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Fran McCaffery answers questions from a room filled with reporters Oct. 11 during the team's annual media day in the Feller Club Room inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. (Photo by Darren Miller) Sprinkle in the best recruiting class in years, and it's easy to see why things are looking up in Iowa City. "Practices this year will be so much more competitive that they have been in the previous two years," McCaffery said. "Players are going aſter playing time, they're going aſter starting roles. That's only going to make our team better. " McCaffery said the Big Conference traditionally advances six to eight teams to the NCAA Tournament; he sees eight going this season, based on the strength of the league he called "without a doubt the best conference in the country. " Five Big Ten teams are ranked in the Preseason USA Today Coaches Poll, highlighted by Indiana at No. 1. Ohio State is No. 4, followed by Michigan (No. 5), Michigan State (No. 14), and Wisconsin (No. 21). Minnesota received votes. Iowa was 6-4 against those teams last season with a 78-66 win against Indiana, a 75-59 win against Michigan, and season sweeps of Wisconsin and Minnesota. 33 "We have made phenomenal strides filling our roster with talent and addressing needs in terms of depth at the point guard position, size, versatility, the ability to have the personnel that can play the style that we want to play, " McCaffery said. "Now we have to go out and win consistently. We have to do it in the nonconference portion of our schedule and against the teams in the best conference in the country. Last year we won eight in league play (8-10), and it's probably going to take a little more than that." Newcomers to the program are freshmen Anthony Clemons (guard), Mike Gesell (guard), Patrick Ingram (guard), Kyle Meyer (forward) and Adam Woodbury (center). Forward Jarrod Uthoff, a transfer from Wisconsin, will not compete this season. "What we all hope for when we recruit freshmen is they don't play like freshmen," McCaffery said. "I don't think they will. "