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UPDATED: WILLIE ATWOOD WATCH: DECISION DAY COMETH

JUCO transfer Willie Atwood is set to announce his decision on where to play basketball next year later this afternoon; will Iowa receive some good news on the hoops recruiting trail?

By RossWB
Matthew Holst

Iowa's 2014 basketball recruiting class got underway in November with commitments from Brady Ellingson and Dominique Uhl.  They also officially added JUCO point guard Trey Dickerson last week.  Iowa's not quite done with the 2014 recruiting class -- especially since the Hawkeyes now have two open scholarships to work with after Kyle Meyer's unexpected decision to transfer -- but their efforts to finish off that class have essentially been in a holding pattern while they wait on one player to make a decision.  That player would be Willie Atwood, a 4* JUCO PF recruit who has been Iowa's top recruiting target all spring.  Atwood was originally expected to make his decision yesterday, but decided to switch his announcement to today after a teammate decided to make his own announcement yesterday.

As Brad Winton's tweet indicates, it's a three-horse race for Atwood's services, with Iowa vying with Florida State and Arizona State to land his signature.  Which of those three schools has the lead in the race to land his signature?  Good question.

That sums it up pretty neatly, to be honest.  Atwood has played his recruitment fairly close to the vest and no one seems too sure about where he might be leaning at this stage.  Iowa was the first school he made an official visit to and they've widely been considered a serious contender to land him after getting a commitment from Dickerson, one of Atwood's close friends.  But Arizona State was the last school he visited so, hey, three cheers for recency!  And Florida State, well, they're in the ACC.  Yeah.

So, no, we don't know what Atwood's decision is going to be this afternoon, if it will be good news for Iowa basketball or another almost got 'im for a program that's had a few too many of those lately.  But we'll find out one way or another this afternoon, which should also give us some clarity about this recruiting class for Iowa.  Last week Fran opined that they might carry over one scholarship to next year (which would give them a total of four to work with, although one has already been claimed by Chicago-area recruit Brandon Hutton); if that's the case, then getting Atwood's commitment would likely put the finishing touches on Iowa's 2014 class.  If Atwood goes elsewhere, though, it's highly unlikely that Iowa would carry over both open scholarships to 2015, which would mean that they'd move on to the next options after Atwood (although it's not terribly clear who that might be).  What a tangled web we creep about.

We'll update Atwood's decision in this post and in the comments, so be sure to tune in here later this afternoon.

UPDATE: It looks like Atwood-to-Arizona State. Welp.

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