Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff deserves national player of the year talk

If not enough people are aware of the season Jarrod Uthoff is having, it’s not his coach’s fault for underselling him.

“There’s no question he’s one of the best players in the country,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said.

And he’s right. Not only is Uthoff the best player on the best team in the Big Ten at the moment, he’s also put up impressive individual stats to make the case, too. The senior is averaging 18.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game. He’s scored at least 20 points in more games (10) than not.

Yet he’s notably absent — or lagging — in the National Player of the Year conversation, kind of like how Iowa isn’t getting enough respect as a true national title contender, despite a résumé that has the Hawkeyes as a No. 1 seed in the latest USA TODAY Sports bracketology.

NCAA tournament bracketology: Projecting the field of 68

“He’s really an amazing player,” McCaffery said. “He can do it inside. He can do it on the perimeter. He can do it in transition. We can run sets for him, and nothing seems to rattle him. We feel like, if he’s open, everything’s going in.

“So we just keep going to him.”

Uthoff did not make the Wooden Award preseason watch list, which included 50 names. He was one of five players added to its midseason top 25 list, announced earlier this month. On Monday, he was added to the watch list for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, the player of the year award sponsored by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association. He’s coming on, and if he keeps producing at this rate and Iowa keeps playing this well (the Hawkeyes are No. 4 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and have won nine in a row), he could be a first-team All-American by season’s end.

Regardless of individual accomplishments and awards that may come into the picture for the 6-9 senior from Cedar Rapids, the season is shaping up to be a great finish to what started as an itinerant career.

The former Iowa Mr. Basketball began his college career at Wisconsin, where he redshirted. When Uthoff decided to transfer, Badgers coach Bo Ryan restricted him from transferring to 26 schools, which included the entire Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference. The messy breakup ultimately ended with an appeal and some restrictions lifted, except the ban on the Big Ten schools.

Despite the restriction, Uthoff eventually chose Iowa, opting to pay his own way while sitting out his first year at the school, per transfer rules. He couldn’t contact the Iowa coaching staff, either, until he enrolled and arrived on campus in fall 2012.

Even now, years later, Uthoff doesn’t like to talk about Wisconsin and the way he left it. Between the way it unfolded and sitting out for two consecutive entire seasons, the stretch is far from a fond memory of his time in basketball.

“Very difficult — really, that's all I can say about it,” Uthoff said. “It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through, not playing and watching your team go out there and the fact that you've never played in a college basketball game — it just kills you on the sideline.”

He passed the time in the gym, working on moving forward and not thinking about the past. Uthoff kept busy, too, driving to visit his now-fiancée whom he met during his freshman year at Wisconsin. She ultimately transferred to Iowa the year after he did. So his time at Wisconsin wasn’t all bad. “I got something out of it, yeah,” Uthoff said, cracking a smile.

He finally saw the court in the 2013-14 season but struggled with inconsistent play. He said he had to focus on rebuilding his confidence all while adjusting to the college game.

Steadily, he grew more consistent off the bench, and more confident in himself, too. Last season was another stepping stone, as he became the nation’s only player to tally 50 blocks, 50 threes and 35 steals. He was named third-team All-Big Ten at year’s end.

Uthoff took yet another step this past offseason, which included putting on 15 pounds to get to 220, according to his coach. He also competed in the Nike Basketball Academy in Santa Monica, Calif., alongside the best players in college basketball.

Uthoff was primed for a huge senior season.

“You could just see it coming,” McCaffrey said.

He could. Now, everyone else is, too.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK