Iowa’s Joe Wieskamp, right, blocks the shot of Utah State’s Neemias Queta during the NBA Draft Combine at the Wintrust Arena on Thursday. Wieskamp scored 34 points in two games at the combine.
Iowa’s Joe Wieskamp participates in the lane agility drill at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago on Tuesday.
Iowa’s Joe Wieskamp participates in the NBA Draft Combine on Tuesday. His maximum 42-inch vertical leap was the fourth best among all the players who participated.
If you’re an Iowa basketball fan, you probably were thinking this at some point.
You hoped that after going through the NBA draft process, Joe Wieskamp would come to his senses, realize this isn’t the right time to turn pro, return to the Hawkeyes, average a couple dozen points per game next season and really raise his stock as a prospect for the 2022 draft.
Admit it. You held out hopes that it would happen that way, right?
We’ve suspected for some time that Wieskamp wasn’t coming back and in the past week it became a slam dunk.
The former Muscatine High School star has attacked his professional future with an immense amount of effort, determination and intelligence, and has raised his stock higher than if he averaged 30 a game next season.
The sensible thing now — really the only thing — is to stay in the draft and see what happens when NBA teams gather to divvy up this year’s talent on July 29.
Going into last week’s NBA pre-draft combine, Wieskamp was barely rated among the top 100 prospects. He was widely viewed as a premium shooter — no one ever has disputed that — who was a marginal athlete who might have a shot at making it as a role player.
