IOWA CITY — Iowa sophomore guard Dasonte Bowen will miss the rest of the 2023-24 season with a lingering knee injury, according to head coach Fran McCaffery at Tuesday's postgame press conference after the Hawkeyes beat Penn State, 90-81.

"Dasonte, he's injured, so that's why he hasn't been playing," said McCaffery. "He hurt his knee. He's going to be having surgery coming up here. So, we're all pulling for him as he's going through that difficulty. He's a terrific young man."

Bowen will finish the season averaging 4.4 points, 2.0 assists and 1.3 rebounds per game. He played 25 games, starting the first eight games of the season at point guard before moving to the bench. Bowen's season high of 17 points came against Arkansas State.

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Bowen's minutes continued to drop after moving to the bench, and he missed the last four games entirely. McCaffery attributed that declining workload to Bowen's injury.

"It's been lingering," McCaffery said. "He's a tough kid. He's been trying to play through it. It just got to a point where it was time."

McCaffery didn't provide any specifics on Bowen's injury, but said his surgery is scheduled for "a little less than two weeks."

While this is difficult news for Bowen, it should have minimal effect on Iowa's season as the team has already gone through the process of adjusting to the injury and Bowen's absence. Bowen's declining workload has given rise to more minutes for Josh Dix, who started Bowen's first game off the bench (the 90-65 loss at Purdue) and rejoined the starting lineup for good on January 15 in Iowa's 86-77 victory at Minnesota.

The larger issue, though, is that this injury brings even more uncertainty to Bowen's role in the backcourt for 2024-25 and beyond. Brock Harding is already assuming leadership as a true freshman point guard coming off the bench. Meanwhile, Dix scored 20 points for the second-straight game in Tuesday's win and looks like he's on a star trajectory of his own.

Still, when Bowen's healthy, he's lightning-fast and productive; his assist and turnover rates this season were comparable to those of teammate Tony Perkins, even if Bowen's 6'2", 183-pound frame limits his effectiveness as a rim scorer. How he fits into Iowa's rotation next season is very much a question mark, but with Perkins set to graduate and only a pair of forwards in the 2024 recruiting class, there's absolutely still reason to believe Bowen's best days in black and gold are still available in the future.