Garza returning for senior year
Luka Garza is coming back for his senior year at the University of Iowa.
The 6-foot-11 All American center announced on Sunday afternoon that he would be returning for one more year rather than declare for the NBA Draft.
Garza blossomed last year and turned into the top post player in the country, earning national player of the year honors according to The Sporting News. He was also a consensus All American, Big Ten Player of the Year, and he was named the winner of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, which goes to the top center in the country.
The Washington, D.C native has had quite a ride with the Hawkeyes. In his freshman year, he started in 26 games and averaged 12.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.
Prior to his sophomore year, Garza had a nine pound cyst removed that was attached to his spleen. Yet, he was ready for action and earned MVP honors at the 2K Classic early in the season. Garza ended up averaging 13.1 points and 4.5 rebounds per game that year as Iowa made a return to the NCAA Tournament.
Then he absolutely exploded in his junior year. Garza had a breakout 44 point scoring performance in December against Michigan and ended the season averaging 23.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. He set the single season scoring mark for an Iowa player with 740 points in the season and he is one of three Big Ten players in conference history to score over 700 points and grab more than 300 rebounds in a single season.
Garza returns to what is a loaded Iowa lineup that in some ways now has seven starters back. Iowa’s top four scorers (Garza, Joe Wieskamp, C.J. Fredrick, and Jordan Bohannon) all averaged over 10 points a game in their career. Connor McCaffery led the country in assist to turnover ratio last season and averaged less than one turnover per game. Iowa will have two starters in Jack Nunge and Joe Toussaint who will come off the bench.
Iowa finished last year with a 20-11 overall record and they were 11-9 in conference play. Now the expectations are going to ramp up as most experts have Iowa as a Top Ten team headed into the season and many believe they could be a Final Four contender with the front runner for National Player of the Year returning for his senior season.
