I can see it now with the addition of Dale Jones.
An Iowa basketball team that spaces the floor and shreds defenses with its perimeter shooting.
It’ll take more than the 6-foot-8 Jones to do that, but enough pieces are now in place so that perimeter shooting shouldn’t be a weakness for the Hawkeyes anymore.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery has been reluctant to say publicly that perimeter shooting is a weakness for his team, but he isn’t fooling anybody.
You could argue that Iowa’s season, which ended in the third round of the NCAA Tournament, was saved when senior forward Aaron White suddenly found his touch from 3-point range in late February. Iowa started spacing the floor better once that happened because in addition to White, opponents also had to be aware of Jarrod Uthoff and Peter Jok from the perimeter.
Uthoff and Jok both have made enough 3-point baskets to be considered dependable. Throw Jones into the mix and Iowa could have three dependable 3-point shooters on the floor at the same time next, with the shortest of the three being the 6-foot-6 Jok.
And it’s not as if point guards Mike Gesell and Anthony Clemmons are horrible 3-point shooters. They can burn defenses, too.
And let’s not forget about freshman guard Brady Ellingson, who was redshirted this past season, and incoming freshman guard Andrew Fleming. Making 3-pointers is supposedly what they both do best.
As for Jones, he is the sixth and final piece to Iowa’s 2015 recruiting class. The Waterloo native, who attends Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas, signed with the Hawkeyes on Monday.
Jones averaged 16.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game as a sophomore this past season while shooting 45.4 percent from 3-point range. He also shot a sizzling 83.9 percent from the free throw line.
A shooting percentage in junior college to me is more significant and more telling than a scoring average because the distance from 3-point range and from the free throw line doesn’t change, whereas the competition does, sometimes drastically.
The fact that Jones has high shooting percentages tells me that he has a special talent. And some of it probably just comes naturally, meaning he was born with it.
Some players can practice shooting for what seems like ever, and yet they still struggle.
Jones will have to work harder to get quality shots as a Hawkeye, but shooting free throws and open 3-pointers shouldn’t be any different for him.
Jones appears to be a classic late bloomer. He graduated from Waterloo West High School, but failed to attract much attention as a recruit.
Jones is fortunate that he grew several inches since enrolling at Tyler Junior College because there aren’t a lot of 6-8 power forwards that shoot as well as he does from the perimeter.
He will help fill the void left by White at power forward and will play alongside the 6-9 Uthoff and 7-1 center Adam Woodbury on the frontline.
Nothing is guaranteed in recruiting. But with the addition of Jones, it’s reasonable to think that Iowa will shoot better from the perimeter next season.