True be told, I thought about putting together and All McCaffery Era team before the start of the season.

This was Fran McCaffery’s tenth year leading the Iowa program and it seemed like a good time to do it heading into the season.

Thankfully I didn’t do it because one of the choices probably would have looked foolish if I had done it in November instead of March. More on that later.

The past ten years has been a resurgence for the Hawkeye basketball program. After three years under the direction of Todd Lickliter, Iowa basketball was a bit of a mess and McCaffery immediately gave life to the program.

Sure the first year didn’t have many high notes, but in the final game of the regular season, Iowa earned their 11th win of the season by upsetting nationally ranked Purdue at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Since that first season, with the exception of the 2017-18 season, Iowa has been in the NCAA or NIT Tournament. This year would have been Iowa’s 5th trip to the NCAA Tournament under McCaffery in the last seven years.

During the last ten years, Iowa has had five players earn first team All Big Ten honors, including this year when Luka Garza earned Big Ten Player of the Year honors. Five Iowa players have earned All Freshman team honors and Gabe Olaseni and Nicholas Baer, were named 6th man of the year.

So, let’s get to the good stuff, who are the starters for the All McCaffery Era team?

I know some might put players in different positions and view them differently, so there’s really no right answer here. This is just one man’s view of the past ten years.

C: Luka Garza

What’s funny about this is before this year, I would have probably opted for Adam Woodbury. After this season it would have looked like one of the dumbest choices I could have ever made. Woodbury had a very solid Iowa career and frankly was the key cog for the Hawkeyes as they took the steps from being an NIT to NCAA Tournament team.

But, Garza is a no-brainer choice here. He essentially re-wrote the record book for Iowa basketball this season, scoring a single season school record 740 points. He averaged 23.9 points and 9.8 rebounds. With one year remaining, Garza has scored 1559 points and if he returns for his senior year. He has a legitimate shot at becoming Iowa’s all-time leading scorer. By the way, I’ll take Woodbury as my backup center.

PF: Aaron White

This was a pretty easy selection. In fact, before Garza’s explosion this year, I’d say that White was the clear best player of the McCaffery era. He was not heavily recruited out of high school, but White quickly made an impact in his first year in an Iowa uniform when he was named to the conferences All Freshman team. In his senior year, he earned first team All Big Ten honors. White is second on the all-time leading scorer with 1,859 points. For my backup at the position, I will take Tyler Cook, who was second team All Big Ten as a junior and a member of the All Freshman team.

SF: Jarrod Uthoff

This was a really close call between Uthoff and Matt Gatens. One thing I tried to do is just stick to the McCaffery era, so Gatens had only two years, while Uthoff had three seasons. Uthoff ended up being a first team All Big Ten selection in his senior year, averaging 18.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Gatens was a very good scorer, averaging 15.2 points per game and 3.6 rebounds in his senior year, earning second team All Big Ten honors.

SG: Devyn Marble

This was probably the hardest call of the entire team. Now, I know some might want to put Marble as the point guard, but I’m sliding him over to the two guard for this team. He played both and certainly had the ball in his hands quite a bit. But, it’s really hard to leave Peter Jok off the first team. He’s one of the purest shooters to ever put on an Iowa uniform, but Marble’s body of work puts him slightly ahead of Jok. Marble is 6th on Iowa’s all-time scoring list with 1,694 points and earned first team All Big Ten honors. Jok scored 1,508 points in his career and earned first team All Big Ten honors in his senior season.

PG: Jordan Bohannon

A pretty easy choice here in opting for Bohannon. He is the all-time leading three point shooter in school history, top ten in career assists, and one of the great big shot makers in school history. Bohannon has scored 1,310 career points, was selected to the All Freshman team and made third team All Big Ten in his junior year. For his backup I would select Mike Gesell, who had 557 career assists and scored 1,072 points in his Iowa career.

6th Man – Nicholas Baer

This was a no-brainer for me. No one in the McCaffery era has provided more energy off the bench than Nicholas Baer. He made plays all over the floor with his hustle. Baer ended his career with 791 points, 578 rebounds, 169 assists, 132 assists, and 121 steals in his Iowa career. He was named 6th man of the year in the Big Ten for his play and he’s a certainly worthy of being on this team.