The consensus held that Fran McCaffery needed two things out of his 2014 recruiting class: A point guard and a power forward. The search for the point guard has been frustratingly unsuccessful, but we can check the box for the power forward: Dominique Uhl, a 6'8 prospect out of Point Pleasant Beach (NJ) High School committed to Iowa Friday. Uhl chose the Hawkeyes over offers from Maryland, Miami (FL), Boston College, Minnesota, Northwestern, Penn State, and Temple, among others. He has a three-star rating from Rivals and 247Sports, and is widely considered one of the top 10 players in New Jersey.
Uhl's announcement was made on SNY, which came complete with a hat:
Man, we never get fun stuff like guys on TV putting on our hat. This is so great.
Uhl is originally from Germany, and came to New Jersey because he wanted to play college basketball. The German accent alone makes him one of our favorite players the moment he steps on campus, but the skill set -- his AAU coach described him as "a good slasher, takes kids off the dribble, [and] can shoot the ball now," and "can jump out of the gym" -- fits what Iowa is trying to do almost perfectly. For example, here's Uhl throwing down on a seven-footer:
That should be set to Wu-Tang and distributed nationally. You know, for the children.
The one thing that Uhl is not: A traditional power forward. He's only 180 lbs. at the moment, and looks far more like a wing than a bruiser going forward. With guys like Aaron White and Jared Uthoff, McCaffery has shown he doesn't need Charles Barkley in the post, but if Uhl is going to survive in the Big Ten, he's going to have to bulk up some. Uhl mentions in his announcement that Iowa sees him as a "3, maybe a 4 against smaller defenders," so whether he ever really plays power forward is up in the air.
Nevertheless, more players are better than fewer, and beating out comparable programs like Maryland and Boston College on the recruiting trail is always good. So guten tag and willkommen, Dominque.