Casual fans may not realize that Iowa's Luka Garza is the front-runner for national player of the year awards. Hearing him speak about Tuesday's game against No. 16 North Carolina revealed one of the biggest reasons why.
The 6-foot-11 forward and reigning Big Ten Player of the Year rattled off the list of who he may be defended by in Carolina's frontcourt right down to 7-foot-1 freshman Walker Kessler, who has played all of 36 minutes this season. Garza's preparation is as complete as his skill set.
"You got Garrison Brooks, who is the leader of them, and I think he's a great player," Garza said. "We were in high school around the same time, so it's been fun seeing him develop there at Carolina. He's gotten so much better over the years and it's gonna be a fun matchup."
Brooks may not be the one who matches up with Garza. UNC head coach Roy Williams said during his Monday afternoon video conference that Brooks still had not practiced full court since their 67-63 loss to Texas on Wednesday. Brooks came down on a teammates' foot in the second half and sprained his ankle.
He did finish out the game against the Longhorns, but Williams said he only returned to do some drills of half-court sets on Sunday.
The Tar Heels' (3-1) game against the No. 3 Hawkeyes (3-0) at 7:30 p.m. in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge could come down to how well they can defend Garza. Through three games, he's averaged 34 points and 9.7 rebounds while shooting 76% from the field. He even leads the team in 3-point percentage for those with more than two attempts, making 5 of his 8 tries.
"This game is definitely unique with the versatility of their bigs and how many bigs they do have," Garza said. " ... I don't think there's a team with four, 6-(foot)-11-plus (bigs) who are all relentless on the glass. I don't think we've seen a team like that in the Big 10."
The Heels rank fifth nationally in offensive rebounding percentage, grabbing 44.7%% of their missed shots, according to Kenpom.com. UNC is the first ranked opponent Iowa has seen this season after it breezed past N.C. Central, Southern University and Western Illinois in its first three games.
"It's very exciting for me, I love playing against the best players and I think this group of bigs is tremendous," Garza said.
Carolina hasn't seen anyone like Garza, who's scored more than 30 points in the first half of Iowa's last two games. He's the centerpiece for a team ranked third overall in offensive efficiency, according to Kenpom.com.
"It'll be a load for us to be able to — or our young big guys to try to — guard a big guy who's really skilled, who's very well experienced," Williams said. "Fran (McCaffrey) does a great job with his team and they've got a lot of weapons, but there's no question that Garza, you've got to try to cut down his percentage first."
Garza has scored from the post 60% of the time, according to Synergy, and he doesn't have any offensive categories that the service rates him below "excellent."
The Heels' ability to throw different defenders, including Armando Bacot, Day'Ron Sharpe and Kessler, at him may be their only advantage. But Garza won't be surprised by what's coming. The Washington, D.C., native said he played with Bacot before on the AAU circuit.
"He was a grade below me, but he's also relentless and a very skilled post player," Garza said. "And then you got those two freshmen, Sharpe and Kessler, I think those guys are really, really good and they have a lot of potential. They're just — all of them are relentless on the glass. That's our biggest focus for this for this game. It's just to slow them down in terms of rebounding."
