Friendships lure Korie Lucious to Ames for official

By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com Publisher

The Iowa State men’s basketball program is hitting the transfer trail again.

Former Michigan State Spartan guard Korie Lucious will be in Ames for an official visit this weekend. Lucious, a 5-foot-11, 170-pound point guard, who was originally a Rivals.com 4-star prospect out of Milwaukee Pius XI, has two prime connections to Iowa State’s program. Former Spartan current Cyclone redshirt Chris Allen is one of them. Then there’s another Milwaukee native and Iowa State senior Diante Garrett.

“I keep in contact with him all of the time,” Lucious said. “He told me that I should try to visit Iowa State. Then, they said that they were interested in me and wanted me to come down there to take a visit. I realized that I should come down there this weekend to watch them play Kansas State.”

Lucious has known Garrett since middle school when the two constantly played against each other in Milwaukee AAU tournaments.

“One of my best friends went to the same high school as him so we got kind of close,” Lucious said.

Then there’s Chris Allen, who Lucious says was one his “best friends” at Michigan State.

“We always did stuff together,” Lucious said. “He told me that he loves it there. He said that the coaches are cool and know what they’re doing. He said that they have a lot of confidence in their players. It is a fun campus and an all around great environment.”

Lucious doesn’t have many options on the table right now, but don’t expect him to make any sort of a commitment to Iowa State this weekend.

“I’ll hopefully get a feel for everything and make a decision over the next couple weeks,” Lucious said. “I am going to try to make a couple more visits but I’m not sure really. I still have to talk to my family a little more about it.”

“I won’t do it this early. I have been hearing good things and if I like it enough, I’m sure that I would in a couple of weeks.”

Lucious said that Iowa State associate head coach T.J. Otzelberger has worked as his lead recruiter.

Lucious was averaging 6.5 points and 4.1 assists per game when Tom Izzo dismissed him from the team on Jan. 25.CLICK HERE to view his career stats at Michigan State.

Check out CycloneFanatic.com all weekend long for more updates on this developing basketball recruiting story.