Iowa basketball: Making the case for Jordan Bohannon not to redshirt

Whether or not Jordan Bohannon redshirts is a hot topic in Iowa basketball news. Here is the case for him to play this season.

When it was announced that Jack Nunge would be missing the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, many were quick to say that this season is over and Jordan Bohannon should redshirt for the Iowa basketball team.

I get that point of view. The Iowa basketball team, in theory, would be losing just Ryan Kriener and Bakari Evelyn among key players so saving Bohannon for a year where the team is “stronger” could make sense from a tournament run perspective.

However, let’s be clear here. I don’t know what Bohannon is thinking, but if I had to guess, this decision will be based purely on health. Because if he is healthy, I think he has the confidence to believe he could carry this team to the NCAA Tournament, sort of like he did last year. He’s not going to look at the Nunge injury and think, “ah, better way until next year”.

Now again, this depends purely on his actual health.

But if he is healthy, here is the case from an Iowa basketball fan’s perspective of why he should return if that is a decision he is trying to make.

First and foremost, the Nunge injury is a big blow to the frontcourt depth of the Iowa basketball squad. It could result in smaller lineups being used more frequently and, in general, more minutes for Ryan Kriener and Cordell Pemsl. But let’s not act like Nunge would be the 1st, 2nd, or even 3rd option on this roster with Bohannon back.

My point is, it’s a blow, but there is still some talent on this team.

And that starts with Joe Wieskamp and Luka Garza. Coming into this season, Wieskamp was projected to be an All-Big Ten player and Garza had an incredibly positive camp suggesting that the junior big man was ready to be a more consistently dominant post player for the Hawks.

The Hawks also have managed to replace sharpshooter Isaiah Moss with another sharpshooter CJ Fredrick, who is shooting a ridiculous 60% from behind the arc. And the Hawks have some explosiveness at the point guard position that they haven’t historically had in freshman Joe Toussaint.

And let’s not forget that Ryan Kriener, despite coming off the bench, is a talented post player who is averaging 7.6 points per game on 76.5% shooting. He graduates after this season.

In addition to the talent, the notion of holding until next year is quite flawed. As we saw this past offseason, things can change in a hurry. The Hawks went from returning all five starters to returning just two (and three if Bohannon does ultimately return). Wieskamp flirted with the NBA Draft last year, and with a stellar season in year two, he could be gone. And while I think Garza will be a four-year player in Iowa City, there is always a chance that he could leave as well depending on how good his season is this year.

Plus, you don’t know how a guy like Nunge is going to recover from a torn ACL. While the surgery has improved immensely, there is still no guarantee he is going to be the player he was.

I know the loss to DePaul was not exactly the strong start Iowa basketball fans wanted especially after a tumultuous offseason, but I am not ready to throw in the towel yet, and I don’t believe Jordan Bohannon should redshirt simply because of this either.

With a healthy Bohannon, this team does have NCAA Tournament potential.