It Takes a Village to Make a Basketball Star, Just Ask Iowa's Jarrod Uthoff

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A month ago, Iowa coach Fran McCaffery called Jarrod Uthoff into his office. His senior star had failed to score in double digits for the only time all season in a loss to Maryland, and McCaffery sensed he needed a pick-me-up. 

The coach showed him film of the Maryland game and what Uthoff could have done better. He pointed out the different ways teams were trying to slow him down, and McCaffery delivered a simple message: You still have the green light. We want you to be aggressive.

This kind of check-in on your star player after a rough game wasn't unusual for McCaffery, but how Uthoff reacted was.

"He said, 'Coach, thanks a lot. I really appreciate it,'" McCaffery said. "He was so genuinely appreciative of the time I took with him. To me, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is what I told you I'd do when I recruited you. We would coach you. We would help you. I'm not going to scream at you because you scored nine points. You've been one of the best players in the country. We love ya."

Uthoff has certainly been one of the nation's best players this season, averaging 18.5 points and 6.4 rebounds and leading the Big Ten in blocks at 2.7 per game. 

Despite a recent slump for the Hawkeyes, who have lost three straight and fallen from No. 3 to No. 16 in the rankings, Uthoff is still in the conversation for All-America honors. He is in seventh place in Ken Pomeroy's Player of the Year ratings, which uses advanced statistics and team strength to rank the nation's best players. 

The journey to potential All-America status has been an unusual one, starting at Wisconsin and then finding the perfect fit just down the road from his hometown after a controversial transfer, and didn't come without plenty of help from those closest to him.  

Uthoff was slow to realize just how talented he was when he arrived at Iowa four years ago. He had been one of the most noteworthy transfers that year—not because of his ability but because of how the coach he left, Wisconsin's Bo Ryan, reacted.

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Uthoff had committed to Wisconsin in the summer of 2010 in part because the programs closest to home (Iowa, Iowa State and Creighton) were all going through coaching changes.

Soon it became clear the Badgers' style of play was not a good match, and Uthoff began the process of transferring. "I had people telling me their style of play will fit you and all this," Uthoff said. "I really didn't know much. You're a 17-year-old kid. You don't know what you're looking for. You tend to make mistakes." 

But all was not lost in his one year at Wisconsin. It was there that he met his fiancee, Jessie Jordan, who was on the golf team and eventually followed Uthoff to Iowa a year after he left.  

Ryan made national headlines by blocking Uthoff from attending any school in the Big Ten and ACC, along with Iowa State, Marquette and Florida. When Ryan started to get some bad press nationally, he went on ESPN's Mike and Mike show and dug himself an even deeper public relations hole.

Ryan's biggest gripe was that Uthoff hadn't come to see him face-to-face. Uthoff doesn't like to talk about it now, but it's obvious that the fact that Ryan portrayed him as a player who avoided speaking to him bothers him.

Uthoff said he had told Ryan he wanted to meet after the season, then the coach was gone for the Final Four and then went on vacation after that. Uthoff was getting antsy because the spring signing period was approaching.

"I need to find my new home," Uthoff said. "I'm already checked out. I'm gone here. I need to start taking steps forward here. So I called him on the phone and I told him what the deal was. He's like, 'Well, I can't do anything until I get back.'"

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Uthoff told Ryan he would see him in his office when he got back. Two days later, one of the Wisconsin assistants met with him. Following that conversation, he started getting calls from other coaches.

"I got it from another college coach that I'd been released, which was a shock to me," Uthoff said. "Because I was still waiting to hear from Bo when he got back. I didn't know when he got back. I thought he'd call me and we could meet. The last thing I wanted to do was have that phone conversation, and that's the way it had to be and sometimes you have to do the uncomfortable."

Eventually, Wisconsin released Uthoff to most schools. He decided to attend Iowa because he liked McCaffery's uptempo style and it was close to home. But the move had its costs. He had to sit out another year, and he also had to pay his own way since he was transferring within the conference. He couldn't even talk to the Iowa coaches until he was enrolled. 

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The dog days of February have been rough on the Hawkeyes, but Uthoff has the closest thing to a sports psychologist that you'll find in his fiancee. 

Jessie Jordan knows athletic success. Her father, Ohio congressman Jim Jordan, won two national titles as a wrestler at Wisconsin in the 1980s. Her older brother, Ben, finished seventh nationally in his weight class and was an All-American in 2012. Her younger brother, Isaac, won a Big Ten title last year at Wisconsin, is a two-time All-American and is currently 21-0 this season and ranked second nationally at 165 pounds. 

"I think that's why I like Jarrod, because I see that same fire that I hadn't seen in anyone other than the people I was related to," Jordan said. "Obviously, there are more people like that, but when you live in a little fishbowl, it's kind of hard to come across them." 

Jordan said holidays at her house were built around training schedules—they couldn't open presents until her brothers were finished cutting weight.

Courtesy of Jessie Jordan

Uthoff came about developing a special work ethic through his upbringing as well. 

The youngest of five children, Uthoff grew up in a blue-collar family that lived down the road from Iowa City in the small town of Marengo (population 2,500). His father is an electrician at the nearby refrigeration plant. His mother managed a convenience store, which his father would help run after his shift, often staying until 11 p.m.

"Above all else, they instilled in me hard work," Uthoff said. "You've got a couple of parents who wake up at 4:30 in the morning, go to work, and then they work all day. Seeing them and the amount of hours they worked to provide for all of us kids is something special, and you look at that and you're very grateful for what you have."

Jordan, he says, has helped him with his confidence, and that's something he struggled with early on at Iowa after not playing in a game that counted for two years. Uthoff spent his first year of eligibility at Iowa as a shooter off the bench, hitting 42.5 percent from deep and averaging 7.6 points per game in 18.2 minutes, but it took time to get back in the groove.

He spent many nights after games in the gym with Jordan. She would rebound, and he would shoot until he felt better about himself. "He can't sleep until he feels like he has corrected the problem," Jordan said.

Uthoff would also watch tape of his made shots—something he still does occasionally when he feels his shooting has gone awry. 

There hasn't been much need for that this season, but sometimes he needs reminders of how good he can be. That's where Jordan comes in. 

"She's always there to say the right thing and keep my mind right," Uthoff said. "Tell me what I need to hear at times." 

Jordan's crowning achievement this year was a stern talk that came prior to Iowa's Dec. 10 road game at Iowa State. Uthoff poured in 30 points on 13 shots in the first half in Ames after Jordan had let him know she felt like he wasn't playing his best.

Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press

"I don't like getting into confrontations with him ever, but sometimes things need to be said to bring out the best in him," she said. "He was accepting less because he felt like that was more than anyone expected of him. I just quickly reminded him that's not what I expect of him. He needed to perform better."

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Uthoff, who majored in economics as an undergrad, has his own analytical way of looking at the game. He likes to understand the reasoning behind things. And if he doesn't, he'll let you hear about it.

"I remember our first accounting class we had together, I felt like our entire class was a conversation between him and the teacher," senior guard Mike Gesell said. "He always wants to know why. Always wants to know why."

Such an approach has paid off on the court this season, his second as a starter but his first moving from small forward to power forward.

	PPG	RPG	BPG
2013-14	7.6	4.6	1.1
2014-15	12.4	6.4	1.6
2015-16	18.5	6.4	2.7

Previously, Uthoff had come off a lot of pindown screens to set up his jumper. Now, he's often used as a screener from the 4 position, and his looks are coming all over the court, forcing defenses to adjust constantly.

"I think it has allowed him to be more on the perimeter. He can bring his guy out when he has a 4 man on him because he's quicker than 4 men and bigger than 3 men," Gesell said. "When he has a 4 man on him, we try to…iso him on the wing and then when that starts going, and they have to put a smaller guy, a quicker guy [on him], we'll roll him into the post and let him do his work down there."

McCaffery has given Uthoff the freedom to take just about any shot he wants, including from far beyond the three-point arc. Uthoff has already made more threes this year (55) than he attempted in his first season at Iowa (40) and connected at 39.9 percent.

"

I mean... This is silly, Jarrod Uthoff. #FromDesMoines #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/S8VZpIEA2x

— Chris Douglas (@ChrisDouglas515) February 15, 2016"

McCaffery has also learned to accept some of the more unorthodox shots that are in Uthoff's bag of tricks. He shoots the Dirk Nowitzki-inspired one-footed fadeaway and also has an array of off-balance shots.

"Normally you would tell your guys, 'don't take that shot,'" McCaffery said. "Sometimes when he'll have what's seemingly an easy shot, he'll turn it into what looks like a hard shot when in actuality he makes the harder shot more often than he would make the easier shot.

"I know that sounds illogical, but he'll have an opportunity to go straight up off his left shoulder and he'll turn the other way and shoot a one-legged step-back and make it, and you just say, 'OK. That's Jarrod.'"

Uthoff's defense is just as frustrating to endure for the opposition. He ranks 11th nationally in blocked shots, but he's the best in the country away from the rim at swatting shots. Uthoff has blocked more jump shots than any player in the country, according to Jeff Haley of Hoop-Math.com. 

	Blocked 2-pt Js	Blocked 3s	Total
1. Jarrod Uthoff, Iowa	42	13	55
2. Jito Kok, San Diego	53	1	54
3. Egidijus Mockevicius, Evansville	48	1	49
4. Will Kelly, Navy	45	2	47
5. A.J. Hammons, Purdue	46	0	46

"What's interesting is he gets most of his recognition because of his shot-blocking and his length, but his ability to move his feet laterally is phenomenal for a guy as tall as he is with that length," McCaffery said. "He can keep the dribbler in front of him, which a lot of long, lanky shot-blockers kind of play alongside of you and then they go contest you at the rim. He'll move his feet and then jump up right in your face and block your shot. That's really hard to do."

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Matthew Holst/Getty Images

Uthoff is hesitant to bask in any of his glory. 

"He's scoring points to where if he really wanted to hunt baskets and he was selfish at all—'I'm going to lead the Big Ten in scoring. I'm going to be one of the top scorers in the country'—he could," McCaffery said. "But he doesn't play the game that way. He doesn't think that way. It's been a struggle for me since he got here to get him to shoot more."

It's quickly apparent that the Uthoff who talks to reporters is not the Uthoff his family and teammates know. To those who know him well, he is a big goof, often turning pregame stretching into a dance. To reporters, he is guarded in interviews. Maybe because of what happened at Wisconsin.

At home, he doesn't have Internet or cable, partly because he's frugal—the Uthoffs didn't have cable for much of his childhood, either—but it's also about avoiding the outside noise.

"I think that's where kind of being a recluse now comes from because of that media firestorm," Jordan said of the response to Uthoff's transfer. "In that situation, he realized it was best to stay out of it and not follow it."

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Away from the public eye, though, Uthoff has struck those around him with a generosity all admire.

During Uthoff's senior season at Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, his coach, Stu Ordman, was approached by the mother of a grade schooler from a poor family. The child loved basketball but didn't like to read. The mom asked if her son could meet the team and meet Uthoff, his favorite player.

After a game, Uthoff talked to the boy and encouraged him to read. Four weeks later, Ordman got an email from the mother, thanking the coach for Uthoff coming over each week to read with her son.

"I'm like, what? He never said a word to me," Ordman said. "He continued to go visit the kid every week. He doesn't do it for the recognition."

In March (or possibly April), Uthoff will finish one of the best seasons in the history of Iowa basketball. Postseason accolades will follow. 

And he's content if no one notices. 

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @CJMooreBR.