By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Fran McCaffery warned us.

He told Iowa fans and members of the media that we all would appreciate 7-foot-1 center Adam Woodbury more when he was gone.

Woodbury is gone after using up his eligibility last season and truly missed by his former team, which is struggling at 3-3, especially on defense where his size, preparation and tenacity often hid other weaknesses on the team.

“I always said that maybe Adam Woodbury will be appreciated when he’s gone,” McCaffery said Monday on a teleconference. “Because not only was he seven-feet tall, he was one of the most effective, efficient and intelligent defender big guy that I’ve ever been around.

“And the impact that had on our team was just immeasurable.”

Iowa has been a sieve on defense this season without Woodbury, and is at risk with a 3-3 record of sinking below .500 after seven games for just the second time in seven seasons under McCaffery. The only other time it happened was in McCaffery's first season as head coach in 2010-11 when Iowa  fell to 3-4 with a 76-73 loss at Wake Forest. That Iowa team would go on to finish 4-14 in the Big Ten and 11-20 overall.

The current schedule doesn’t get any easier with 6-0 Notre Dame up next on Tuesday in South Bend., Ind., where McCaffery spent 11 seasons as an assistant coach. The Fighting Irish won the Legends Classic this past weekend in Brooklyn, N.Y., defeating Colorado and Northwestern to capture the crown.

Iowa, on the other hand, has lost three of its last four games, including both games against Virginia and Memphis in the Emerald Coast Classic this past weekend in Destin, Fla.

McCaffery had hoped to see some improvement on defense while in Florida. But he said Monday that it didn’t happen, and now he might change his starting lineup..

Iowa lost to Virginia and Memphis by scores of 74-41 and 100-92, respectively, in Florida.

Seton Hall also shredded Iowa’s defense during a 91-83 victory on Nov. 17 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Pirates outscored Iowa 50-24 in the paint with many of the baskets coming off guard penetration.

Iowa has struggled to defend the gaps on the perimeter, which allows for penetration. Combine that with Woodbury no longer protecting the rim and directing traffic and you have a problem.

Iowa won 89 games and played in three NCAA Tournaments with Woodbury in the lineup.

“He was always in the right place,” McCaffery said of Woodbury, who was a four-year starter for Iowa and now plays in the NBA d-league. “He always saw what was coming. If we went to a scouting report, he knew what plays thery were running and where he had to get himself and where everybody else had to get to, and he communicated that constantly to everybody else.

“And the collective calm that resulted from his communication was one of the reasons we won 89 gmes when he was in the lineup.”

Woodbury hardly was a solo act on defense.

He was part of a senior class last season that included starting guards Mike Gesell and Anthony Clemmons and all-America forward Jarrod Uthoff. All four players brought a certain level of toughness and experience to the defensive end, which is now lacking on the current team.

Senior guard Peter Jok has been almost unstoppable at times on offense, including this past Saturday when he scored a career-high 42 points against Memphis, but his defense has left something to be desired.

Iowa’s frontline is loaded with young and athletic players, including 6-9, 253-pound freshman forward Tyler Cook and 6-7 sophomore Ahmad Wagner.

But they’re all still works in progress on the defensive end, and at least three inches shorter than Woodbury.

Iowa’s former starting center never was a prolific scorer in college. But Woodbury was an enforcer on defense, somebody who protected the rim and rallied his teammates like few others have for Iowa.

Those kinds of players are easy to take for granted until they’re gone.