Iowa College Basketball Predictions 2009-10

Written November 10, 2009 by Kyle Hunter

The Iowa Hawkeyes were pretty bad last year, and the bad news for Hawkeye basketball fans is that they should be quite a bit worse this year. The Hawkeyes lost four of their top seven scorers from a team that won just 5 of their 18 Big Ten Conference games a year ago. Todd Lickliter is a great young coach that should be able to help this program in the long run, but he will definitely have his work cut out for him this year. According to the NCAA basketball odds, the Hawks rank near the bottom of the NCAA in terms of winning the National Championship at 200-to-1.

Cyrus Tate, the leading rebounder and best defensive big man for the team a year ago graduated. Several others of the top players have transferred to other schools since last season. Jake Kelly, the star of the Hawkeyes last year, transferred to Indiana State after the tragic loss of his mother. It is certainly understandable that Kelly wanted to be closer to family after such a huge loss. Jake Peterson, Jermain Davis, and David Palmer all transferred saying that they were frustrated with the situation that was going on at Iowa. This leaves the Iowa basketball team with very little depth and a whole lot of question marks heading into the season.

The returning leader of the team is sophomore Matt Gatens. Gatens had a tremendous freshman year last season and is a tremendous long range shooter. The Hawkeyes hope to receive a nice boost from sophomore Anthony Tucker, who impressed in the 14 games he played last year before having to sit out due to academic reasons. Devan Bawinkel is one of the most intriguing players you will ever find, having attempted only five shots the entire season last year inside of the three point line, while attempting 139 three pointers. He does hit them at a 37% clip, so he Todd Lickliter probably won’t mind if he keeps shooting it from downtown. If you are going to bet college basketball, start off the season right with a $500 match bonus from BetUS.

Aaron Fuller and Jarryd Cole will likely start down low for an Iowa team that will desperately need an inside presence and some big men to do work on the glass. Both of these two are relatively inexperienced, though Cole has seen playing time back in 2007-2008 before injuring himself.

Cully Payne will likely see quite a bit of playing time in the backcourt as well. Payne is a freshman who is a very impressive ball handler and is capable of finding open shooters at all times. Gatens will run the point some of the time as well, but Lickliter will certainly want to get someone else accustomed to that position so Gatens can save some of his energy and spot up and shoot.

This is an Iowa team that plays in what should be a very strong Big 10 Conference, and they simply don’t have the talent to match up with hardly anyone in the league. Iowa is likely to be exposed on the boards as well as by teams that are very athletic and long. It would be a huge success if the Hawkeyes got anything more than 3 or 4 wins in the league this year.

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