By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

It’s hard to know what Iowa’s frontcourt depth will look like as the Hawkeyes open Big Ten play this week with Tuesday’s home game against Northwestern and Saturday’s game at Michigan.

Seydou Traore left last Tuesday’s win over USC Upstate with a severe sprain of his right ankle. Even Brauns and Cooper Koch didn’t play, and their status is unclear.

It’s why coach Fran McCaffery was likely only sort of joking when he told fourth-year junior Riley Mulvey, “Don’t get sick for the rest of the year.”

Mulvey has played just 155 minutes in his career, but as the injuries have piled up on the Hawkeyes, the 6-foot-11 forward could become an important piece in the rotation.

“Like I said to you guys a long time ago, I’m comfortable (playing) 13 players,” McCaffery said after Tuesday’s game. “So I’m comfortable playing Mulvey, (guard Carter) Kingsbury. They’re good players.”

Mulvey scored 11 points in 11 minutes in the 110-77 win over USC Upstate, setting a new career high in scoring. It’s the moment he’s wanted since coming to Iowa.

Mulvey called McCaffery’s joke a “wake-up call.”

“Whatever chance that I got today, probably more (minutes) than usual, was going to be a good time to prove myself,” Mulvey said.

“It was awesome for Riley Mulvey,” guard Brock Harding said. “I mean, he’s been here for four years now, just grinded. He plays on the scout team, even this year, and just kind of locks in, makes us ready for every game. So it was awesome to see him go out there, kind of dominate, get on the rim, kind of rebound the ball at high level. I mean, stuff that we expect from him. It was kind of cool to see him do that for himself tonight.”

Mulvey came to Iowa as a young player — he reclassified after his junior season in high school to come play for the Hawkeyes — and played sparingly his first two seasons.

He sat out last season as a redshirt year, a move that he said proved to be beneficial.

“I spent the whole year not having to be ready the whole time,” Mulvey said. “Mentally, it reset me almost to be able to just be comfortable when I get in instead of worrying about, ‘This is my only chance, I have to do completely well. I have to do everything perfect.’ That reset is probably one of the biggest reasons that I’ve just been ready any chance I got this year to play really hard and play well.”

What was hard about not playing in his first two seasons, Mulvey said, was not knowing when his chances would come.

“It’s one of the hardest things,” he said. “It’s definitely one of the hardest skills to be able to have, because if you’re right on the border of playing and not playing, you never know when you’re going to be able to play. So you have to always psych yourself up like you’re about to play. And any time you get the chance, you got to be completely ready to do everything you can to win — play defense, get rebounds, guard everybody completely well. And for me, set screens roll, dunk it every chance I get.”

“This is who he is,” McCaffery said. “He’s a positive guy. He loves his teammates. You know, when he first got here, he probably wasn’t ready to do a lot. Little by little, we throw him in there in his sophomore year a little bit, a little bit of his junior year. But now he’s getting an opportunity.”

Knowing that opportunity was coming on Tuesday helped Mulvey.

“I think some of the things that actually help me stay ready is when teammates always are there, pat me on the back,” Mulvey said. “Be, like, ‘Stay ready. You might go in. Stay ready. Stay ready. Stay ready.'”

“He stays healthy,” McCaffery said. “He’s a veteran guy. He’s got a great feel for how to play. He’s got a great pair of hands. He runs, he can guard ball screens, he can score.

“You know, I’m just really happy for him. He’s a worker, and he’s a good teammate.”

Photo: Iowa center Riley Mulvey is coming off a career-high 11 points in last Tuesday’s win over USC Upstate. (Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire)