247Sports shares Iowa basketball’s way-too-early Big Ten power ranking
After missing out on the NCAA Tournament in 2024, the Iowa Hawkeyes hope to make a return trip this coming season.
As Iowa awaits a stay-or-go decision from its leading scorer in forward Payton Sandfort, the Hawkeyes have brought in a pair of transfers to add to its nucleus for next season.
Iowa added Morehead State transfer guard Drew Thelwell alongside Manhattan transfer forward Seydou Traore.
Thelwell averaged 10.0 points, 6.2 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game last season, while shooting 43.5% from the floor and 33.8% from 3-point range. Traore averaged 11.8 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 43.3% from the field.
That duo joins an Iowa squad that returns core players such as sophomore forwards Owen Freeman, Ladji Dembele and Pryce Sandfort, sophomore guard Brock Harding and junior guard Josh Dix.
With the spring transfer portal shuffling winding down, 247Sports’ Isaac Trotter put together his way-too-early Big Ten power rankings.
In the now 18-team Big Ten, Iowa is slotted at No. 12 in Trotter’s Big Ten power rankings.
If Iowa can get Payton Sandfort back for another season (as projected), the Hawkeyes have a Big Three that can play with anybody. Dix, Sandfort and Freeman will be highly productive. But Iowa’s player development will be the ultimate pivot point in the crowded middle of the Big Ten standings. If Harding, Pryce Sandfort, Dembele or Traore explode into no-doubt dudes, Iowa could vault past more than a few clubs.
Keep an eye on the Thelwell addition. The Morehead State transfer point guard needs to prove himself on the defensive end at the Big Ten level, or Harding could take his spot and run away with it.
If Sandfort stays in the NBA Draft, the conversation around Iowa will change significantly. – Trotter, 247Sports.
There’s certainly a number of reasonable question marks with Iowa. The Hawkeyes finished last season 19-15 (10-10 Big Ten) and saw guards Tony Perkins and Dastone Bowen alongside forward Patrick McCaffery depart in the transfer portal.
Iowa’s two transfer portal additions need to be difference makers for the Hawkeyes. Coach Fran McCaffery will similarly be depending on Freeman taking a big step forward and development with a number of the Hawkeyes’ other young pieces.
If several of those players can develop into legitimate Big Ten players, then the Hawkeyes should fare well in what figures to be a rugged middle of the conference.
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