Iowa Basketball Players Get Creative With Workouts During Quarantine

Summer schedule was paused last week after two players tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

Iowa's men's basketball team has three players who have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

The team paused its summer workouts last week after two players tested positive. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said on Sunday that the total is up to three.

 “So, we’re supporting them and recognizing that while (the decision about playing a season) is the most important thing, seemingly — really, the most important thing this morning was making sure our three guys are doing OK [and] everyone else is doing OK," McCaffery said during Sunday's video conference where center Luka Garza announced he would be returning for his senior season.

The program paused workouts for 14 days beginning on July 28. The Iowa athletic department protocol includes isolation for those who have tested positive and quarantine for those who might have been exposed to the virus.

Forward Joe Wieskamp said the players who tested positive reported mild symptoms but have since recovered.

Joe Wieskamp (10) said the Iowa players have had to get creative with their workouts since they have been in quarantine since last week. (Jeffrey Becker/USA Today Sports)

“It seems like everyone is doing pretty good,” Wieskamp said. “The rest of the team is doing well, just kind of pushing through this quarantine and finding ways in which we can work out and stay connected through it. It’s obviously unfortunate we have to be quarantined, but we have to be safe.”

Wieskamp also noted the importance of strength and conditioning coach Bill Maxwell. With many players locked out of gyms, he said Maxwell sent body-weight workouts for the team.

Even with workouts included in its regimen, the team had to figure out how to work on its basketball skills with the resources it had away from the team facility.

“The biggest thing is we had to get creative,” Wieskamp said. “A lot of guys were shut out of gyms and maybe had to shoot in their driveway and do ball handling. Use different equipment that usually wouldn’t be used in weightlifting and kind of just make stuff up as you go.”

Now, Iowa turns its attention to the season.

With Garza — the biggest question mark surrounding the team — back for another year, the Hawkeyes find themselves as a potential top-five team in the preseason.

That bodes well for a team that fought through the majority of last season without Jordan Bohannon, Jack Nunge, and Patrick McCaffery, who received medical redshirts.

The team has already battled through challenges. Now, McCaffery is preparing his squad to do it again.

“It’s not only the adversity that we’re facing as a group, it’s the adversity that we face every day with our families and just going to school,” McCaffery said. “We just roll with it. You deal with the adversity as it comes. Maybe it makes you stronger. It certainly brings you more together. With the information we have, like we said, is there will be a season. When that is, we’ll be ready.”