With Maishe Dailey joining the fold yesterday, it's probably worth checking in on Iowa basketball's scholarship and depth chart situation to see how things are looking for the future. The updated Iowa scholarship table is available below (for now, I'm assuming that Peter Jok will return for his senior season in 2016-17, which seems increasingly likely):
Scholarship Breakdown
2016-17 (0 open) | 2017-18 (1 open) | 2018-19 (1 open) | 2019-20 (4 open) | |
1 | Peter Jok | Dominique Uhl | Brady Ellingson* | Isaiah Moss* |
2 | Dale Jones | Brady Ellingson* | Ahmad Wagner | Cordell Pemsl |
3 | Dominique Uhl | Ahmad Wagner | Christian Williams | Ryan Kriener |
4 | Brady Ellingson* | Christian Williams | Nicholas Baer* | Jordan Bohannon |
5 | Ahmad Wagner | Nicholas Baer* | Isaiah Moss* | Tyler Cook |
6 | Christian Williams | Isaiah Moss* | Cordell Pemsl | Maishe Dailey |
7 | Nicholas Baer* | Cordell Pemsl | Ryan Kriener | Connor McCaffery |
8 | Isaiah Moss* | Ryan Kriener | Jordan Bohannon | Joe Wieskamp |
9 | Cordell Pemsl | Jordan Bohannon | Tyler Cook | Patrick McCaffery |
10 | Ryan Kriener | Tyler Cook | Maishe Dailey | |
11 | Jordan Bohannon | Maishe Dailey | Connor McCaffery | |
12 | Tyler Cook | Connor McCaffery | Joe Wieskamp | |
13 | Maishe Dailey | |||
Legend: | ||||
Senior | Junior | Sophomore | Freshman | |
* used redshirt |
All of Iowa's 13 scholarships are accounted for in 2016-17 with Dailey's commitment. Dailey's commitment has a trickle-down effect on Iowa's future recruiting, too, since as a freshman he'll (theoretically) be around for the next four seasons (or five if he takes a redshirt season). If Iowa had landed a graduate transfer instead, that scholarship would only be in use for 2016-17. As a result, Iowa only has one available scholarship for 2017-18 with two seniors slated to depart (Peter Jok and Dale Jones). If Jones gets a medical redshirt for missing almost all of his 2015-16 season at Ioaw (and it's not even clear yet if he wants a redshirt year), then Iowa would have no available scholarships in 2017-18.
Of course, there's also the possibility -- if not likelihood -- someone (or someones) will transfer away from the program and open up additional scholarships. Iowa is bringing in five true freshman next fall and will have six total freshmen with Isaiah Moss coming off a redshirt -- it could be difficult to juggle that many new faces. It should help that there won't be four seniors playing 30+ minutes a game to contend with this year, but there are still a lot of bodies on the roster and only so many minutes to go around. There's not much point speculating on who might transfer away -- a year ago at this time, I don't think many people expected Andrew Fleming or Brandon Hutton to be leaving after one season -- but there's certainly a decent possibility that at least one player will decide he might have a better opportunity elsewhere.
In terms of the depth chart, there's not much point breaking down the roster in terms of PG-SG-SF-PF-C. Frankly, Iowa doesn't really appear to have a true point guard or a true center -- this looks like a roster with a lot of versatile athletes that can play multiple positions. So let's just divide things up a little more generally, with guards and forwards.
POS | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 |
GD | Peter Jok | Brady Ellingon | Brady Ellingson | Isaiah Moss |
Brady Ellingson | Christian Williams | Christian Williams | Jordan Bohannon | |
Christian Williams | Isaiah Moss | Isaiah Moss | Maishe Dailey | |
Isaiah Moss | Jordan Bohannon | Jordan Bohannon | Connor McCaffery | |
Jordan Bohannon | Maishe Dailey | Maishe Dailey | Joe Wieskamp | |
Maishe Dailey | Connor McCaffery | Connor McCaffery | Patrick McCaffery | |
Joe Wieskamp | ||||
FWD | Dale Jones | Dominique Uhl | Ahmad Wagner | Cordell Pemsl |
Dominique Uhl | Ahmad Wagner | Nicholas Baer | Ryan Kriener | |
Ahmad Wagner | Nicholas Baer | Cordell Pemsl | Tyler Cook | |
Nicholas Baer | Cordell Pemsl | Ryan Kriener | ||
Cordell Pemsl | Ryan Kriener | Tyler Cook | ||
Ryan Kriener | Tyler Cook | |||
Tyler Cook |
At the moment, Iowa actually has a pretty even split between guards and forwards. So where should Iowa turn with their remaining scholarship in 2017? While they may not have a traditional point guard on the roster (or slated to come in in one of the upcoming recruiting classes), they seem content with the players they have there -- per Rivals and 247, they aren't currently offering any point guard prospects. Instead, a lot of their efforts seemed to be focused on adding bigs -- Rivals has them offering six power forwards and two centers, while 247 has them offering three centers and two power forwards. That probably makes sense -- Pemsl and Baer are forwards, but certainly not traditional "bigs," while Uhl and Kriener might be more comfortable around the perimeter than down low. If Iowa can get another big body to supplement Tyler Cook and Ahmad Wagner, that makes sense.
What do you think? What position do you think Iowa should target with their lone remaining scholarship in 2017-18?