Iowa’s June Happenings
April, May and July are hectic, with AAU tournaments every weekend, travel, live periods, recruitment pressure and the like. In June, we take a break from all of that, it’s a time for high school teams to get back together and play in team camps around the state. Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s any less hoops to cover, we were all over the state at team camps this past month, socking up the summer action. There was still plenty of recruitment to cover, too. Here’s what we learned in June.
Top 2019s, Locure, Samake Commit
Within 24 hours of one another, Iowa’s 3rd-ranked and 6th-ranked 2019s made their college commitments. Des Moines North’s electric point guard Tyreke Locure left for Mobile, Alabama without an scholarship offer, he was there visiting South Alabama. When he left the city — which is just a two hour drive from his native New Orleans — he not only had an offer, but was committed to the Jaguars. They made him a priority, their top target, which no other school had done, and Locure pounced on the opportunity. The next day, Mali-born Grand View Christian forward Issa Smake make his commitment to Drake. The Bulldogs coaches had seen him earlier this month at their team camp, and they offered him a few days later. A few days after that, Samake committed.
Noah Carter’s Stock Continues to Ascend
Coming into the summer, Noah Carter was a guy that we knew had a lot of bounce, a versatile skill-set and a ton of lift. But as a big-man in the 6’4/6’5 range, we were’t sure if the Division I coaches would see him as a prospect, well they did, and the offers continue to roll in. It started with some low-major D1 offers, from North Dakota, Lehigh and South Dakota State, D2 Truman State had also offered the bouncy Dubuque, Senior combo-forward. In June, he officially became a mid-major prospect when, first, Northern Iowa offered, then a few days later, Drake offered. And he still has the three July live periods ahead. Currently ranked 12th in Iowa’s 2019 prospect rankings, expect to see a considerable rise from Carter in the next installment of rankings. And expect to see some more mid-major offers roll in this summer.
Carton and McCaffery try out for USA U18
Only 36 guys from the Unites States are invited to tryout for the USA U18 National Team, two of those guys were from Iowa. So, ya, we were well-represented. Iowa City West’s Patrick McCaffery (a future Iowa Hawkeyes small forward) and Bettendorf’s DJ Carton were both in Colorado Springs mixing it up with the nation’s best. Carton, who has high-major offers galore, even made the cut of 18, and narrowly missed out on making the 12-man roster.
Tigers: Valley, Cedar Falls Impress
We were at plenty of team camps this summer, and one of the better games we saw was between two 4A Tigers squads, Valley and Cedar Falls. Both teams graduated Missouri Valley Conference players last season; AJ Green from 4A state champs Cedar Falls is now at Northern Iowa, Valley’s Blake Brinkemeyer is now at Indiana State. Still, it’s clear that the two teams are going to reload next season with fresh talent. Cedar Falls has one of the state’s very best 2021s with 6’8 big-man Chase Courbat. They also return Logan Wolf and Jack Campbell. Josh Ollendick is a rising junior guard who is poised for a breakout season. Cedar Falls will again be very good. Valley is replacing 6’8 Brinkmeyer with another possible Division I prospect, 6’8 Will Berg, a rising junior. They also have electric 6’7 forward Agueck Deng who is poised for a breakout season, and one of the state’s very best guards Trayvon Williams, who led the Tigers in scoring last season. Both Valley and Cedar Falls made the 4A state semifinals last March (Cedar Falls beat Valley 67-58 in those semis), both could make it back next winter.
Lipsey, Foster Ascend: Who Else Was Offered?
Iowa’s top-ranked 2020 Xavier Foster has been one of the nation’s hottest prospects for over a year now, and he continues to add to his list of suitors. The 6’10 forward nabbed offers from coast-to-coast in June alone, which was headlined by a big-time UCLA offer. Foster’s complete list reads as follows: Iowa, Iowa State, Creighton, Illinois, Texas A&M, Missouri, Baylor, USC, UCLA, St Louis, Rutgers.
It looks like there will be no debate over who the top 2022 prospect in the state will be, Ames’ Tamin Lipsey hasn’t even played a high school game and already has a high-major offer from Iowa State. The 6-foot-1 guard has been playing this offseason up two grades with All Iowa Attack’s top 16U squad, and he’s been one of their best players. Ames was playing at Iowa State’s team camp earlier this month and the Cyclones liked what they saw out of the rising freshman, they offered him shortly after. Lots of others were offered in June, the complete list is below.
Xavier Foster (2020) — Southern California, UCLA, St. Louis, Rutgers
Tamin Lispey (2022) — Iowa State
Jake Hilmer (2019) — Wayne State
Cliff McCray (2019) — SW Minnesota State
Keaton Mitchell (2019) — Truman State
Dylan Jones (2019) — Wayne State
Issa Samake (2019) — Drake)
Tyreke Locure (2019) — South Alabama
Tamin Lipsey (2021) — Iowa State
Noah Hart (2019) — Wayne State, Sioux Falls
Conner Hill (2019) — Morningside
Collin Lister (2019) — Waldorf
JD Stout (2020) — William Penn
Trey Shearer (2021) — William Penn