Iowa Basketball Is Weird, in a Good Way

When Iowa substituted backup center Dom Uhl for seven-footer Adam Woodbury, Purdue was supposed to have its advantage. The Boilermakers have two 7-foot centers, and a star 6'9 forward in former five-star recruit Caleb Swanigan. Uhl, also 6'9, was being asked to handle the five spot, meaning he would be guarded by a much larger frontcourt. For most backup centers, that would be very difficult, but thanks to his unique skill set Uhl was extraordinarily effective, coming in to score five straight points.

The first? A three-pointer.

This was no lucky shot. Uhl is shooting an spectacular 51.3 percent from beyond the arc, good for 13th in the country on KenPom. Only three players his height or taller shoot anywhere close to that from three, and nobody ranked higher than him is taller. Uhl can shoot like a guard, but he plays center, making him an incredible mismatch for opposing centers who aren't used to guarding shooters.

Purdue's 7'2 Isaac Haas, having no idea what to do, chose to play off Uhl. So Uhl took advantage.

That shot flipped the table on what should have been a Purdue advantage. Haas is a very good defender on one of the best defensive teams in the country, but this is not a thing he is often asked to do. It showed: forced to defend the three, Uhl blew by the Purdue center on the very next possession.

Uhl wasn't a highly recruited player, and still isn't a starter, but he's a key cog for No. 3 Iowa, thanks to a very odd skill set for his position. In fact, that's what has the Hawkeyes looking at a Big Ten Championship and top seed in the NCAA Tournament. Iowa's star players are stars not despite but because of how weird their games are.

Take star forward Jarrod Uthoff. Uthoff is an incredible ball-handler, turning it over on just eight percent of possessions, which is in the top 40 nationally. He's shooting brilliantly, too, hitting 48 percent of his three-point attempts. He sounds like a very good guard, but he isn't. Uthoff is 6'9, and he's also averaging three blocks per game. Nobody has ever been that combination of a shooter and a shot-blocker. As Iowa site Black Heart Gold Pants found, the closest comparison is former Duke star Shane Battier.

Uthoff's three-point shot is what makes him particularly difficult to defend. He's so tall and lanky that he can shoot over big defenders, even when they're playing good defense. Take Purdue's 7-foot center center A.J. Hammons. Uthoff just toyed with him.

Later, with Swanigan guarding him, Uthoff dunked on everyone.

That rare combination of abilities has helped Uthoff reach No. 2 in the KenPom.com player of the year rankings; he's on track to be Iowa's first consensus All-American since 1952.

It's not just the best player on the team and the best player off the bench who play like this. Peter Jok, who has an offensive rating of 120.1 and is averaging 17 points per game since Big Ten play started, is a 6'6 wing who shoots 40 percent from three and can also post up like this:

Jok can hit shots from anywhere on the floor, but he also plays on-ball defense like a top-tier guard, ranking third in the Big Ten in steal percentage.

That's a skill set hardly anybody else has, so there isn't anyone available to guard it.

Even the supposed end of the bench is helping out. Most walk-ons that see playing time early in their careers are shooters, because they're usually behind physically. That's not the case with 6'7 freshman walk-on Nicholas Baer, who has an offensive rating of 127.3, an effective field goal percentage of 63 percent, and a block percentage of 6.1 percent, good for third on the team. Against Purdue, he had a monster volleyball-esque block and a contested three-pointer that helped the Hawkeyes pull away.

The Hawkeyes are not a fluke, and not inexplicable—their players are talented in the conventional sense, too, and have pedigrees to match. Uthoff is a former four-star recruit, as are point guard Mike Gesell and center Adam Woodbury. Jok was a coveted recruit before being injured during his freshman year of high school; as a high school senior, he was Iowa's Mr. Basketball.

Still, all of Iowa's best players have wrinkles and quirks in their game, and they've come together to create a truly unique team. Iowa just doesn't win with standard players. The Hawkeyes win because they have a number of players who excel in ways so uncommon that they create mismatches across the floor. It's good to be different, especially when you're winning.