected (and quite frankly, needed) from Wieskamp in year two, it sounds like the masses also agree that Wieskamp is going to be taking a giant leap.

Last season, Wieskamp earned Big Ten All-Freshman team honors, and this year, he has been officially named to the Preseason All-Big Ten team.

Wieskamp joins a select group as one of just three sophomores making this team along with Illinois’ Ayo Dosunmu and Maryland’s Jalen Smith.

The bar has now been set for the sophomore wing.

Last season he averaged 11.1 points on 56% shooting from the field while pulling in 4.9 rebounds and dishing out just over an assist per game as the 3rd/4th option on the Iowa basketball team.

This year though, if Fran McCaffery wants to take his squad to their second straight NCAA Tournament, they will need Wieskamp to step up the production as he becomes the face of the team in his second year in Iowa City.

Based on how he handled the pressure last year as a freshman going through the rigorous Big Ten schedule, I have no doubt he is capable of this.