Melsahn Basabe has had an immediate impact on the Iowa basketball team. The freshman forward had 22 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots in a Tuesday night loss to second ranked Ohio State. The New York native origionally signed with Siena but followed Fran McCaffery to Iowa after he was named the new coach. Basabe says it did not take him longer to discover how hard he needed to play to be successful.

He says he realized its higher competition, but not any different than anything else he has done in his life in high school and everywhere else. Basabe says he wants to continue working on his conditioning so he can play better throughout the entire game.

Basabe has been putting extra time in to work on a medium range jump shot. He says he didn’t really have to shoot in high school as he was able to get by on his athleticism. Now at a higher level he says he has to work harder at improving himself and do more things to succeed.

Basbe says all great players work hard on their game and he comes in early to get extra shots and he is ready to go when he gets into the game.

Iowa returns to action on Sunday at 11th ranked Purdue.