Interesting Finds With Current Iowa Basketball Players

K

KatoZenti

Well-Known Member
I was on Scout.com & found some interesting information on each of the Iowa basketball players. I'll provide exactly word for word what Scout.com states as follows:

Basabe--Offers from Drexel, Siena & VCU
McCabe--Offers from Butler & UNI
Marble--Offers from Detroit & Dayton; Visited Providence; Liked Michigan; Father was an Iowa legend
Olaseni--No offers
White--Offers from Akron, Duquense, Miami (FL) & Toledo
Oglesby--Offers from Creighton, Illinois, Indiana State & Minnesota
Uthoff--Transfer from Wisconsin; Offers from Butler, Creighton, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State & UNI
Clemmons--Offers from Detroit, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois & Western Michigan
Woodbury--Offers from Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio State, Stanford & Wisconsin
Gesell--Offers from Creighton, Drake, Iowa State, Nebraska, UNI, Stanford & Utah
Meyer--Offers from East Carolina, Drake, Jacksonville, Georgia State, Georgia Southern & Mercer
Jok--No offers
Uhl--No offers (2014 Recruit)
Ellingson--Offers from Ball State, Drake, Oakland, Wisconsin-Milwaukee & Wright State (2014 Recruit)

High school scout reports on Woodbury & Gesell as follows:

Woodbury

Strengths: Hands, Post Play & Runs the Floor

Areas For Improvement: Athleticism & Defensive Presence

Overall: Woodbury is a true center who catches everything thrown his way & has the toughness and desire to be a good rebounder. Also he runs the floor well when he gets to the block he has a feel for how to score. He isn't a great athlete, and doesn't alter too many shots down low, but a solid all-around player.

Gesell

Strengths: 3-Point Range & Athleticism

Areas For Improvement: Defensive & Strength

Overall: Gesell is a good outside shooter who is more than capable of putting up big numbers, and also has the ability to finish at the rim with his athleticism. Defensively he needs to get better and he must develop his strength as well. A combo guard, he is capable of playing on or off the ball.

Stokes--Offers from Kirkwood CC; Father was an Iowa legend
Denning--QB in football; SS & P in baseball; Iowa Class 1A Player of the Year & 2010 NICL East Player of the Year
Ukah--Transfer from Kirkwood CC

The information on Stokes, Denning & Ukah I got from a friend not Scout.com.

I found the high school scouting reports on Woodbury & Gesell very interesting since they're both true sophomores.
 
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Temple had offered Uhl and I know there was another school in the mix, I forget who.

Olaseni had an offer from Oklahoma.

Edit - Boston College was the other in on Uhl.
 
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This just illustrates to me that Iowa is hardly as deep as many think.

Fran IMO is doing a pretty good job with player development.. ..

Fran was able to get away with running 10 or 11 deep and tossing lineups together on the fly against the weaker talented teams our record against them proves that. Fran however can't get away with it against teams that have a pulse and record against them proves that. The core of this team is right here: Gessell-Marble-White-Basabe-Ogs-Uthoff-Woody-Gabe. Once you go beyond these players you see Iowa struggle. Fran also has a very short leash on players that I wouldn't expect him to have it on in that core and that is very wierd to me, especially because he knows what is behind them..
 
Hey! I made a post just like this a couple weeks ago but people complained that they couldn't understand what I was saying! lol

Seriously, first people said that and then decided the point I was making was that our recruiting is bad. But search rivals, scout, ESPN and 247 if you want to find ALL THE OFFERS. You can't miss any of those sites.
 
HawkPrdatr40 said:
This just illustrates to me that Iowa is hardly as deep as many think.

Fran IMO is doing a pretty good job with player development.. ..

Fran was able to get away with running 10 or 11 deep and tossing lineups together on the fly against the weaker talented teams our record against them proves that. Fran however can't get away with it against teams that have a pulse and record against them proves that. The core of this team is right here: Gessell-Marble-White-Basabe-Ogs-Uthoff-Woody-Gabe. Once you go beyond these players you see Iowa struggle. Fran also has a very short leash on players that I wouldn't expect him to have it on in that core and that is very wierd to me, especially because he knows what is behind them..
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That is absolutely false. For one thing, actual live playing time has proven the abilities of each player. That's the most important thing, that between the B1G's insane strength the last three years and post-season tournaments against teams that were better than the NCAA field through the 10 seeds, these players have logged the necessary numbers against adequate competition. But also the OP doesn't have even close to all of the offers. When I made a similar post it turned out that schools like Butler, Gonzaga, Xavier, Creighton, VCU and Iowa St. ALWAYS showed up on the offer lists of our recruits. In other words, if one random Iowa recruit was offered Butler and VCU, the next would show up with offers from Creighton and ISU. It was a definite pattern of seemingly undermanned and underpublicized schools who continue to make noise they shouldn't be making.

But hey if it helps everybody wanted Woodbury and Uthoff, who combine for the number of schools who wanted Jok before his injury. Gesell didn't have the high profile offers but he did carry the 4-star rating. Keep in mind they were all at least 3-stars. 3-star ratings are basically mindless shrugs since everybody ranging from Meyer-Ingram to White-Marble got them, but it's not like we're trying to one-up what the football team always relies on. Also, for the record, Wisconsin and Purdue showed up alongside those schools on a lot of those lists.

If that's not enough to sway people who still find these posts as indictments on our talent we bring in, how about we go back to the king of the 4-5 star recruit, Mr. Steve Alford? He failed to bring in at least one 4-star guy in only one year: the one where he got Luke Recker and Reggie Evans as transfers.
 
Objectively, this team has a lot of average recruits, some whom have developed into nice players, but only Devyn is a real NBA prospect.

Fran has done a nice job with this talent. He needs to upgrade our talent each and every year.

There are no teams ahead of Iowa in the league standings that do not have better talent.
There are a couple of teams( OSU and IU) behind Iowa in the standings that have better talent.

This is a process, gang. Iowa is making the second big step this year by getting to the dance.
Next step is to build a roster of guys with offers from other major bb schools. Fran will get it done.
 
JHHawk said:
Objectively, this team has a lot of average recruits, some whom have developed into nice players, but only Devyn is a real NBA prospect.

Fran has done a nice job with this talent. He needs to upgrade our talent each and every year.

There are no teams ahead of Iowa in the league standings that do not have better talent.
There are a couple of teams( OSU and IU) behind Iowa in the standings that have better talent.

This is a process, gang. Iowa is making the second big step this year by getting to the dance.
Next step is to build a roster of guys with offers from other major bb schools. Fran will get it done.
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Yep. I'd like to fill these last two scholarships with sure-fire rotation players (JUCO or from wherever) to make sure we stay an NCAA tournament team, bubble team if fine. We need to show some consistent competitiveness for a couple years to give Fran the ammunition to recruit Top 100 kids so we can consistently compete with BIG upper division talent. OSU, UM, MSU, Indiana, and even Wisconsin and Illinois to some extent consistently recruit Top 100 to Top 150 players.

If we don't start recruiting that kind of talent, we are going to peak and valley depending on player development and team experience. Average recruits can win as seniors, they just don't win a ton as underclassmen.
 
NCHawker said:
Is Iowa a recruiting bottom feeder?
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Hard to believe the state player of the year was NOT recruited and offered by anyone else. I think it could be that Jok was a very strong lean the entire time and people didn't want to take chances on his knee issues. I still think Peter will be a really good contributor.
 
No site is perfect but Scout is about the worst site to go to for finding out who offered who in basketball. Here is what Rivals says:

Basabe: Drexel, George Mason, Rhode Island, Seton Hall, Siena, St. John's, & VCU

McCabe: Arizona State, Butler, Indiana State, Minnesota, UNI, South Florida, Utah, & Virginia

Marble: Buffalo, Dayton, Detroit, Fairfield, & Providence

Olaseni: Auburn, Mississippi, Oklahoma*, & Xavier

White: Boston College, Duquesne, Miami(OH), Northwestern, St. Bonaventure, & Temple

Oglesby: Albany, Arizona State, Boston College, Butler, Creighton, Illinois, Indiana State, Minnesota, UNI, Northwestern, Providence, & South Dakota State

Uthoff: Albany, Arizona State, Butler, Creighton, Illinois, Indiana, Indiana State, ISU, UNI, Northwestern, & Virginia

Clemmons: Detroit, EMU, Northern Illinois, WMU

Woodbury: California, Minnesota, Nebraska, UNC, Ohio State, Stanford, Virginia, Wisconsin, & Xavier

Gesell: Creighton, Drake, ISU, Nebraska, UNI, Stanford, & Utah

Meyer: ECU, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, & Mercer

Jok: Drake

Uhl: Boston College, Fairfield, George Mason, Manhattan, Maryland, Miami(FL), Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, & Temple

Ellingosn: Albany, Dayton, Drake, Missouri, Northern Colorado, Oakland, San Diego, South Dakta, South Dakota State, UC Davis, & Utah

* Rivals doesn't show Oklahoma as an offer for Gabe but they were a finalist and he visited them right before committing to Iowa.
 
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parahawkeyes said:
Hey! I made a post just like this a couple weeks ago but people complained that they couldn't understand what I was saying! lol

Seriously, first people said that and then decided the point I was making was that our recruiting is bad. But search rivals, scout, ESPN and 247 if you want to find ALL THE OFFERS. You can't miss any of those sites.
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That answers your question. IMO, from where Fran came from and as bad as the program was when he took over the recruiting has been outstanding. Mid major coaches rarely take over a bottom feeder and instantly get 4/5 star recruits going there. Fran was not a big name coming to Iowa and he worked his butt off to get Gesell and Woodbury (among others) to come to Iowa.

seepig said:
Hard to believe the state player of the year was NOT recruited and offered by anyone else. I think it could be that Jok was a very strong lean the entire time and people didn't want to take chances on his knee issues. I still think Peter will be a really good contributor.
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Drake had offered and Wisconsin (among other schools that did not get named) were showing interest at the time of Jok's commitment. Jok committed in September, well before the season began. Jok could have waited and had gotten a lot more offers but decided to commit to the school that stuck by him through the injury.
 
JG10, thanks for posting the list. But add Oklahoma to Olaseni as they were his other finalist at the time he committed to Iowa.
 
I know the day that Olaseni signed with Iowa, the Wichita St. forums were very depressed. They thought Gabe was theirs to lose.
 
KatoZenti said:
Gesell

Strengths: 3-Point Range & Athleticism

Areas For Improvement: Defensive & Strength

Overall: Gesell is a good outside shooter who is more than capable of putting up big numbers, and also has the ability to finish at the rim with his athleticism. Defensively he needs to get better and he must develop his strength as well. A combo guard, he is capable of playing on or off the ball.
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Wait. What? I'm so confused. Homer keeps saying in all his posts that Mike G isn't athletic and Mike G can't jump. I just don't know what to think anymore!
 
We needed every player on this roster when they were signed and I wouldn't give any of them back. The player development has been phenomenal. This is a tribute to both the coaching staff and the players.
 
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