Iowa’s May Happenings
May in Iowa is a time for things to bloom, and we had plenty of guys see their recruitment start to bud this month. Other guys’ recruitment is in full blossom mode, i.e. Iowa Barnstormers and Dubuque, Senior forward Noah Carter. The offseason is definitely in full-gear, and here’s all the exciting things that happened around the in May.
The Battle
It’s the crown jewel of Prep Hoops Events, The Battle at the Lakes, or simply, “The Battle” as we like to call it. Lots and lots of Iowa teams converged on the Twin Cities in early May to show off what they could do against other top squads in the Midwest, and it went….ok. No Iowa teams advanced to the semifinals in the 15U-17U platinum divisions. All Iowa Attack 15u, Iowa Barnstormers 17u and Kingdom Hoops Elite 15u were the big winners from Iowa, they all advanced to the Elite 8, but then all lost those games Sunday morning. Still, we had some Iowa to cover in the finals on Sunday. Japannah Kellogg and Patrick McCaffery both won a title and contributed as role players for D1 Minnesota 17U. Even Brauns helped out Wisconsin Playground Warriors in their 16U runners-up bid. “The Battle” is the highlight of the spring, tourney-wise. We hope there’s even more Iowa squads involved next May.
Kings of the Court
Kingdom Hoops-Mosley 17U went home champs after avenging an earlier loss to Martin Brothers in the finals. The Kingdom squad was playing with just seven guys, but got big games from Creston wing Kylan Smallwood and Hoover’s Hosea Treadwell to help come away with the impressive W. Keeside Elite won the 17u Gold division; that was a team assembled by Noah Hart, which included other D1 prospects, Xavier Foster, Japannah Kellogg, and Dylan Jones. They got pummeled by a very good Iowa Cornsharks team in the first round, which kept them out of platinum bracket contention, but then ran off five straight wins to bring home the lower level crown. Martin Brothers 15u won it all, they might have the deepest 15u squad in Iowa; they’re stacked. The Martin Brothers were kings of the tourney; they had their 15U, 16U and 17U teams all in the finals.
Harouna Sissoko Heads to GVC
Well, North Linn fans aren’t happy, but two-time defending 1A champ Grand View Christian has added another Division I prospect to their roster. Harouna Sissoko is a 6’7 combo-forward who can nail a 3, and handle the rock, and will be joining forces with Issa Samake and Grand View Christian next season. Sissoko plays with Samake — who joined GVC last season and helped them another 1A title — on All Iowa Attack’s 17U unit. He came from Lincoln Academy in Georgia. Does this make GVC the favorite to win yet another 1A state title? Probably.
DJ Carton Narrows List
The Bettendorf point guard moved into five-star position when he made the jump all the way to No. 23 in Rivals’ 2019 prospect rankings. And he recently narrowed his massive list of offers down to six. The good news for a lot of you reading this, is that, yes, Iowa is on the list. Here’s the six teams; Iowa, Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, Marquette and Xavier. Where will he end up? We don’t know, maybe Iowa.
Who Got Offers?
Noah Carter: Air Force, South Dakota State
Bowen Born: Northern Iowa
Even Brauns: Milwaukee-Wisconsin
Noah Hart: Air Force, Truman State
Cole Henry: Air Force
Derek Krogmann: Upper Iowa
Jake Hilmer: Truman State
Dylan Jones: Truman State
Keaton Mitchell: Upper Iowa
Aidan Vanderloo: Truman State
Carter Cuvelier: Morningside
Conner Groves: Morningside
2018 Commits
Hakeem Odunsi: Central CC
Ben Lyon: Rockhurst
CaRondis Harris-Anderson: McKendree
Jordan Magnani: Cornell
Kyle Frank: Graceland