This is an article by Luke Maiers.

As the end of the Big Ten regular season hit Sunday night, all of the athletes stats for the season were final. With every point, rebound, and assist tallied, it was time for the conference to hand down the yearly awards. On Monday afternoon, they were released. To the surprise of no one, Caleb Swanigan and Ethan Happ were both named First Team All Big Ten. What might have grabbed the attention of Big Ten basketball fans was that a former walk on was named the Sixth Man of the year.

Nicholas Baer is a redshirt sophomore at the University of Iowa, and outside of the Hawkeye State, not many other fans probably know who this kid is. When people watch an Iowa game and see a scrawny, white kid who wears the number 51 check in for the first time, they probably aren’t intimidated. They should be, though, because when he checks in the bear has been released from his cage.

 

Baer attended Bettendorf High School in the Quad Cities and was a standout on the basketball court there. Once it came time for him to graduate from high school, he chose to walk on at Iowa and be coached by Fran McCaffery. The animal was released shortly after that.

In Baer’s first year of playing time, his numbers were good but not great, but you could ask any Iowa fan who was the person that did the most for the team and you would hear his name on top of that list. He scored, he rebounded, he assisted, he blocked shots. Baer was literally playing with the same mentality as an actual bear. His play during the 2015-2016 season would eventually land him a scholarship with the team.

Fast forward to his second season on the floor as a Hawkeye, and you can even see more growth as a player and leader. 7.6 points, 6 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 1.5 steals are his per game averages. Baer does it all and his stat sheet at the end of every game reflects it. His leadership on the floor is noticeable as well. This year’s Iowa team has five freshman that see a lot of playing time during the course of a game, and Baer is always that guy that knows when to calm it down and when to push full throttle.

Baer has been compared to an Iowa great who died in the ’90s, and his name is Chris Street. These two players have a lot of similarities in how they play the game. What makes these two different from other players is the way that they carry themselves. Rarely would you see Street walking around with a sad/angry look on his face, and the same can be said for Baer. These two embodied what it meant to be a Hawkeye.

Nicholas Baer for the Sixth Man of the Year in the Big Ten is without-a-doubt the correct choice. Without him in an Iowa uniform this team would be lacking something major, and that would be heart. Don’t look past this kid for the next two seasons.