Video: Iowa coach Fran McCaffery talks win over Utah
Coach Fran McCaffery discusses Iowa’s win over Utah on Saturday.
IOWA CITY — The holiday break has returned Fran McCaffery’s Iowa basketball team to full strength.
That most notably includes Seydou Traore, who has been dealing with an ankle injury that’s sidelined him for four of the last five games. The sophomore forward should be ready to roll Monday when the Hawkeyes (9-3) wrap up non-conference play at 6 p.m. against New Hampshire (2-12).
“Everybody is ready to go,” McCaffery said Friday.
Traore initially injured his ankle in Iowa’s 110-77 win over USC Upstate, which limited him to two minutes that night and forced him to the bench for the Hawkeyes‘ next two games against Northwestern and Michigan. He returned for the Cy-Hawk matchup on Dec. 12 — putting up six points and three rebounds in 14 minutes — only to sit again in ensuing games versus New Orleans and Utah.
The Hawkeyes managed a 3-1 record in the four games Traore missed. But with the resumption of Big Ten play lurking next weekend, Iowa needs all its weapons as close to full strength as possible.
“We had a great practice (Thursday),” McCaffery said. “Gave the kids a couple days off to be with their families. That’s important. They came back refreshed. Seydou looked really good. He appears to be back to 100%. That’s great news.”
There’s no guarantee Iowa will navigate through these next three months of basketball injury-free, but the Hawkeyes are at least happy to have seemingly cleared this early health hurdle. In addition to Traore’s absence, Cooper Koch, Owen Freeman, Josh Dix, Riley Mulvey, Even Brauns and Chris Tadjo have all missed at least one game this season with an injury or health issue.
McCaffery knows operating without a full deck is inevitable throughout a long season. Still, the fact Iowa has delivered a promising start — and now gets the boost of everyone returning — should help propel the Hawkeyes into conference play with confidence.
“Fortunately, we have some depth on this team,” McCaffery said. I’ve talked about that from the beginning. And you just absolutely have to have it in this league with how long the season is and how tough every game is. Fortunately, guys have stepped up when others have been out.
“It’s always a challenge. It has been a little bit more intense this year, I guess you could say. Really, it manifested itself in the Utah State game (on Nov. 22). The guys fought through. We were right there against a really good team. Really proud of how we’ve continued to compete and understand that’s part of what a season is. You’re ready to go if someone gets hurt.”
Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.
