The No. 3 Iowa men’s basketball team, with its surprising bench, heads to Maryland.

By Ian Murphy | [email protected]

Of all the surprises so far in the Iowa men’s basketball team’s season, the development of the bench stands out most.

The bench features one player with experience in Dom Uhl, two redshirt freshmen in Brady Ellingson and Nicholas Baer as well as a handful of newcomers poised to make an impact.

Almost two-thirds of the way through the season, the Hawkeyes substitutions have developed into a strong point.

“I’ve said this before in September, I didn’t know where our bench was,” head coach Fran McCaffery said. “We weren’t ready. It would have been a hard fight with five guys, six, maybe.”

McCaffery said he knew he could rely on Uhl, but the rest of the bench not only was a question mark, the players had to earn their stripes in a trial by fire against the likes of Florida State, Marquette, and Iowa State.

And to their credit, they have performed spectacularly. Uhl averages just over 7 points, Baer a bit over 5, and Ahmad Wagner averages close to 3 rebounds per game.

“There was no time for those guys to kind of kick it off their foot, and miss a shot, and kind of play through their mistakes,” McCaffery said. “They didn’t have that luxury.”

Losing to anybody

With the rash of upsets in college basketball so far, the Hawkeyes would be wise to keep an eye behind them.

Just last week, seven of the top-eight teams in the country lost, which provided the Hawkeyes with a springboard for their jump from No. 9 in the AP and USA Today coaches’ poll to No. 3 in the AP and No. 4 in the coaches’ poll, respectively.

But the Hawkeyes might know as well as anyone in college basketball any team is capable of losing.

“That’s a prime-time example,” senior Anthony Clemmons said. “Nobody expected us to lost to Augustana. We didn’t expect to lose to Augustana.

“You can’t not bring it for the first 35 minutes and then bring it the last five and expect to win.”

Preparing for Trimble

Maryland’s Melo Trimble is one of the best point guards in the country. The 6-3 sophomore averages 14.8 points and 5.7 assists per game for the Terrapins.

McCaffery had high praise for Trimble on Tuesday, noting he could score on his own as well as set up his teammates, although he’s toughest off screens.

“He’s brutal in ball screens; a lot of times he doesn’t even need a screen because he’s so quick, and he gives it up easy, and he gives it up early,” McCaffery said.

Guarding Trimble, McCaffery said, will be a full team effort.

The Hawkeyes install the scout team two days before the game, so they hadn’t seen Maryland yet, but Uthoff said the team would continue the success they’ve had.

“We’ve just got to stay true to ourselves. Maryland’s a very good team,” he said. “We’ve just got to do what we do.”