Column: Sydney Affolter starred at Marist. Now, she’s conquering ‘hardest role’ off the bench as a sophomore at Iowa.

During the four seasons I enjoyed watching and writing about Marist standout Sydney Affolter, one thing was always certain.

She would either score in double figures or rebound in double figures. More often than not, she had a double-double.

I’m not exaggerating. As a senior, Affolter averaged 22.7 points and 11.3 rebounds. She rarely left the floor.

On the Southland girls basketball scene, she was larger than life.

“I definitely carried a lot of confidence in high school, knowing I was one of the top players,” Affolter said. “I’m not going to say it wasn’t fun scoring 20-plus points and having at least 10 rebounds per game.”

Today, Affolter is a sophomore at Iowa. The 5-foot-11 guard is in a much different role than she was at Marist — at least for now.

She’s basically the sixth man. Sometimes, she’s the seventh or eighth man. Coming off the bench, she’s averaging a little over nine minutes a game for the Hawkeyes (11-4). Twice, she has scored seven points. She’s had five rebounds in three different games.

Affolter is taking a much different journey up the Division I college ladder than she did in high school. But a couple of things haven’t changed.

She’s still having fun. And she’s still confident.

“Confidence is such a big thing,” Affolter said. “Sometimes, you can lose that down the line if you’re not playing as much in college or you’re not the star that you used to be in high school.

“Looking back now, it just goes to show how much different high level Division I basketball is compared to high school basketball. I’ve had to learn to adapt to a different role, but honestly, I’m happy to do whatever the team needs me to do to be successful.”

Right now, she’s succeeding at what Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder calls the “hardest role” in college basketball.

“If you’re one, two, three, four or five, you know you’re going to start and play a lot of minutes,” Bluder said. “But six, seven, eight, you don’t know whether you’re going to play one minute or 20 minutes. And you don’t know when that time is going to come.

“You have to be ready all the time. The position that Syd is in is very difficult to play. But she keeps working hard in practice and gives us everything she has. She’s doing a really, really good job managing that.”

Affolter has reached double digits for minutes in six games. On Dec. 10, she played 20 minutes in an 87-64 victory over Minnesota. That night, she had three rebounds and three steals.

In an 83-68 win over Purdue on Dec. 29, she was 3-for-3 shooting and 1-for-1 from the line. She also had five rebounds and an assist.

Call it her first memorable night playing for a top 20 Division I school.

“That was a big confidence booster,” Affolter said. “It was nice to go out there and show all the hard work I’ve put in. To have that pay off in a Big Ten game was pretty big for me.”

I think it’s a sure bet Affolter has an incredibly bright future at Iowa. Four of the five starters are graduating. And Bluder knows what she’s got waiting in the wings.

“Syd’s a competitor and I love that about her,” Bluder said. “She wants more minutes and I want that for her. She’s not sitting back and saying, ‘Oh, well. It’s not my time right now.’

“I know that in the second half of the Big Ten season, she’ll continue to get more minutes as time goes on. And the more minutes she gets, the more confident she’ll get.”

And no doubt, the double figures will be back.