By Pat Harty

Fran McCaffery enters his 12th season as the Iowa men’s basketball coach with the daunting task of replacing arguably the greatest player in program history in center Luka Garza.

McCaffery also to replace three-year starter Joe Wieskamp, who is now a member of the San Antonio Spurs after declaring for the NBA Draft as a junior.

The loss of the 6-foot-11 Garza, who now plays for the Detroit Pistons, coupled with the loss of the 6-6 Wieskamp, will dramatically change how Iowa looks and plays this coming season.

McCaffery addressed that situation at the annual Big Ten media day event on Thursday in Indianapolis.

“This is going to be a really new experience for all of us,” McCaffery said. “When you graduate the national player of the year, and you’ve got two guys going to the NBA, and a team of really talented young players, all of whom are going to be in a new role. I think that’s an exciting challenge for any coach.

“We all knew the last couple of years what we were trying to accomplish. Who was playing. Who was going to get the ball and minutes. Who was going to take most of the shots. What we were going to run. But now we’ve got a different team. It’s a little bit smaller, but we do have length and athleticism. I think we have great depth.”

Another change from last season is expectations, at least on the outside.

One year after being ranked fifth in the Associated Press preseason poll, the current Iowa team probably isn’t even ranked among the top five teams in the Big Ten this season.

Iowa is not without experience, however.

McCaffery was accompanied to Indianapolis by sixth-year senior guard Jordan Bohannon, who is on the verge of becoming the Big Ten’s all-time leader in 3-point field goals, and by his son, fifth-year senior guard Connor McCaffery.

“We do have two older guys that we’re going to rely on for leadership, and that’s Connor McCaffery and Jordan Bohannon,” Fran McCaffery said. But after that, we’ve got a lot of youth.

“But I think we’ve got great character, great chemistry and it’s going to be a fun ride in that sense.”

Much is expected from 6-8 sophomore forward Keegan Murray, who showed flashes of brilliance last season, and from junior point guard Joe Toussaint, who is now expected to start at point guard with Bohannon having shifted to shooting guard.

North Dakota transfer Filip Rebraca, a 6-9 forward, junior forward Patrick McCaffery, who is also Fran McCaffery’s son, and Keegan Murray’s twin brother, Kris Murray, a 6-8 forward, also should play prominent roles.

Guards Tony Perkins and Ahron Ulis and centers Josh Ogundele and Riley Mulvey will also be in the mix for playing time as Fran McCaffery looks for the right matchups and lineups in the post Garza era.

Payton Sandfort, a 6-7 freshman from Waukee, is yet another player who will be competing for minutes.

The first question Fran McCaffery was asked Thursday was about Keegan Murray and what he has seen from his talented combo forward during the offseason and since practice started.

“The thing about Keegan is he’s amazingly consistent,” Fran McCaffery said. “So what I saw from him this summer and this fall is exactly that. He drives it. He shoots it. He moves it. He can handle. He rebounds. He blocks shots. He plays the game with a tremendous amount of intensity, but more importantly, an understanding of how to play.”

Fran McCaffery also has high hopes for Kris Murray, whose game is different than his brother’s game in that Kris plays more on the perimeter to take advantage of his shooting ability.

Iowa had a number of perimeter shooters last season, so there wasn’t a lot of opportunities for Kris Murray to contribute. But that will change this season.

“The thing about Kris, he just has to develop his confidence,” Fran McCaffery said. “He’s real talented. You look at him and he looks exactly like his brother and you sort of expect him to be exactly like his brother. And they’ve always played a little bit differently. And they’ve always been real good.

“They both can dribble, pass and shoot. They both rebound and block shots. Kris, I think, is a very good three-point shooter. And they can play together.”

In addition to Garza and Wieskamp, Fran McCaffery also has to replace 6-11 forward Jack Nunge, who has transferred to Xavier, and 6-3 shooting guard C.J. Fredrick, who has transferred to Kentucky.

They both played key roles during their time at Iowa.

Nunge also gave Iowa plenty of size on the frontline while playing alongside Garza.

“We may play smaller, but I think we have as much depth as we’ve had in a long time, so we’ll see how that works out,” Fran McCaffery said.

Garza made things simple and easy for Iowa on offense because he performed at such a high level, and was so consistent, especially on offense.

“He was so consistently dominate offensively and gave you so much confidence as a program, as a coach, as players on the floor coming down the stretch,” Fran McCaffery said of Iowa’s all-time leading scorer. “We could always runs something for him. He’s going to get a bucket. He’s going to make the right decision.

“But we’ve always been kind of a motion team anyway, and we moved it and we did run some sets. So, we’ll consistently run motion again. I think we have a lot of players that can dribble, pass and shoot.”

Connor McCaffery as one of the team’s two veteran players is helping to bring the younger players along. He and Bohannon both have a wealth of experience to share.

Rebraca also has plenty of experience after playing a key role for North Dakota in each of the past two seasons. But this will be his first taste of Big Ten competition.

“Whether it’s in practice or in a game about the league, different ways they we can both just educate them on what we’ve seen, what we’ve been through, what we’ve played through, I feel like during the season it’s going to be real beneficial going into these crazy environments that we know we’re going to play in,” Connor McCaffery said. “We’ve played against a lot of these other guys in the league when they haven’t yet.

“We’re definitely young and I feel like youth is a good thing. But it’s definitely going to take some time to make up for that experience. But I would say the good thing about our young guys is they’re fearless. None of them are scared of anything. So, I think that’s always a good thing when you have young guys like that.”

Iowa made the NCAA Tournament in two of Garza’s final three seasons. It would’ve almost certainly been three consecutive trips to the Big Dance for Iowa, but postseason play was cancelled in 2020 due to the outbreak of the global pandemic.

Iowa finished 22-9 and lost to Oregon in the second-round of the NCAA Tournament last season.

Fans will get their first look at this Iowa team when it faces Slippery Rock in an exhibition game on Nov. 5 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa will face Longwood in the season opener on Nov. 9 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.