By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Brock Harding, in addition to being the shortest player on the Iowa basketball team, is also one of the youngest as a 19-year-old freshman point guard.

But don’t let that fool you into thinking that the 6-foot, 162-pound Harding is reluctant to be a leader or to tell his older teammates what to do on the court, and in practice.

“Being an underclassman, and a freshman, obviously, not a lot of guys want to come in and talk to the older guys and tell people what to do and where to go,” Harding said Monday. “But it’s just kind of something that I’ve always had. Growing up, I’ve always kind of been a point guard, shortstop in baseball, so I’ve always just kind of been in the position where you have to lead.

“A point guard kind of has to be the most vocal guy on the court. So, I’ve always kind of had that in me and always use that on the court.”

Harding’s leadership and his point guard skills will be part of what Iowa needs against Penn State on Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa committed 18 turnovers in the first game against Penn State this season and lost 89-79 on Feb. 8 in State College, Pennsylvania.

They Nittany Lions, under first-year head coach Mike Rhoades, made containing Iowa senior guard Tony Perkins a point of emphasis, and it worked as Perkins committed five turnovers and was held to just 11 points in the first game.

Other players were forced to bring the ball up the court, and that caused problems.

“We really let them speed us up and I think we learned a lot from that, and we got better as the second half went along,” Harding said. “I think we’ve figured out some things that we’re going to do differently.”

Harding barely played three minutes in the first game against Penn State, but he still scored four points, had two steals and zero turnovers.

His playing time has been sporadic this season.

But Harding is also the closest Iowa has to a pure point guard and he is arguably the best passer on the team.

Those skills, along with his vocal leadership, have helped to earn Harding more playing time as he played just under seven minutes against Illinois this past Saturday and just under nine minutes against Wisconsin on Feb. 17.

Iowa was hit hard from a leadership standpoint with the losses of Connor McCaffery, Filip Rebraca and Kris Murray from last season’s team. So, it was imperative that other players step up, even the freshmen.

“They told me early on in the season this team lost a lot of leaders last year; there’s no age on leadership,” Harding said. “If you’re a leader it’s inside of you and I’ve always kind of had that. So, they really pushed me to use that early on and I’ve gotten more comfortable with it over the season as we’ve moved along and I’ve gotten more vocal. Guys have trusted me more and realize that I’m telling them things that will help us as a team, not because I don’t like them.”

Harding is among four freshmen that joined the team this season.

The others are 6-10 forward Owen Freeman, who was Harding’s high school teammate in Moline, Illinois last year, 6-8 forward Ladji Dembele and 6-6 guard/forward Pryce Sandfort.

While Freeman has arguably been the best freshman in the conference, all four of Iowa’s freshmen have had their moments.

Harding recorded a double-double in a win over UMBC on Dec. 20 with 10 points and 12 assists.

And despite his limited playing time, Harding has had at least two assists in 18 games this season.

He credits his teammates for allowing him to be a leader on the court.

“A lot of the older guys, a lot of them weren’t leaders last year just because they had a really old team last year, and so, they kind of had to step into the role this year,” Harding said. ” And they realize how hard I work and how much love I have for the game and how much I really want to win and how much of a competitor I am, and they really want me to show that and they want me to use that because it’s one of the things that makes me who I am.”

Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery doesn’t always know for sure what kind of leader he has when he recruits a player, but Harding was different.

Fran McCaffery saw enough of Harding in high school, and on the AAU circuit, to believe that Harding could be a leader right away.

“I think Brock has that ability,” Fran McCaffery said. “We certainly saw that last year.”

Harding grew up in what he described as a baseball family and it was even his favorite sport for a while.

He played shortstop up until the eighth grade, and when asked Tuesday what kind of shortstop he was, Harding showed another side of his personality, the side with confidence.

“I was a really good shortstop,” Harding said.

He was then asked what his approach at the plate would be against Hawkeye pitcher Brody Brecht, whose fast ball has been clocked at 104 miles per hour.

“I don’t think he would want to see me up there,” Harding said with a sly look on his face.

Harding was, obviously joking, but in some ways maybe he wasn’t.

He believes in his ability and has worked hard to reach this point.

Harding was asked Monday about his struggles from 3-point range where he has made just 10-of-33 attempts this season.

But he blames it mostly on not having that many opportunities to shoot from three, and there probably is some truth to that.

Harding won a state title as a high school senior and was named Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2023, and now his role is increasing for an Iowa team that is trying to make the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season.

His decision to focus solely on basketball was apparently the right decision despite how well Harding said he played shortstop.

“Sixth grade, I started playing AAU and from there I just kind of fell in love with it (basketball) and really loved getting better and my parents kind of saw that,” Harding said. “So, after eighth grade they were okay with me putting all the work into basketball.”

Penn State (14-14, 8-9) vs. Iowa (16-12, 8-9)

When: Tuesday, 8:07 p.m.

Where: Carver-Hawkeye Arena

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

All-time series: Tuesday’s meeting is the 56th in the all-time series that began in 1955. Iowa leads, 33-21.

The Nittany Lions have won three straight in the series, including an 89-79 win on Feb. 8 in Happy Valley.

The Hawkeyes have won each of the last three meetings in Iowa City and are 15-1 in the last 16 games in Carver-Hawkeye Arena dating back 2001. Penn State’s lone win came in 2017, 77-73.

I was a really good shortstop