Iowa Basketball Recruiting: Hawkeye Commits Compete in State Tournaments

The Iowa men’s basketball season has come to an end and in a rare occurrence in recent memory, it’s over before a number of the Hawkeyes’ future players have finished their high school seasons. It’s not just current commits, top prospects are also taking part in their state tournaments. In Iowa, that got started yesterday.

Top 2019 PG prospect DJ Carton and Bettendorf were eliminated from the playoff picture back on February 23rd in an overtime loss to Dubuque Senior 65-61 during district play. But top 2020 target Xavier Foster, a big time center for Oskaloosa, is still alive.

In his first appearance at the state tournament, Foster put up 18 points on 7 of 10 shooting (including 4-5 from beyond the arc) with 3 blocks as Oskaloosa beat Sergeant Bluff-Luton 63-47. They advance to take on Waverly-Shell Rock tomorrow at 3:45pm CT. Oskie is 22-3 on the year while Waverly-Shell-Rock comes in at 19-6. You can find the full bracket for class 3A here.

Here are some highlights from Foster’s first game performance:

As for the current Hawkeye commits, one 2018 prospect is still alive while another faced off with a 2019 verbal last night.

On Monday, SG CJ Fredrick and the Covington Catholic Colonels took home a regional championship with a 74-31 drubbing of Dixie. Fredrick led the way for the Colonels with 24 points, 7 assists and 3 rebounds. His performance in the regionals was enough to earn him 9th Region MVP.

With the win, Covington Catholic (31-4) advances to the Sweet 16. They’ll face off with Apollo (16-15) at 7pm CT next Thursday, March 15th in Rupp Arena. Win again and they’ll play on Friday evening at 7pm CT with semifinals on Saturday the 17th at the same time before the state championship game on Sunday, March 18th at 1pm CT.

Here’s a look at the highlights from Monday’s win:

Back in Iowa, the big matchup of the tournament to-date took place last night as 2018 signee Joe Wieskamp and the Muscatine Muskies took on 2019 commit Patrick McCaffery and the Iowa City West Trojans. At 20-4, West is a more well-rounded team than Muscatine (16-8), which relies heavily on Wieskamp. Last night’s matchup reflected that as Wieskamp led the way with 29 points and 11 boards, but only had one teammate score more than 5 points. West High, on the other hand, had four players in double figures with a fifth scoring 8.

The Trojans jumped out to an early lead, often double and triple-teaming Wieskamp. They went to halftime with a 29-19 lead. But Muscatine, on Wieskamp’s back, mounted a comeback and cut the lead to 1 at one point in the third quarter. In the end, it wasn’t enough as West took home a 62-50 win.

McCaffery finished with 17 points on 5 of 10 shooting (1-2 from three), 9 rebounds and 4 assists. As mentioned, Wieskamp finished with 29 points on 13 of 24 shooting with an uncharacteristic 0-4 night from beyond the arc. He added 11 boards in the loss.

Wieskamp finishes his high school career with 2,376 points, which is 6th all-time in the state and first in class 4A. His 803 points this season are also a class 4A record. Through all four years, he averaged more than 26 points and 10 rebounds a game and was only held under 10 points three times in four seasons.

Here’s a look at his incredible career stats:

Here are the highlights from last night’s matchup between Wieskamp and McCaffery:

With the victory, West High advances to take on Waukee (also 20-4 on the year) tomorrow at 6:30pm CT. The winner of that matchup will advance to the 4A state championship game on Friday at 8:15pm CT. You can view the full class 4A bracket here.

For those interested, you can stream the games live at this link. The semifinals and finals (read all remaining games) will also be televised on NBCSCH+. That’s DIRECTV channel 665-1 and DISHTV channel 448 or 9518.

Good luck to all the future and potential future Hawkeyes still competing.