By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

The way Iowa’s Owen Freeman picked up his fourth foul in Wednesday’s home loss to Maryland drew the attention of teammate Payton Sandfort.

Freeman had fouled Maryland’s Jahmir Young with 5:10 remaining in the game by slapping at the ball, and Young, instead of standing straight up to block the shot. Sandfort emotionally mimicked what Freeman did wrong, talking to the freshman before patting him on the back.

Every freshman in the Big Ten goes through an education on what is and isn’t acceptable in the physical conference, and Freeman has learned plenty in the last four games.

Freeman, who leads the Hawkeyes with 51 fouls and is the only Iowa player to foul out of a game this season, has committed 17 fouls in the last four games, fouling out of the 86-77 win at Minnesota on January 15 and the 69-67 defeat to Maryland. He also picked up four fouls in the 84-70 loss to Purdue on January 20.

Freeman, who averages 11.2 points and 6.2 rebounds, is an important part of Iowa’s frontcourt, but coach Fran McCaffery said it’s important for him to stay on the court.

“Owen is really good,” McCaffery said after Wednesday’s game. “We’ve got to get him to the point where he can use his body and not pick up fouls, get into foul trouble. We need him out there.”

McCaffery said on Friday that dealing with the quality of veteran big men in the conference is part of the learning curve. Two of the four fouls Freeman had against Purdue, for example, came against national player of the year Zach Edey. Two of his fouls against Maryland came against Julian Reese.

“Every team he goes against has quality bigs,” McCaffery said. “It’s figuring out the level of physicality that’s acceptable, and what’s not. How to use your hands, how to use your feet, how to use your lower half. When to go block a shot, when to tall up. It just takes time and he’s always been a really gifted shot blocker. With this level it’s different, so it’s a lot harder.”

McCaffery said for freshman frontcourt players, it’s understanding all of the inside actions that they’ll see.

“What’s coming at you, how are they posting the guy up?” McCaffery said. “Is it on the block, is it off the block? Is it high-low? Are they flashing, are they rip-it-and-driving you? When the shot goes, are they pushing you under? You’ve got to hold your ground, you’ve got to do your work early defensively. In order to do that, you have to respond, not react, to different things. And, like I said, that kind of stuff takes time.”

McCaffery said some of his best frontcourt players went through the same education.

“That’s what experience is,” McCaffery said. “You think back to the days of Luka Garza, where he was his freshman year and then where he was as a senior. He just had such instincts and such feel. Same with Tyler Cook, Keegan (Murray) and Kris (Murray). Filip (Rebraca), Ryan Kriener. (Adam) Woodbury was as physical as anybody we’ve had. He was never in foul trouble, because he knew where to go and how to position himself.”

McCaffery knows Freeman will learn over time. Freeman had three fouls in Saturday’s 88-78 win at Michigan, finishing with 15 points and nine rebounds while playing almost 36 minutes.

“He’s really working at it,” McCaffery said. “We’re working with him. We’ll get him there.”

Photo: Iowa’s Owen Freeman (left) blocks a shot by Maryland’s Jordan Geronimo in last Wednesday’s game. (Keith Gillett/Icon SportsWire)