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Iowa basketball coach Fran McCaffery believes that a solid foundation was laid for his program during the 2010-11 season and during an appearance on the Big Ten Network’s “Big Ten Basketball and Beyond” on Monday, McCaffery said that the Hawkeyes are prepared to climb above the 10th-place finish Iowa had this season in 2011-12.
“A guy we will miss is Jarryd Cole. He had a fabulous senior year,” McCaffery said. “The thing that really upsets me is that he was playing his best basketball at the end. The way he played against Purdue was phenomenal.
“Matt Gatens shooting the basketball, Devyn Marble really came around, Eric May had some phenomenal games, Andrew Brommer, I think, has a chance to have a fabulous senior year.
“We add Josh Oglesby to the mix, a great shooter, and Aaron White an athletic front-court player. We still have a couple of scholarships. I really like our chances next year.”
McCaffery praised the progress made by the two players the current Iowa staff recruited and signed last spring, freshman Melsahn Basabe and junior Bryce Cartwright.
He said their work, along with the improvements made by players already in the program, have positioned Iowa well for the future.
“I think the thing that really made me happy as a coach is that we got better,” McCaffery said. “We started the season a little slow out of the gate. Gatens wasn’t healthy. We had a big win against Alabama at the Paradise Jam but didn’t really get any traction from it. We had some tough, close losses.
“It gave us the feeling that we could play with Ohio State, we could play with Illinois. We struggled a bit on the road early but as we came into the last part of the Big Ten schedule, our guys really competed. We had some big wins. We had some tough overtime losses, but I think we grew as a team. Our confidence level improved greatly I think.”

Basketball recruit Gabe Olaseni has scheduled an official visit to the Iowa campus this weekend.
The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Olaseni teamed with another Iowa recruit, 6-9 Eric Katenda, on a 24-4 team at the Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kan., which won the National Association of Christian Academies Division IA national title this season.
Olaseni has scholarship offers from Auburn, Mississippi and Xavier in addition to Iowa, which is getting his first official visit. Assistant coach Andrew Francis has been the Hawkeyes’ primary recruiter for Olaseni and Katenda.
Francis and Iowa coach Fran McCaffery have been watching Katenda for more than a year and have spent significant time recruiting Olaseni in recent months as Iowa looks to strengthen a front line which loses Jarryd Cole next season.
The Hawkeyes still have two scholarships remaining for the spring signing period after signing two players in November.
One of those two November signees, 6-8 Aaron White of Strongsville, Ohio, has been named by the Associated Press to its all-state team.
White averaged 23.1 points per game this season and was honored as a third-team pick on the Division I-II all-state team chosen by the AP.
In Ohio, this year’s AP all-state team numbers five players on the first team, 10 on the second and eight on the third team.
Iowa’s other November signee, 6-6 Josh Oglesby of Cedar Rapids Washington, earned Class 4A first-team all-state recognition from the Iowa Newspaper Association earlier this month.
Oglesby averaged 21.4 points and shot 41.3 percent from 3-point range and 79.4 percent from the line while averaging 6.3 rebounds per game for the Warriors.

Bracketology and upset specials don’t entirely define the madness of March.
This is also a time of year when coaches continue to keep one eye on the future and with no postseason games to prepare for, Iowa staff members have a launched a full-court attack in recruiting this week.
This may be spring break week at Iowa, but two members of the Hawkeye staff will be out looking at high school, junior college and prep school talent across the country as Iowa works to fill two available scholarships this spring and what now numbers three available scholarships for its 2012 recruiting class.
Cezar Guerrero, a gifted point guard from the Los Angeles area who ranks among the top-60 players nationally on virtually every scouting list, will not be filling one of the two available 2011 scholarships.
Guerrero has verbally commited to Oklahoma State, taking the Cowboys offer over scholarship offers from Iowa, Oklahoma and Western Kentucky.
Iowa invested plenty in Guerrero. McCaffery was the only head coach present when he played his final prep game last month and the guard came away from Iowa City with a favorable impression after attending the Iowa-Purdue game earlier this month.
The Guerrero decision leaves the Hawkeyes still in the market for a point guard. Iowa has been involved for some time with Eli Carter, a 6-foot-2 New Jersey native who has spent the past season at the Brewster Academy in New Hampshire.
The Hawkeyes are also weighing junior-college backcourt possibilties as well and with the national junior college tourney running this week in Kansas, expect Iowa coaches to be among those in attendance.
Coach Fran McCaffery has said he will sign the best two players available this spring, but his wish list includes at least one player with size as Iowa looks to replace its lone senior starter, center Jarryd Cole.
Iowa’s 2012 class picked up a commitment from Georgia prep Kyle Meyer on Monday.
The 6-9 forward has the versatility that McCaffery likes in his big men, a combination of an inside and outside game and good mobility.
Meyer expects to add 15-20 pounds to his 220-pound frame before arriving at Iowa in 2012 and understands that improvements in strength and lateral quickness will only benefit him.
He’s known as a solid shooter from 15-17 feet, more than enough range to drag defenders out of the lane and create space for others to drive.

Before leaving Conseco Fieldhouse tonight, Iowa basketball players were already thinking about next season, talking about a return trip to Indianapolis and a chance to move beyond the first game in what will be a 12-team tourney one year from now.
“It’s different from last year,” forward Eric May said. “Everything’s different. A year ago right now, we were sitting here, people were thinking all sorts of things. Now, we’re a team and we’re looking forward to continuing to improve together.”
Finding ways to finish off opponents will top that list.
Coach Fran McCaffery talked about it shortly after his first season on the Hawkeye bench ended with a 66-61 loss to Michigan State in the opening round of the 2011 Big Ten tourney.
“When you go back to the early part of the season, we weren’t pushing the ball. We weren’t as aggressive offensively and our defense was just OK,” McCaffery said.
“As the season went on, our defense improved, our rebounding improved, our offense picked up the tempo and individual players got better.”
That led Iowa to a handful of wins and an armload of disappointment.
“We’re in a position where we’re winning some games, we’re right in games against really good teams, so the next step has to be getting over the hump to win those games on a regular basis,” McCaffery said.
“We had a number of chances today, Wisconsin, Michigan, at Northwestern, to win those kind of games, and all of a sudden you win those games and you say this is a heck of a record, everything is different.”
That work continues on the recruiting trail in the short term.
Assistant Andrew Francis joined the Hawkeyes in Indianapolis on Thursday, returning from an East Coast recruiting trip.
Iowa is aggressively looking to fill its two remaining scholarships for 2011 and the four it will have available for its 2012 recruiting class.
That’s one of the reasons senior Jarryd Cole is convinced McCaffery will succeed.
“There’s no doubt in my mind they can get it done,” Cole said. “McCaffery has a great style of basketball, and these guys want to do that. I think that’s the key.”

The fact that two first-year Hawkeyes were the only Iowa basketball players to receive any postseason mention on the all-Big Ten teams speaks to the powerful first impression made by freshman Melsahn Basabe and junior guard Bryce Cartwright.
Both earned honorable mention recognition and Basabe was selected to the league’s all-freshman team announced Monday night.
Today, first-year Iowa coach Fran McCaffery talked about how those players provide a template of sorts as Iowa recruits future talent.
“I’m happy for both of those guys,” McCaffery said. “I’d like to think that all of the guys we are bringing in have that type of potential.”
McCaffery said Basabe is “just scratching the surface of how good he can become.”
The 6-foot-7 forward averages 11.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game and has started in each of Iowa’s 30 games this season.
He is the first Hawkeye — regardless of class — to score 325 points, grab 200 rebounds and block 40 shots in a season since Ryan Bowen accomplished that as a senior in 1998.
Thrust into the starting role when Cully Payne was injured in late November, Cartwright led the Big Ten in assists in conference. That’s something no Iowa player has done since Dean Oliver in 2001.
“I’m so happy for Bryce,” McCaffery said. “He knew in his heart that he could play at this level. That’s why he was still out there in June when we were looking and to lead the league in assists shows how hard he worked on his game this year.”
In addition to talking about preparations for his team for Thursday’s Big Ten tourney opener with Michigan State, McCaffery talked recruiting and how last weekend’s win over Purdue will help his team’s confidence moving forward.
He said Iowa continues to pursue the two best players it can find on the recruiting trail, searching for players with skills which will complement the traits of players already on the Hawkeye roster.
“We’re looking for the best players available,” he said. “If we had a 6-3 guy and a 6-5 guy who were better than a 6-9 guy we were recruiting, I’d take the two better players.”

When trainers were summoned to the court with 18 minutes, 21 seconds left in Saturday’s game against sixth-ranked Purdue, things didn’t look good for Iowa.
Point guard Bryce Cartwright was laying on the floor, wincing in pain and had to be helped to the bench by teammates.
“I couldn’t move anything at first. The pain, it was that severe,” Cartwright said.
Trainers and medical personnel worked on Cartwright’s leg, then eventually took him to the training room not once but twice as he coped with what proved to be cramps in his quad.
The setback came just after Iowa had taken a 40-38 lead on the Boilermakers on a dunk by Melsahn Basabe.
Cartwright returned to the court with 7:19 left in the game and the Hawkeyes holding onto a 53-50 lead which grew to five points quickly following a tip-in by Basabe.
When Cartwright left, coach Fran McCaffery wasn’t expecting the junior who finished with seven assists to return.
“I thought he was done,” McCaffery said. “At first, I thought he turned his ankle, but it was cramps. Sometimes they go away quickly. Sometimes they take forever. Luckily, we have a great training staff and they got him able to play. He made a big shot down the stretch, handled the ball. Really proud of him.”
McCaffery was proud of the collection of ballhandlers who ran the point position in Cartwright’s absence.
Devyn Marble, Eric May and Matt Gatens all ran the Iowa offense until Cartwright returned.
“I was really concerned in that stretch with Marble’s stamina to get us home. We were discussing it on the bench, do I go back with Eric and keep our experience out there and play Matt at the one, or do I go with Branden Stubbs, do I put (Jordan) Stoermer in there, he’s got more game experience as a guard, not really as a point guard.”
Marble delivered.
“I thought Devyn, he had a couple of turnovers when he got jammed on the side, but for the most part I thought his decision making was good,” McCaffery said. “He got the ball up the floor against full-court pressure and I thought he was terrific. I know he was only 1-for-9 (shooting), but I thought he had a really good game, seven rebounds, three assists. I thought he was terrific.”
McCaffery heaped praise on the play of Iowa’s bench as well.
The group combined for 10 points and 11 rebounds and McCaffery found a lot to like in the defensive intensity of Devon Archie, the overall strength of Eric May’s performance over 19 minutes, a key 3-point basket by Zach McCabe and a basket and two rebounds from Andrew Brommer.
“For us to beat a team that’s ranked in the top 10, I need everybody to contribute to their capabilities. They don’t have to play perfect basketball, but they have to play up to their capabilities and contribute in a positive way,” McCaffery said.

There wasn’t much to like about tonight’s performance by the Iowa basketball team at Michigan State.
The Hawkeyes did hang with the Spartans for a little over a half but eventually left the Breslin Center with the same taste of defeat that the last 15 Iowa teams to visit endured.
Cold shooting from the line and 3-point range by Iowa ended any doubt and provided a blunt reminder that the Hawkeyes still have work to do nearly a full season into Fran McCaffery’s tenure.
Michigan State looked and played like a team on a mission and taking the court with a 16-12 record and a 8-8 Big Ten mark, the Iowa game fell into the must-win category for the Spartans.
This is March, the time of year when Michigan State has made history year after year and whatever was wrong with the Spartans in their 20-point loss at Iowa one month ago is strictly in the rearview mirror now as coach Tom Izzo’s team makes its move toward another NCAA run.
Iowa was unable to match the intensity and energy that Michigan State showed during the second half and until that changes the Breslin Center will continue to be a troublesome place to visit for Iowa.
That showed up as much as anywhere on the boards, where MSU outrebounded the Hawkeyes by four in the second half after the teams essentially played even through the first 20 minutes.
“We didn’t compete the way we needed to in the second half,” McCaffery said.

Iowa’s weekend recruiting plans have changed. LA-area point guard Cezar Guerrero was scheduled to visit Iowa City, but a conflict with an academic event prompted him to delay the visit which was scheduled to begin on Friday.

Fran McCaffery used a bye in Iowa’s schedule last week to log some time on the road recruiting.
One of the players he went to watch, point guard Cezar Guerrero of Bellflower, Calif., will visit Iowa this weekend.
Guerrero is a 5-foot-11 point who plays for St. John Bosco High School in the Los Angeles area, blending scoring and distributing skills.
He is listed by ESPNU as the top unsigned point guard in this year’s prep senior class, ranking as the No. 61 prospect by Rivals.com in its top 150.
He backed off of an initial commitment to Western Kentucky and has since visited Oklahoma State. Oklahoma, Kansas and New Mexico State are also involved in the recruitment of Guerrero, whose AAU coach Dinos Trigonis confirms will be arriving in Iowa City on Friday of this week for a weekend visit.
McCaffery’s currently on the lookout for both a guard and a big for the spring signing period.
He’s already landed one big who had a huge game last week.
Aaron White, a 6-8 forward from Strongsville, Ohio, scored 36 points in his team’s 86-79 overtime victory over Ohio’s top-rated prep team, Garfield Heights.
“He had 36 in that game and he’s a guy who does it with little fanfare,” McCaffery said. “He’s got a great court demeanor, a complete court sense. He’s an undersized 4, a big 3, who can rebound in traffic, push it on the break himself. He’s really athletic and long so he’s a perfect fit for our style.”
McCaffery indicated during Monday’s Big Ten teleconference that White should compete for playing time immediately next fall.
White’s team has been on a tear lately. Strongsville started 4-4 this season but is now 15-5.
Iowa’s other November signee, sharp-shooting guard Josh Oglesby of Cedar Rapids Washington, has an Iowa 4A substate date tonight. The Warriors face Dubuque Hempstead in the second game of a doubleheader at Cedar Rapids for a state tourney berth.