Live Weekend Recap (first weekend)
Lots happened last weekend, both team-wise and with individual prospects. It was the first of a three weekend stretch of live periods, so it was expected that we’d have a busy one, full of Iowa happenings. Here we’ll break down all the excitement into one neat little article.
Hunter Strait
We were wondering when Iowa’s fifth-ranked 2018 was going to get some offers to come his way, and this past weekend he nabbed three them. First was D2 Sioux Falls, then it was another D2 Maryville and lastly Minnesota State-Mankato got in the mix.
Corvon Seales
His name was everywhere this weekend, especially around the Prep Hoops Network (here’s a video), and it wasn’t just us that noticed him, the North Scott guard nabbed two D2 offers, from Sioux Falls and Northern Michigan.
Camden Vander Zwaag
The sharpshooting Johnson 2018 already had an existing D1 offer from Air Force, that came last summer. This past weekend he picked up his second offer, this one from Missouri D2 Truman State.
Iowa Barnstormers
It was a HUGE weekend for the Hawkeye state’s premier grassroots program, most notably for the 16U squad, led by the state’s top 2019, Patrcik McCaffery. He and his gang went bonkers in South Carolna and won the whole adidas Gauntlet Finale (!); they beat D1 Minnesota by 10 in the quarters, then Team St8ment by two in the semis before snapping Indiana Elite’s 35 game win streak in the finals, winning that one 65-61. Make no mistake, this is a very impressive feat.
The 17s were no slouch themselves, led by Iowa’s two best players, Joe Wieskamp and AJ Green, this squad advanced to the adidas Gauntlet Finale Final Four. They got by 1 Family in the quarters, 80-67, before dropping to Team Loaded in the Final Four, 67-65.
Iowa Prep
This underrated program got plenty of love from us this weekend at the Midwest Summer Shootout in Ames, a stellar albeit lesser-covered live period event. The 17U squad showed its flare for the dramatic by erasing a late deficit in the semifinals of the platinum division and beating D1 Minnesota Prospects in overtime. They then came from behind again in the finals to send that game to overtime, before finally being defeated by a very good ONW Spurs squad.
The 15U team had some success of their own, making a run to the 15U Gold Division title game.
It became very clear this weekend that the program has some of the best coaches, and is one of the more well-organized is not just Iowa, but the Midwest. Best of all for me, they actually had all of their kids in the roster book. And the jersey numbers were accurate!
AJ Green
It’s no surprise that this preternatural Cedar Falls guard is gradually adding high-major offers to his list, and after his team’s final four push at the adidas Gauntlet Finale in South Carolina, ACC school Virgina became the latest to offer. The list now looks like this: Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa State, Nebraska, Clemson, Virginia.
Cole Henry/Aidan Vanderloo/Luke Vaske
The trio of Martin Brothers was mentioned in this NY2LA article. Here’s a summary; Vanderloo is clutch, Henry is versatile, and Vaske is a flat-out scorer.
Misc.
Martin Brothers 17U advanced to the Gold Division finals at the NY2LA Next Level Invitational. They beat Omaha Elite 64-44 in the semis before losing in the finals to Kessel Heat Black, 55-54.
Martin Brothers 16U won the Gold Division at the NY2LA Next Level Invitational with after a 69-68 win over Minnesota Select.
Martin Brothers 15U advanced to the Gold Division finals in Milwaukee at the NY2LA Next Level Invitational, finishing runner-up. The rising sophomores lost to eventual Platinum Division champs Kessel Heat Black by one point in the first game of bracket play.
The youngsters on Kingdom Hoops Elite 14U (incoming freshman) won the Platinum Division of the NY2LA Next Level Invitational.