Where Are They Now?
Whether it’s straight to Division I hoops, taking a JuCo route, heading to a prep school, or not playing basketball at all, there’s many different paths student-athletes can take after their high school careers are complete. We’ve dug back through the rankings archives, and found some of the more interesting cases of post-college careers. We’ll highlight them here over the next several months.
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Michael Jacobson (Waukee)
After finishing as Iowa’s 2nd-ranked 2015 and leading Waukee to a state tournament berth in 2015, Jacobson — who averaged 18.6 points and 9.6 rebounds his senior season — went off to Lincoln, Nebraska to play for the Huskers. The 6-foot-9 power forward — who played his grassroots ball with Kansas City-based MOKAN Elite — made an immediate impact with the Huskers, playing in all 34 games as a freshman, starting in 25 of them, and averaged 4.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, while also leading the team in blocks. This past season as a sophomore, he was a little better, scoring 6.0 per game and snaring 6.2 boards per contest.
Cortez Seales (North Scott)
This former state champion and Iowa Barnstormer wing finished ranked 4th in our 2015 rankings, and went off to North Dakota where he, like Jacobson, would make an immediate impact. He played plenty as a freshman, and scored a still-career-high 27 points in his first ever college game against Minnesota-Morris. Seales finished his first season with averages of 7.5 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. This past season very recently finished for Seales, who helped lead the Fighting Hawks to the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore. His numbers were up across the board; he went for 8.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.9 steals per game. Seales’ success during his sophomore season was enough for him to garner Sixth Man of the Year in the in the Big Sky Conference.
Daniel Tillo (Sioux City North)
After winning the 2015 Iowa Mr. Basketball award, Tillo — who scored 24.5 points per game his senior season — elected to pursue college baseball instead of hoops. At 6-foot-5, Tillo was not just a good-sized and gifted basketball player, but a quintessential hard-throwing lefty on the mound. He threw in just 7 ⅓ innings of relief during his freshman season with the Wildcats, and decided he’d transfer to Iowa Western for his sophomore season. So far he’s been lighting it up for the Reivers, and sports a 4-0 record and low 2.21 ERA this season. And though we’re basketball experts, we can still tell you that his 32 strikeouts in just 20 innings of work is very good. According to his Twitter bio, he’s committed to play baseball next season back in the SEC, at Arkansas.
David DiLeo (Iowa City West)
A two-time state champion with Iowa City West (2014, 2014), DiLeo finished his career ranked 12th in our 2015 rankings. After his senior season, he elected to take a more unique post-high school route, and went to New Hampshire to attend prep school at New Hampton. Before his season even started in the Granite State, DiLeo was offered by and committed to Central Michigan. So after one winter out East, he headed right back to the Midwest. He recently wrapped up his freshman season with the Chippewas, and he was good, averaging 8.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in 24.6 minutes per game. He was especially adept from deep, connecting on two triples per game at a 38 percent clip.
Anthony Nelson (Waukee)
Though he finished as our 16th-ranked 2015, this 6-foot-7 power forward elected to pursue something different than basketball in college. He averaged 14.7 points and 9.4 rebounds per game alongside Michael Jacobson in 2015, but was nabbed by the Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa Hawkeyes to play defensive line for the football team. After red-shirting his freshman season, Nelson made an immediate impact this past fall; in his first ever game he recorded 2.5 sacks and six tackles in a win over Miami of Ohio — instantly becoming a fan-favorite of Hawkeyes supporters. Nelson finished his freshman season with six sacks and 33 tackles. He’ll be an impact player for the Hawkeyes on the gridiron the next three seasons.