Scouting Report: Tyrus McGee

By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com Publisher

Royce White, Anthony Booker, Chris Babb and Chris Allen. Those are the fabulous four transfers that Iowa State’s new head basketball coach Fred Hoiberg has acquired since he got the job in Ames.

With all of the talent that is being stockpiled for the 2011-12 Cyclone basketball season, one obvious question has been raised a lot in recent months.

Who will be the point guard on that team?

Hello Tyrus McGee. Welcome to Ames young man.

Fred Hoiberg got his guy on Tuesday as McGee, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound combo-guard out of Cowley Community College committed to the Cyclones. Here’s a scouting report with Cowley head coach, Tommy DeSalme.

“The first thing that comes to my mind is how hard he plays on a consistent basis. You won’t believe it when you see it. It just doesn’t change. He is a throwback player. You don’t see many kids who can be great players, play that hard. I don’t care if it is in the middle of August, the middle of July or in a playoff game or the first game of the year. It doesn’t change and it has never changed with him. There is nothing fake about it and how hard he goes after the basketball. Right up there with that strength is his ability to score and shoot. You can look at his stats from last year and his whole career in high school. The good Lord gave him the ability to put the ball in the hole from a lot of different spots in a lot of different ways. He is our team leader. He leads the group and he will continue to get better at those things. He is going to be our primary point guard this year and he can do a lot of different things. He can really push the basketball and his ability to make decisions and things like that are really good. After having an entire year of running the point, he’ll be even better at that.”

At Cowley, McGee is the primary guy who defenses focus on stopping. On Iowa State’s 2011 roster, that will hardly be the case. That’s just one of the many reasons why DeSalme thinks McGee will be a success story in the Big 12.

“What is going to be really exciting to see is when he goes to Iowa State, having that talent around him will only make him better. Other teams won’t be able to truly focus on him. He is a team guy. That’s the thing. He can take a butt chewing. I am harder on him than I have ever been on a player before. I can take him out of the game and be mad at him. He’s going to sit right there with his teammates. He will find a way to make that team better.”

McGee averaged 16.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per season as a freshman at Cowley. He chose Iowa State over offers from Creighton, Wichita State, Colorado and TCU.