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Successfully dispatching a woefully overmatched NAIA team in the final pre-season exhibition game wasn't the only successful piece of business for Fran & co. yesterday -- they also managed to secure their fourth verbal commitment for the class of 2015 from Chicago SF Isaiah Moss.
2015 forward Isaiah Moss has committed to Iowa on his official visit this weekend.
— Tom Kakert (@HawkeyeReport) November 2, 2014
My emoji translation skills need a little work, but I think this tweet from Moss is also a good thing:
— isaiah moss (@imoss38) November 3, 2014
Moss, a 6-6, 175 lb (or 6-5, 190 lbs, depending on your source) wing player from Chicago's Simeon Vocational HS, is a consensus 3* recruit from the scouting services. He chose Iowa over offers from Auburn, Iowa State, Pitt, and DePaul. Iowa extended an official scholarship offer to Moss less than two weeks ago (October 22), but according to Moss they'd been recruiting him for a very long time and were the first major conference school to show interest in him, as far as his sophomore season of high school. Once again, a long-term recruiting efforts pay off for McCaffery.
Moss was something of a late bloomer in the recruiting game, only accumulating much interest after "a solid spring and an even better July on the club circuit [with AAU team Mac Irvin Fire], per The Chicago Sun-Times. One of the reasons that recruiters were slow to offer Moss was that he hails from a hugely-talented prep team; Simeon was ranked #12 team in the nation in USA Today's preseason poll and they boast a bevy of future DI players, including fellow seniors Ed Morrow (an ESPN 100 PF committed to Nebraska) and D.J. Williams (an ESPN 100 SF committed to Illinois) and junior Zach Norvell (an ESPN 100 player for the class of 2016). Moss also flew under the radar because he came off the bench as a junior, although he's expected to play a much bigger role this season.
Most recruiting sources list Moss as a SF, but the wing told Hawkeye Insider that Fran McCaffery sees him as a versatile player who could play a variety of roles for Iowa -- similar to a recently departed wing player at Iowa.
Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery painted a mental picture for Moss on how he would be used with the Hawkeyes.
"I could be at the one, two or three he said. I would be playing how (Roy Devyn) Marble played. He wants me to score for him," Moss said.
Highlight videos are a always a somewhat imperfect source of information about prospects, but it's certainly possible to see some of Marble's game in Moss' highlights. His athleticism -- particularly his quickness -- also really stands out in those highlights, as does his ability to finish near the rim.
Moss joins three other known verbal commits for Iowa's class of 2014, including Ahmad Wagner, Andrew Fleming, and fellow Chicago area-recruit Brandon Hutton. Fran's recruitment of Moss and Hutton may be as exciting for what it represents in terms of long-term recruiting gains as it is for what they'll add to Iowa on the court (although they both seem capable of being very productive players for Iowa in that aspect, too): increased access to the talent-rich Chicago pipeline. Simeon, in particular, routinely produces a lot of high-end talent; an opportunity to get a foothold in that door could be very good news for Iowa basketball moving forward. Whether or not Iowa gets future recruits from Simeon (or other Chicago-area high schools), though, Moss appears to be a very solid get for Iowa. Welcome aboard, Mr. Moss.