3 Days Until Iowa Basketball: Jordan Bohannon

It’s November, which means all of our hopes and dreams for Iowa Football have been crushed, which means Iowa Hawkeyes basketball is HERE! While the Hawks played an exhibition match yesterday, we’re still counting down the days until Iowa’s first official game tips off this Thursday. The countdown continues with… Jordan Bohannon.

Previously:

55: Luka Garza
51: Nicholas Baer
35: Cordell Pemsl
30: Connor McCaffery
25: Tyler Cook
24: Nico Hobbs
20: Riley Till
15: Ryan Kriener
13: Austin Ash
10: Joe Wieskamp
5: C.J. Fredrick
4: Isaiah Moss

Jordan Bohannon
Guard, 6’1”, 185 lbs
Junior, Marion, IA (Linn-Mar)

What is there to write about Jordan Bohannon that hasn’t already been written? Last year at this time, we were wondering what Bohannon we would see for his sophomore campaign, especially as evidence mounted that he would continue to be Iowa’s primary ball-handler due to lack of depth at point guard (an issue that is better this year, but still a potential red flag). However, Bohannon was one of a few consistent positive performers for an Iowa squad that wasn’t known for its positive qualities. Bohannon finished the year with a nice stat-line, averaging 13.5 points per game, along with 5.4 assists and a couple rebounds per game to go with it.

In hindsight, it seems silly to think Bohannon would go through a sophomore slump. Instead, he improved in nearly every statistical category, finishing the season with a 42.3%/43%/90.4% line of FG/3P/FT. Wow. He even tied Chris Street’s record of 100 consecutive free throws made before purposefully missing his 101st attempt to share the record with street.

Bohannon proved himself a capable leader and a man of high character for an Iowa team that struggled all year long, and now enters his junior season ready to right the ship. Once again, the talent is there throughout the roster, and it will take another season of consistency from the 3-point specialist-turned point guard to get this team back to the NCAA Tournament.

More performances like Bohannon’s 29 point, 5 overtime comeback game against Illinois would be nice. The guard landed five three-pointers in the game, and made a huge dent toward matching Street’s record by going 10-10 from the charity stripe, all while playing 41 total minutes, including overtime.

Bohannon also played some of his best basketball near the end of the season. He poured in 25 points thanks to shooting 7-14 from beyond the arc in the season ending win over Northwestern, in which he also missed the record-setting free throw. He grabbed 6 rebounds and amassed 5 assists in that game for good measure, too. In the Big Ten Tournament win, Bohannon was again lights out, scoring another 25 with 6 assists. However, in the OT loss to Michigan, Bohannon couldn’t quite get it going, only scoring 11 points on 3-14 shooting.

The aforementioned lack of guard depth really took Bohannon’s minutes to a new level last season. His averaged jumped over two minutes per game from his freshman to sophomore season, going from 29.6 to 31.8 per game, and he played 35+ minutes in 15 games, including the Big Ten Tournament. I expect that to stay right around 30 minutes, but hopefully the addition of a healthy Connor McCaffery and Maishe Dailey behind him will be able to keep him a bit fresher than he was by the end of conference play last year.

This team will once again need solid performances from Bohannon on a nightly basis to truly reach its potential. We know how good of a scorer and passer Bohannon can be, and hopefully an offseason of further development and a season of frustration has lit a fire under him as the team’s de-facto leader that will translate into a winning mentality on the court.

I leave you with these highlights to get you amped for Bohannon’s junior campaign: