How Cam Manyawu transformed into valuable 'glue guy' for Iowa basketball

TAMPA, Fla. — Chris Neff had seen Cam Manyawu plenty of times before. But not quite like this.

It was the state playoffs during Manyawu’s senior season at Staley High School (MO). Manyawu’s statistics in that win, Neff warned, were underwhelming: Nine points, one rebound, one block and two steals. But to Neff, Staley’s coach, there was a greater meaning to Manyawu’s performance that game.

The intensity Neff had been trying so hard to pull out of Manyawu for the better part of two seasons was more apparent than ever. “He was an unstoppable force that day,” Neff said. “I had seen him do that.

I’d seen that before. I just hadn’t seen it in that fashion and for that long of a period. ” Manyawu might be one of the more underappreciated pieces of an Iowa basketball team that made the NCAA Tournament in coach Ben McCollum’s first season at the helm.