By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

iOWA CITY — Brock Harding wasn’t ready to go home after his first college basketball regular-season game.

The Iowa freshman point guard had played just 10 minutes, 39 seconds in Tuesday’s 110-68 win over North Dakota at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, but a half-hour after the game, he was back out on the court, headphones on, all alone and getting up shots in the nearly empty arena.

“I just thought that I still had a little bit left in the tank, so I was going to put it to good use,” Harding said after Friday’s win over Alabama State before he would be, again, back out on the court getting in extra work. “Might as well go get a couple extra shots up.”

There is a lot of fuel in Harding’s tank, and he’s going to get a chance to use it this season.

Harding has been a key part of Iowa’s rotation in the first two games. He has a team-high 14 assists in just 25:39 on the court, showing all of the signs of the flashiness and court intelligence that made him Illinois’ Mr. Basketball last season after leading Moline High School to a state championship..

“You know, he’s really smart, and that’s kind of who he is. That’s how he plays,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said after Friday’s game. “But he has a really keen ability to be on the bench and watch the game and figure out what he needs to do when he comes in to affect the game in a positive way.

“He will never be tentative. He can’t spell ‘tentative.’ And that’s what I love about him. It’s one of the reasons why we recruited him in the first place.”

There was a collection of plays in Friday’s game in which Harding showcased his abilities.

His layup with 8:15 to play in the first half gave the Hawkeyes a 26-25 lead, then his assist on a Ben Krikke layup less than a minute later helped Iowa go up, 30-25.

In the second half, with the Hawkeyes in control, Harding delivered a no-look pass to high school and AAU teammate Owen Freeman for a dunk, and then followed that with an assist on Ladji Dembele’s layup on the Hawkeyes’ next possession for a 92-64 lead. He also had the assist on Even Brauns’ first field goal of the season.

The connection with Freeman was just an extension of the relationship the two have built, first as AAU teammates and then last season at Moline.

“We kind of knew that their guys were going to try to be shot blockers,” Harding said. “I saw their guy come up, I knew Owen was going to be down there. Throw it up wherever, he’s going to go get it.”

Harding’s ability to find teammates is something McCaffery saw as he recruited Harding.

“He had that kind of feel as a youngster,” McCaffery said. “He’s quick, creative, confident. He could always score and make plays.”

Harding’s court vision comes from what he sees in studying other teams.

“I can kind of see where I think spots are going to be open going into the game,” he said. “Then stuff kind of opens up as we’re playing.”

Harding enjoys the fit in Iowa’s fast-paced offense.

“When you have a lot of guys around you that can score the ball, it makes it that much easier,” he said. “When guys cut, they know they’re going to get the ball. We’ve got shooters all around — that makes my job a lot easier as a point guard. And so it’s just super fun playing with this group of guys.”

“Brock’s a very confident guy,” forward Patrick McCaffery said. “That’s what I love about Brock — his confidence, his moxie.  I think that’s what you need to play at this level, especially as a point guard and especially like a small guy like him — you need to be very confident in your ability and he is. That’s why I love Brock so much. That’s my guy.

“I’m excited to go to war with him. When you go to war, you want guys like Brock Harding and that’s why I’m excited for his future.”

Harding, at 6-foot and 162 pounds, is going to be tested by bigger guards, especially when Big Ten play begins. But Fran McCaffery knows Harding can adjust.

“He’s really worked on his game defensively, because people put him in a lot of ball screens, people try to post him up,” McCaffery said. “He’s a hard guy to post up. He’s a hard guy to get around. He’s going to fight you.”

The description Harding gave to himself when asked on Friday night was not an exaggeration.

“Just kind of a hard-nosed point guard,” he said. “Pure point guard. Going to do whatever it takes to win.”

Photo: Iowa guard Brock Harding (right) tries to drive past North Dakota guard Eli King in last Tuesday’s game. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)