Trevin Jirak didn’t need a full summer scrimmage to make a case Wednesday morning.
The University of Iowa men’s basketball team was only open to reporters for about 30 minutes at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena practice facility, so nobody is pretending to draw sweeping conclusions from a short look. Still, Jirak stood out. The sophomore from West Des Moines Valley looked quicker, more agile and noticeably more confident, and there were stretches when he even handled the ball and started the offense.
That’s a different kind of role than most people would have expected, but it fits the way Iowa is trying to operate now. Bennett Stirtz is off to the NBA, and Ben McCollum said the Hawkeyes may end up leaning on a group rather than one primary creator.
“It could be a lot of people,” McCollum said, when asked who his main ballhandler will be this season. “Trevin was bringing it up today.
He can bring it up, he can handle the ball. It could just be unique.
I don’t know, I would say we’ve probably got a group of six or seven that can bring it up consistently and get the job done. We just have to be a little bit different in how we play until we get that down, how we’re going to play.”
Jirak isn’t being cast as Stirtz 2.0, and nobody should expect that. But the signs Wednesday pointed to a player who could be ready for a real jump.
He showed it in a few different ways. On one possession, he tracked down a long rebound after a missed 3-pointer by a teammate and knocked down one of his own.
On another, he drifted to the baseline, caught a pass from a driving teammate and buried a 15-footer. Later, his quick hands helped him knock a ball loose and set up a steal.
The work behind that improvement has been obvious, too. Jirak has focused on losing weight, adding strength and sharpening his agility.
“Trevin went on a diet over the summer,” McCollum said. “He has worked in the weight room, on his conditioning, in the gym.
He’s already had the skill set, now he’s moving at a high level. He’s not doing it on his own.
Obviously our strength coach Logan (Ogden) really getting in there (with him) … He’s had a great summer and continues to develop.”
Jirak said the biggest change has been his ability to move laterally.
“Honestly it’s just being able to move laterally,” Jirak said. “Coach O and I worked a little bit.
After the season, we worked on some sprint stuff, change of direction, things like that. Now we all kind of do it together as a team, working on different footwork and ways to change your body and change of direction.
So a lot of it has just been working with Coach O.”
The sophomore’s path to Iowa included an original commitment to Northern Iowa before McCollum was hired. He appeared in 17 games last season and averaged 3.4 points per game, but his growth now looks like it could earn him a bigger slice of the rotation.
Wednesday, that included some time at power forward alongside 7-3 St. Mary’s transfer Andrew McKeever in the post.
“That is some serious size.”
“He’s a good guy,” Jirak said. “It’s fun playing beside him. We’re just getting better every day.”
McCollum said the roster already gives Iowa more shooting and more length, but he also pointed to one area that still needs work.
“We’ve got more shooting, we’ve got more length,” McCollum said of his team. “I think I feel pretty good for about 35 minutes of a game right now, so we’re trying to find that last five minutes.
And that’s a big deal. That’s where we miss Bennett.
That’s a big deal, those last five minutes controlling the game and being able to finish it. But I like our length, I like our shooting, I like our energy, I like our attitudes.
Hopefully it continues down that path.”
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