Cordell Pemsl makes putting the ball in the basket look easy
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa freshman forward Cordell Pemsl makes shooting 75 percent from the field sound so easy.
“I’ve just went out and I played my game and I knew that if I was working at one-hundred percent and I was running the floor and posting hard that I would get the looks that I wanted to get, said Pemsl, a 6-foot-8, 249-pound graduate of Dubuque Wahlert High School. “I’ve been able to get looks that I know I’m capable of making, and I’ve been able to put it in the hoop.”
Pemsl has made 42-of-56 field-goal attempts in 10 games this season. He is one of seven Division I players in the last 20 years to shoot 75 percent or better from the field through 10 career games with a minumun of 50 shots.
Pemsl moved into the starting lineup after fellow freshman forward Tyler Cook suffered a broken finger in late November while Iowa was competing in the Emerald Coast Classic in Florida.
Cook has missed the last four games, but is on schedule to return next week.
“Coming into the season, I didn’t exactly know how much I was going to play or where I was going to play,” said Pemsl, who is expected to make his fifth consecutive start on Saturday against Northern Iowa. “So I just worked in practice and I tried to earn my spot and my position.
“And Tyler went down in Florida and I got that opportunity against Notre Dame that following Tuesday. And I knew that if coach was going to trust me enough to put me in the starting lineup that I needed to prove to him that I deserved to be there while Tyler was out.”
Pemsl has scored in double figures in each of the four games that he has started, including 18 points in his first start against Notre Dame.
He also scored 11 points in last Saturday’s 78-64 victory over Iowa State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Freshman point guard Jordan Bohannon did his part, too, by making a pivotal 3-point basket in the second half after Iowa State had trimmed the deficit to seven points.
“I think as a coach you’re always proud of them when they do that,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said of his two freshmen. “I have an expectation that they would do that. But unless they have an expectation for themselves, it’s not going to happen.”
Pemsl has made 27-of-34 field-goal attempts in the last four games. He also has grabbed at least four rebounds in three of the last four games.
“It’s been a good ride for me so far these last few games,” Pemsl said.”