IOWA MEN'S BASKETBALL

Iowa looking into 6th season for Jones

Rick Brown

ribrown@dmreg.com

IOWA CITY — Iowa guard Dale Jones will have season-ending knee surgery later this month, and the school is making plans to appeal for a sixth season of eligibility. Jones, a native of Waterloo and transfer from Tyler Junior College in Texas, injured his right knee in practice Dec. 1.

Iowa will file an appeal to NCAA to get Dale Jones a sixth season of eligibility.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said that Jones will have surgery around Dec. 18. Jones, who was averaging 5.5 points and 3.0 rebounds off the bench, injured the same knee in 2014, before his sophomore season at Tyler. He redshirted the 2013-14 season after surgery.

McCaffery thinks there is a chance the NCAA will grant Jones a sixth season.

“There’s a precedent for it,” McCaffery said. “Certainly he would be eligible for that.”

McCaffery also said that freshman Brandon Hutton will redshirt this season. Earlier, the school announced that freshman Isaiah Moss would do the same thing. That leaves just half of this season’s six-member recruiting class – Ahmad Wagner, Andrew Fleming and Christian Williams – in competition for a spot in the playing rotation.