Friday, 29th March 2024

McCaffery, Morgan entertain at Iowa County I-Club

Posted on 07. Jun, 2010 by in Iowa Basketball, Iowa Football

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By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

LITTLE AMANA, Iowa — The I-Club spring circuit entered its final stages this week inside the Colony Village Restaurant, where the Iowa County I-Club held its annual banquet Monday evening.

Iowa play-by-play man Gary Dolphin was the event’s MC, and it featured two guest speakers in offensive line coach Reese Morgan, and new men’s basketball head coach Fran McCaffery.

Also on hand were two senior student-athletes in Brett Greenwood (football) and Kelsey Cermak (women’s basketball). The two were interviewed by Dolphin during the night’s main event after handing out raffle prizes to those on hand.

From there, Morgan took the microphone and conducted a 17-minute speech previewing the upcoming season for the 2010 football team. He reported that all the players returned for summer workouts on Monday, and he outlined for the crowd the type of schedule strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle will have them going through.

“We’ll go four weeks now, take a week off Fourth of July, go three weeks in July, and then get ready for the season,” Morgan said to the 150-200 members on hand for Monday’s banquet.

Morgan also revealed that today was the first day back together for the coaching staff after spending weeks on the recruiting trail. He talked about Monday was spent looking at opponents, and didn’t even hesitate revealing how they studied their opponent “West of Highway 30.”

When breaking down each group of players, two names not mentioned were those of running back Jewel Hampton and cornerback Jordan Bernstine, who were both arrested on June 5 for public intoxication in Iowa City. Morgan mentioned Shaun Prater and Micah Hyde when discussing cornerbacks, and then brought up Brett Morse, Adam Robinson and Brandon Wegher when talking about the Hawkeye backfield.

Finally, Morgan talked about incoming freshmen and made note of offensive lineman Brandon Scherff, who he said was listed on Monday weighing 320 pounds and wants to trim down to 305 pounds.

The man of the evening, though, was McCaffery, making his seventh appearance on the I-Club circuit since being introduced as Iowa’s new men’s basketball coach on March 29. In fact, after Dolphin introduced McCaffery to the crowd, the former Siena coach received a standing ovation.

Among the highlights of McCaffery’s speech was the same story he told on the day he was introduced about one of his players when coaching Lehigh got a standing ovation from the Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd.

He also had one gem that got a rouse from those on hand to hear him.

“If the shot presents itself early in the shot clock, we’re going to shoot the ball. We’re not going to grind to the end of the shot clock and sit back in half-court man-to-man defense,” McCaffery said. “It’s the only way I know how to coach, and I’m a firm believer in letting our players play.

“We have some really good players, and I have to tell you, they have worked extremely hard since I’ve been hired in the weight room, in skill development sessions, but most importantly, in recruiting.”

Like Morgan, McCaffery mentioned weight changes on two of Iowa’s returning players. He said junior Matt Gatens has slimmed down from 224 pounds to 208 pounds, and that sophomore Eric May has gone up to 223 pounds.

“I’m excited about not only how they’ve responded to me, but how they’ve bought into what I’ve asked them to do,” he said. “I think we’re going to surprise some people.”

The I-Club circuit features three more spring banquets this week.

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