By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY — Josh Dix was fine with having to find his spot in Iowa’s rotation.

Dix, then a freshman, played in 31 of the Hawkeyes’ 33 games last season, but averaged just 9.2 minutes. He understood why, though — Iowa had plenty of experienced players in its rotation, so finding minutes was going to be difficult.

Now he’s a year older, a year wiser, and a year healthier, and that makes a lot of difference.

Dix, now averaging 18.6 minutes, is a big part of the Hawkeyes’ rotation this season.

“I just kind of waited for my time,” Dix said on Monday. “We had a lot of veterans last year, with Connor (McCaffery), Filip (Rebraca) and obviously Kris (Murray). I knew they would play most of the minutes. I was just waiting my turn, so this year is a lot different.”

Dix is coming off playing 20 ½ minutes in Friday’s 85-72 win over Seton Hall in the second game of the Rady Children’s Invitational tournament in San Diego. It’s the second time in six games this season that he’s played 20 or more minutes.

Dix is a big part of Iowa’s “second wave,” a group that includes freshmen Owen Freeman, Brock Harding, Ladji Dembele and Pryce Sandfort. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery has gone 10 deep all season to start out, and Dix has found his spot with the group of younger players.

“Very rarely he doesn’t play well,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “He’s just a really good player. He plays different positions. He guards different positions. He makes shots. He very rarely makes mistakes. He’s tough, physical. I just think he’s a terrific player.”

Dix came into last season coming off a serious leg injury suffered in January during his final season of high school basketball. Dix was able to practice with the Hawkeyes in the fall and play last season, but he said he never felt completely healthy until after the season.

“I feel a lot healthier, a hundred percent, like I was (before the injury),” Dix said. “ Last year, I wasn’t a hundred percent, I was just trying to play through it. Yeah, it’s different, way different, being able to play with the physicality and the stuff. To be able to play a lot of minutes, yeah, it’s different.”

Dix estimated he was at “80-85 percent” last season.

“I wasn’t very explosive,” he said. “I was kind of just like a shooter last year. This year I feel like I can get to the basket a lot more, stuff like that.

“(The leg) got stronger over time. Just having the whole offseason to work on it and stuff, getting it back to where it was.”

“Yeah, I was kind of surprised at the beginning of last year,” McCaffery said. “As I said to you before, I probably should have played him more. I do think he’s a little bit more explosive this year perhaps, understandably, considering what happened at the end of his senior year. 

“But he never complained one time that he was hurting, or he didn’t miss one minute of practice all last year.”

Dix, at 6-foot-5, brings versatility to Iowa’s backcourt. He can run the offense at the point, or step into the shooting guard spot.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” he said. “I’m comfortable with whatever.”

Dix said his role is to “bring energy.”

“Whatever the team needs, if that’s me defending or me being more aggressive on offense, getting other people shots,” he said. “Just whatever the team needs.”

Photo: Iowa’s Josh Dix (right) runs the offense in last Thursday’s game against Oklahoma. (Jerod Ringwald/hawkeyesports.com)