Monday marked the first day that Division I men’s basketball programs can start reaching out directly to recruits in the 2022 class and Iowa State wasted no time in contacting one of its top targets.
Ames guard Tamin Lipsey is one of a number of players Iowa State head coach Steve Prohm reached out to almost immediately, marking the beginning of the official recruitment of the long-time hometown target.
“My relationship with Coach Prohm is probably the closest (of) any other school right now,” Lipsey told Cyclone Fanatic in a text message on Monday morning. “His pitch is really just how Iowa State has always had very good and successful point guards.”
Iowa State was the first school to verbally offer Lipsey a scholarship on June 17, 2018, the summer before his freshman year of high school. He added an offer from Nebraska, and former Ames High standout Fred Hoiberg, in April of 2019.
The Cyclones and Huskers, along with Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Marquette, Cal, Illinois, Iowa and Xavier, were the programs to make contact with Lipsey on the contact period’s first day. Additionally, the 6-foot-1, 170-pound three-star prospect picked up his third official scholarship offer from the Golden Gophers and head coach Richard Pitino.
Lipsey, who is considered the No. 91 player overall in the 2022 recruiting class and top player in the state of Iowa by 247Composite, averaged 17.0 points, 4.7 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game as a freshman for the Little Cyclones in 2018-19 while shooting 52.3 percent from the field and 37.9 percent from 3-point range.
At that time, Lipsey was considered one of the nation’s top 2022 prospects and won a gold medal with USA Basketball’s U16 team. Unfortunately, an ACL tear in the summer of 2019 prevented Lipsey from playing his sophomore season at Ames High and has been a factor in his recruiting rating taking a dip.
But, Lipsey has been officially cleared and said he feels like he’s back to 100 percent after a long rehab process, which means folks can expect to see him back on the court terrorizing CIML guards this winter.
There is still a long way to go in Lipsey’s recruitment with any potential signing day roughly a year and a half away, but there is little doubt the hometown kid will remain at or near the top of Iowa State’s board throughout the entire recruiting cycle — even if the staff has not tried much to pitch Lipsey on the idea of staying home.
“He hasn’t really,” Lipsey said. “He just recruits like I’m from anywhere.”
