The addition of Princeton graduate transfer forward Hans Brase on Friday leaves Iowa State with only one scholarship left to fill for the 2017-18 season.
After beginning last year’s summer cycle with seven spots to fill, it is safe to say Steve Prohm and his staff have made some serious progress.
The biggest question left in play for the Cyclones entering next season is how they will fill their final available scholarship. There is not a set answer at this point, but Iowa State definitely is not done adding pieces if it can find the right situation.
“We’ll probably still have one hanging around for us to see what we can do with that,” Prohm said on Friday at the Coaches vs. Cancer Gala in Des Moines. “Sometimes you can get a great gift in July or early August. We’ve got our eyes on one or two that may have a summer to finish up things, so if that works, it’s someone that would definitely have to be a big bonus and be able to help us right away.”
The best case scenario for Prohm and his staff would likely be to get further help on the perimeter for next season’s squad. After missing on New Mexico graduate transfer guard Elijah Brown and JUCO guard Daryl Edwards, the Cyclones’ backcourt projects to be awfully young outside of Donovan Jackson and Nick Weiler-Babb in 2017-18.
There is also always the chance they could decide to bank the scholarship and entertain the possibility of adding a mid-year transfer during the season.
“A transfer possibly or looking at a fifth-year guy or a ready to play guy that can come in and still help on the perimeter that brings a lot of versatility,” Prohm said about what they’ll be looking for moving forward this summer. “We’ll look at a couple things. There are a couple guys still out there we have our eyes on. Obviously I can’t talk names and different things, but I feel good about where we’re at right now and hopefully in the next couple of weeks some more things will line up for us.”
At the end of the day, the Cyclones made serious headway when it came to building depth in the middle alongside sophomore Solomon Young and freshman Cameron Lard.
Lard and Tennessee transfer Ray Kasongo are unproven at this point, so being able to add Brase and Texas-San Antonio graduate transfer forward Jeff Beverly was crucial for the Cyclones’ frontcourt.
Adding the two graduate transfers, plus Virginia sit-out transfer Marial Shayok, also helps Prohm and his staff in their mission of creating balance on Iowa State’s roster and avoiding another cycle in which they have seven spots to fill for the next season.
“We’ve got to get better balance in our classes and that stems from bringing in great high school kids,” Prohm said. “We had a great start with that this fall. Hopefully next fall we can add to that and I think right now when we go into this season our classes will be a lot more balanced than they ever have been. You don’t want to have to sign seven guys, six guys, every year. That’s just too many, especially when a lot of it is coming in the spring. I’m very pleased with this class and we’ll still add probably.”
