Iowa Basketball: Garza, Wieskamp named to 2021 John R. Wooden watch list

Two Iowa Basketball players received early recognition from one of the most prestigious college basketball awards out there.

It’s already been a hot start for Iowa Basketball (2-0) this season, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that senior Luka Garza and junior Joe Wieskamp were named to the 2021 John R. Wooden award top 50 watch list.

Garza is the headliner of the list, being placed at No. 1 overall. Garza was named National Player of the Year by several media outlets last season and was a pre-season All-American this season.

Garza was also named the Big Ten Player of the Week after his performances in Iowa’s first two games. He scored 36 points in the first half alone against Southern University.

It is early, but Garza is already averaging 33.5 points through two contests. Garza has 18 straight games with 20 points or more and needs two more games with 20 or more points to take over the Big Ten record. Simply put, he’s the best player in the country at the moment.

Meanwhile, Wieskamp is second on the Hawkeyes in scoring, averaging 12.5 points per game. We saw in the first two games that Joe is really attacking the rim instead of settling for an outside look. Look for Wisekamp to eventually start putting up bigger numbers this season. The sky is the limit.

The John R. Wooden award will be narrowed down to 15 players prior to the NCAA basketball tournament. The winner of the award will be announced in April following the tournament.

It would be awesome to have two Hawkeyes in the last 15, and hopefully one of the two receives this great award.

Iowa Basketball, ranked No. 3 in the AP poll, plays their third game of the season this Thursday versus Western Illinois at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 pm CT on the Big Ten Network.