Cyclones offer highly-regarded JUCO combo guard

Iowa State has officially started perusing the junior college ranks for additions to its 2020 men’s basketball recruiting class. On Tuesday, Steve Prohm and his staff extended a scholarship offer to 6-foot-4 Florida Southwestern combo guard Keon Ellis, one of the top uncommitted JUCO players in the country.

Regarded as the No. 9 JUCO player in the nation by JUCORecruiting.com, Ellis averaged 18.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game while shooting 53.6 percent from the field, 40.1 percent from 3-point range and 80.7 percent from the free-throw line this season for the Buccaneers, who went 29-2 this season and were slated as the No. 6 seed in the NJCAA Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan. before the event was canceled late last week. Elis was named the Suncoast Conference player of the year after leading the Buccaneers to a conference championship and a No. 1 ranking in the national polls heading into the postseason.

Elis, who has also tweeted out offers from Middle Tennessee State, Alabama, Fresno State, Gardner-Webb and a few other schools in recent weeks, is evidence of Prohm’s expected recruiting strategy this spring with the intention of adding age and experience to his overall roster. The Cyclones have one scholarship open at the time of this writing, after the transfer of Zion Griffin, but that number is likely to grow to two when Tyrese Haliburton makes the expected decision to go to the NBA and could grow even more with further attrition.

As always, this is a developing story and the situation remains fluid as spring recruiting starts to ramp up.