By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Carver-Hawkeye Arena was quiet and mostly empty about an hour after the Iowa men’s basketball team had crushed Illinois 95-71 this past Sunday.

All that remained were members of the media covering the game, a crew that was cleaning the arena, and a few fans and some Iowa players, including freshman Joe Wieskamp.

He was posing for photos near courtside with several young fans who were thrilled just to be standing next to him.

Wieskamp wrapped his right arm around the shoulder of each kid and smiled briefly as the photos were taken. The kids all walked away in awe knowing that they had something special to cherish forever.

The 6-foot-6 Wieskamp seems to have that effect on people due to his immense talent as a basketball player.

It helps that Wieskamp is polite and unassuming almost to the point of being shy. The Muscatine native is also unselfish and a team-first guy, and that just makes him even more likable.

“He’s totally unselfish and completely gets it,” said former Iowa player Jess Settles, who now works as studio analyst for the Big Ten Network. “He has the feel for his teammates, has the feel for the game, and yet, if he needs to make the big shot, he’ll hit it.

“And I think as he gets older and the spotlight is on him more, he’ll develop those interview skills and develop that smile more as he goes on. He’s still very young. And that first year, it’s tough to be a freshman and having to be counted on like he is. It’s hard.”

But there are times when Wieskamp makes it look easy, like the past Sunday against Illinois when he made all eight of his field-goal attempts, including six from 3-point range while matching his career-high with 24 points.

He was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Monday.

Wieskamp has scored in double figures in 13 games this season, including the last five in a row, all of which were victories. And he is part of a starting lineup in which all five players are averaging in double figures heading into Thursday’s game against Big Ten leader Michigan State at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“He was just brilliant against Illinois and I think the whole country knows who he is,” Settles said. “It’s just so nice when the Iowa kids will stay home and play for the Hawkeyes. There’s just nothing better than when they do that.

“I just hate to see the kids leave. I know kids leave and go to other schools for a lot of reasons. But the team would feel incomplete if he wasn’t on it.”

Iowa fans have known about Wieskamp for quite a while as he committed to the Hawkeyes as a sophomore at Muscatine High School. He would go on to become the all-time leading scorer in Class 4A in Iowa with 2,376 points.

Settles has a cousin who played with Wieskamp for two seasons at Muscatine High School, so Settles was familiar with Wieskamp’s game at an early age, and Settles said one thing has stood out since the beginning.

“He’s always been a pretty elite shooter and I’ve always said that shooting is the one thing that usually transfers to that next level,” Settles said. “If you’re a great shooter, you can shoot pretty much at any level.”

Wieskamp’s reputation as a shooter appears to be growing, considering what Illinois head coach Brad Underwood did before last Sunday’s loss to Iowa.

Underwood was so intrigued by Wieskamp’s shooting ability that he changed his pre-game routine just so he could watch Wieskamp shoot in warmups.

“I went out in pre-game warmups just to watch him and I never go out in pregame warmups,” Underwood said. “His balls don’t hit the rim.”

Wieskamp came to Iowa as a four-star recruit according to Rivals. He was also ranked 43^rd nationally in his class.

So for him to have made an immediate impact, and to have started since the first game, should hardly come as a surprise since Wieskamp already was battle tested and had proven himself on a big stage when he joined Fran McCaffery’s team at Iowa.

“I think the thing that Fran and all of us who follow the game were confident in Wieskamp was the fact that he went on the summer circuit against a lot of the McDonald’s All-America-level players and he was just as good as they were,” Settles said. “So, yes, it is one thing to be an elite scorer at Muscatine. Obviously, the competition every night is not great, but this kid was getting it done all summer long his sophomore and junior year on the summer circuit against elite players.”

Settles calls Wieskamp’s shot a thing of beauty, from the solid fundamentals on the release to how the ball looks as it approaches the basket.

“I don’t know who taught him how to shoot, but the analytics and whatever the words are for that, the science behind his shot gives him an advantage over most guys who shoot a flat shot,” Settles said. “I mean that ball is literally making it rain. It has some serious arch to it.”

Wieskamp is more than just a shooter, though.

He attacks the glass for rebounds, is a willing and capable passer and more than holds his own as a defender.

“He’s already got the tougher part of the game down, which is physicality and shooting,” Settles said. “And once he gets post-up moves, and once he works on faders and works on his driving more, that to me is the next step, and he’s going to end up being a fantastic player.

“The sky is the limit.”

Settles was reminded on Tuesday that this season marks the 25-year anniversary of him being named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 1994.

“Unbelievable,” said the former versatile forward who grew up on a farm near Winfield. “That’s just crazy.”

Settles is the only Hawkeye to be named Big Ten Freshman of the Year, but Wieskamp is certainly in the conversation with 12 conference games remaining.

Settles would be thrillled to have another Iowa native win the award.  

“I sure hope he’s the second,” Settles said. “I still think that race is wide open. There’s a lot of basketball to be played. There is going to be a ton of pressure on the voters to go with the players from the teams that finish in that upper part of the conference.”

Iowa is showing signs of being one of those teams with records of 16-3 overall and 5-3 in the Big Ten. Wieskamp and his cohorts also have won five games in a row after starting 0-3 in Big Ten play.

“The game has become such a specialty game today where they want you to be elite at something, and obviously, shooting is the top priority and he’s already there,” Settles said of Wieskamp, who is shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range. “So that’s exciting for him if he can stay healthy, and you know Fran’s staff is going to make him better in those other areas.”

Settles played both forward positions at Iowa and was more of a low-post presence than Wieskamp, who plays mostly small forward. Settles was also bigger at 6-7 and 220 pounds, but he didn't have Wieskamp's perimeter skills. 

Wieskamp's game is unique to where Settles struggles to think of players who are similar. Settles couldn't think of any Iowa players that remind him of Wieskamp, but he eventually thought of Kyle Korver, the Pella native who has played in the NBA for over a decade after having a standout career at Creighton.

"Is a young Kyle Korver in the conversation?" Settles asked. "A young Kyle Korver was a lot like Wieskamp, needed more strength and needed to be a little more physical." 

Settles had a lot of motivation that helped him earn Big Ten Freshman of the Year, or maybe a chip on his shoulder is a better way to describe what Settles had. He was determined to show that players from Iowa could compete on the big stage, and his success helped pave the way for players like Wieskamp to do the same.

“I always had to battle, and all of us who came to Iowa, had to battle that stigma that Iowa kids couldn’t play, or that the most we would be is a good role player,” Settles said. “And so I battled that and I tried to break that. And when I became Big Ten Freshman of the Year, I think that really sent a message that, yes, small-town Iowa kids can play.”

That same message, thanks to Wieskamp, is being sent again 25 years later.