Iowa Basketball’s Luka Garza and Joe Wieskamp Tabbed for Awards

Your red-hot Hawkeyes are making news on the court by kicking ass and taking names on the court with their DGAF attitude and bloodthirsty aggression. And even though Fran McCaffery’s squad is a tight cohesive lineup, there are two guys who just make things go for the Hawkeye Hoopsters.

You all know about Luka Garza. Well this week, the junior center was tabbed as one of 20 players to make the John R. Wooden Award late-season watchlist. Think of it as the Heisman for basketball.

Other names you may be familiar with on that list include Maryland’s Anthony Cowan and Jalen Smith, Minnesota’s Daniel Oturu, Penn State’s Lamar Stephens, Michigan State’s Cassius Winston and Dayton superstar Obi Toppin.

And even though I joked earlier in the season that this Iowa team was basically Luka Garza and four guys from the North Liberty YMCA, I’m happy to re-learn that basketball is a team sport, and there plenty of other guys to help shoulder the load.

On Tuesday it was announced Joe Wieskamp got placing on the Jerry West Award watch list, handed out at the end of the year to the best shooting guard in the country. Wieskamp is nailing just under 40 percent of his three-point attempts while averaging 18 points a game in Big Ten contests. He’s second in the Big Ten for free-throw percentage and generally is awesome.

The last Iowa finalist for the award was Peter Jok in 2017.

The Hawks return to action tonight when they travel to West Lafayette to take on a Purdue team that’s desperate for big wins.