Men's Basketball Notebook: McCaffery Leads The Nation

Guard is No. 1 in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Iowa’s Connor McCaffery ranks first nationally in NCAA Division I play in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Considering the third-year sophomore isn’t just a point guard makes that statistic even more impressive.

McCaffery has become the utility man for the Hawkeyes, playing four different positions.

“As a coach, it’s rare that you have a guy who starts in the ‘4’ spot, plays a lot at the ‘2,’ and then finishes the game kind of engineering victory at the ‘1’ spot, because it’s so much harder than you think,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery, Connor’s father, during Tuesday’s teleconference. “You’ve got to know the all of the intricacies of everything we’re doing on offense and defense, out-of-bounds plays, etc., and do that without making mistakes.”

Connor McCaffery has a 4.15 assist-to-turnover ratio. He has 93 assists against 20 turnovers, and is coming off a seven-assist, zero-turnover game in Sunday’s 72-65 win over Illinois.

He has eight games this season with no turnovers, playing 252 minutes in those games.

McCaffery is also one of the Hawkeyes’ better defenders with 22 steals.

“I think another stat that’s really impressive with him is he’s got more steals than turnovers, which is a rare stat if you look at that on most players,” Fran McCaffery said.

Connor, in his second full season, was on the court in end-game situations last season, and has continued in that role this season.

“His impact is, when he’s on the floor he helps us win,” Fran McCaffery said. “He’s got a toughness, a sense of where the ball has to go. He recognizes we have three really special offensive talents (center Luka Garza, guard Joe Wieskamp and guard CJ Fredrick) on this team. He knows, ‘I have to get the ball to those guys.’ Those guys are going to score the ball, they’re going to make the right play.”

Bench scoring

All of Iowa’s points in Sunday’s win came from the five starters — Connor McCaffery, Joe Toussaint, Wieskamp, Garza and Fredrick.

Forwards Cordell Pemsl and Ryan Kriener and guard Bakari Evelyn did not score in a combined 48 minutes. They were 0-for-5 from the field.

“To be honest, I’m not worried about it,” McCaffery said. “Kriener can score, Bakari can score. Cordell has scored, he’s scored a few buckets lately. His impact has been a little more defensively and from a passing standpoint. But we’ll get him going offensively as well.”

Kriener has had five double-digit scoring games this season, including a streak of three consecutive. Evelyn, who has scored in double figures once, has just two points in the last five games. Pemsl has six points in his last six.

Watch lists

Garza remains on the top-20 list for the John Wooden Award, given to the top player in college basketball.

Garza is averaging 23 points per game, best in the Big Ten and fourth in the nation. He averages 10.4 rebounds per game, 20th best nationally.

Wieskamp was named one of the 10 finalists for the Jerry West Shooting Guard Of The Year award on Tuesday.

Wieskamp is averaging 15.1 points per game, 17.8 in Big Ten play.

No tickets

Saturday’s game with Nebraska at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, as well as the Feb. 29 game against Penn State, are sold out.