It’s by no means too early to begin serious about subsequent 12 months!
Whereas we’re nowhere close to the beginning of the 2022-23 males’s school basketball season, it’s nonetheless proper in season for ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi to begin piecing collectively his March bracket.
In his most up-to-date model of Bracketology, Iowa is in with one of many final 4 byes of the event, touchdown because the No. 10 seed within the East area. The Hawkeyes’ opening date can be towards seventh-seeded Saint Louis with a probable date towards No. 2 seed Texas looming after that.
Iowa is one among seven Huge Ten groups that Lunardi at the moment has making the Huge Dance. That’s tied for tops nationally of any convention based on Lunardi’s projections, becoming a member of the Huge 12, Huge East and SEC as seven-bid leagues.
Along with Iowa, Lunardi has No. 7 seed Purdue and No. 8 seed Ohio State within the West area, No. 6 seed Illinois and No. 8 seed Michigan State within the East area and No. 4 seed Indiana and No. 7 seed Michigan within the South area.
For the Hawkeyes, Lunardi is anticipating a little bit of regression from the previous two seasons. Iowa was a No. 2 seed within the 2021 NCAA Event and a No. 5 seed final 12 months getting into March Insanity after successful the Huge Ten Event title over Purdue, 75-66.
Over the previous two seasons, Iowa basketball has misplaced their star participant. Luka Garza was probably the best participant in Hawkeyes historical past, a two-time Huge Ten Participant of the 12 months and consensus All-American. He graduated on to the NBA on the finish of the 2020-21 season.
Then, Keegan Murray broke out and was additionally a consensus first-team All-American. He additionally most likely ought to have been received the Huge Ten Participant of the 12 months final 12 months. As a substitute, he goes down as Iowa’s highest-ever draft choose, going fourth to the Sacramento Kings within the 2022 NBA draft.
That’s two straight years that Iowa has to interchange a historic participant. Whereas that’s routine for a workforce like Duke that guidelines the top-10 participant recruiting checklist yearly, it’s a powerful job for a workforce like Iowa. There are a variety of returning items coming again, together with potential breakout star Kris Murray.
“Effectively, initially, I’m actually excited for him. First time in his life that he hasn’t performed along with his brother. He accepted the problem of coming again,” Head Coach Fran McCaffrey stated in a current interview in regards to the returning Murray. “As I stated earlier than, he wager on himself. A whole lot of guys, if they’ve a two-way, they take it. He may’ve gone to a two-way if he wished, however he wished to come back again. He loves his teammates and he desires the duty that’s going to be positioned on him. And he’s prepared for it, he’s labored arduous for it and I’m excited for him.”
The Hawkeyes open their 2022-23 season on Nov. 7 at house towards SWAC opponent Bethune-Cookman.
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