Iowa Basketball Recruiting: Hawkeyes Miss on 4-Star Center Xavier Foster

For Hawkeye fans looking for a respite from football after Iowa’s de facto elimination from Big Ten West division contention over the weekend were again served a hard dose of medicine this morning.

In state big man Xavier Foster, a 4-star center from Oskaloosa who has been Fran McCaffery’s top priority in the recruiting class of 2020 for the better part of 3 years, announced via a live video stream this morning that he will be attending Iowa State, rather than Iowa. The blow comes after Foster made two visits to Iowa City last week, first for the Hawkeyes’ exhibition game on Monday and later for their season opener on Friday night with a trip to Ames on Tuesday sandwiched in.

Foster had offers from a number of top programs around the country, including Kansas, UCLA, Virginia Tech and others, but had recently narrowed his focus to just Iowa and Iowa State. With his visit schedule, family ties to the University of Iowa and the priority Fran had made Foster vs. what Prohm had done led many to believe Iowa would be his landing spot.

Ultimately, the Hawkeyes find themselves in a familiar position: second place for a priority recruit.

With Foster officially out, McCaffery and the Hawkeyes head into Wednesday’s early signing day with just four commitments and no big men. Current commits include Chicago-native PG Ahron Ulis, Indianapolis-native SG Tony Perkins and Cedar Rapids natives and SFs Keegand and Kris Murray.

Iowa will turn their attention to UK-native Josh Ogundele, who visited along with Foster for the Penn State football game. Ogundele is set to announce later this week, but one has to wonder if Fran spent enough time cultivating that relationship with all the effort exerted on Foster.

The Hawkeyes will be in action tonight as the Gavitt Tipoff Games get started. Iowa will host DePaul (3-0) at 7pm CT. Our full preview can be found here.