Iowa State men’s basketball continues to roll on the recruiting trail.
The Cyclones landed another of their priority targets on Monday when Kansas City power forward Kayden Fish announced his commitment to T.J. Otzelberger’s program on Instagram Live.
The three-star power forward is the fourth member of the 2023 recruiting class which currently ranks No. 4 nationally. Other commits are five-star power forward, and Fish’s AAU teammate with MoKan Elite, Omaha Biliew, four-star forward Milan Momcilovic and four-star guard Jelani Hamilton.
Fish’s connection to Biliew was critical in the 6-foot-6, 205-pound Staley Prep product ending up with the Cyclones. Fish was lightly recruited with a handful of offers from mid-major programs prior to the late-July recruiting period when he landed offers from Xavier, Boston College and Iowa State.
The Iowa State offer came after Otzelberger and his staff had spent hours watching and scouting Biliew on the grassroots circuit, and in the process, they came to fall in love with Biliew’s teammate, as well.
Iowa State fully dove into the process of recruiting Fish after a standout performance at Peach Jam made it clear he would not fly under the recruiting radar much longer.
Rated as the No. 208 player in the class, No. 41 power forward and No. 9 player in Missouri by the 247Composite, Fish will be perhaps the rawest of Iowa State’s commits in this class, but his competitiveness and gritty style of play have drawn comparisons to former Cyclone star Melvin Ejim, who Otzelberger signed as an assistant in Ames, as a high school player.
This addition will likely complete Iowa State’s high school recruiting class for the time being with no known priority targets left on the board.
No matter how you slice it, this was a home run of a recruiting cycle for Iowa State, having landed every player it targeted as an early priority for the class and then adding a cherry on top in a player that maybe didn’t get enough recruiting attention.
Stay tuned to Cyclone Fanatic for more on this story.
