By Blake Dowson
It set up well to be a Cordell Pemsl night for Iowa. For one, with all the 3-point shooting the Hawkeyes have been doing, head coach Fran McCaffery surely wanted to see more of an inside presence and awareness for good shots against Stetson, a team Iowa finally had a size advantage over.
“The thing about [Pemsl] is he knows what’s a good shot and what’s not a good shot,” McCaffery said. “He’s got great hands, great touch. He’s crafty around the basket … but he can make passes, and he doesn’t put his head down and spin into traffic and fall over and turn it over that leads to a transition basket.
“He knows when to go and when not to go. That’s not often the case with young players.”
The Hawkeyes didn’t want to be involved in another shootout, anyway. Giving up 90 points every game gets old really quickly.
On top of all that, leading scorer Peter Jok had one of his worst shooting nights as a Hawkeye, going 4-of-13 from the field.
So yes, it seemed even before tipoff that Pemsl could be in for a big night. But just about every person inside Carver-Hawkeye left with a different impression of Pemsl than when they showed up to watch him take on the Hatters.
He and his freshmen teammates put on quite a show against Stetson.
“It’s exciting for Iowa basketball,” Pemsl said. “Isaiah [Moss] was scoring the ball tonight. Shots weren’t falling for Jordan [Bohannon], but he did a great job passing. He knows he can find me, and we’re going to be a great combo over the next four years … we just wanted to show up and play the way we know we can as freshmen.”
The Dubuque native was placed in the starting lineup after fellow freshman Tyler Cook was injured. Since then, Pemsl has looked like the prize recruit in the class.
In his three starts, he has averaged 19 points. The kicker is he’s doing it at an efficiency level that can hardly be matched in the college game right now.
Against Notre Dame (his first start), Pemsl was 8-of-9 from the field for 18 points in 23 minutes. His next start, against Nebraska-Omaha, he was 6-of-7 for 18 points in 24 minutes.
And against Stetson — 9-of-11 for a career-high 21 points in 22 minutes.
Since he was inserted into the starting lineup, he’s shooting 85 percent from the field. No, not from the free-throw line. From the field.
Bohannon knows Pemsl as well as anybody on the team. The two played travel basketball together during the summer and played against each other in high school.
Having Pemsl on the court with him, Bohannon said, has kept him comfortable — he’s made his first three career starts alongside him.
“If I miss a shot, he’s going to be able to get a board, he’s got such a big body,” Bohannon said. “He’s able to get any board he wants. We’ve got really good chemistry, [I know] I can throw the ball into the block, and he can put it up for a lay-up.
“That’s what he’s capable of doing every night with all of the threats we have on the floor.”
Pemsl said after the Stetson win his teammate, Cook, is still the stud of the freshman class.
He was quick to point out that Iowa is just 1-2 in its past three games.
But it’s undeniable that his face is squarely in the spotlight, even if it dims a bit when Cook returns to the lineup and even if he won’t admit it.
“I haven’t stolen anything from [Cook],” Pemsl said. “He’s still a top-50 recruit. Obviously, it was unfortunate that he went down with his hand injury, but Coach said it’s the next guy up. I got the opportunity to step into his position, I’m just doing what I have to do, and it’s fun now that we’re winning.”
