One of the staples of every team that has made a deep NCAA Tournament run over the past 20+ years has been high quality guard play. In years past, basketball was a big man’s game and the teams with the most dominant inside presence were most impossible to topple. But the game has changed and now relies on three point shooting, ball handling and pressure defense.
The key criticism of Fran McCaffery during his tenure as Iowa head basketball coach has been a lack of success in those post-season runs. Some of that was put to bed a season ago when the Hawkeyes went on a run to win the Big Ten Tournament.