Iowa State’s 2025 recruiting plan is starting to come into view.
Through this past weekend’s live period, the Cyclones have extended four scholarship offers in the 2025 class, and all four players appear poised to become priority recruits for the Cyclones in the coming months.
This feels like a good time to reset the board with the list of targets Iowa State is focused on in the 2025 recruiting cycle.
Curtis Stinson, Jr., Guard, West Des Moines
It shouldn’t be hard to figure out who is at or near the top of Iowa State’s board at this point in the cycle, and he comes with legacy connections to the program.
Stinson, the 6-foot-4 son of former Iowa State star Curtis Stinson, is considered one of the top point guards in the 2025 class and is one of the top players regardless of class in the state of Iowa at this point.
247Sports currently rates him as the No. 49 player in the class overall, No. 6 point guard and No. 1 player in Iowa’s 2025 class.
As a sophomore this past season for Valley, Stinson averaged 13.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals per game while leading the Tigers to a Class 4A state title.
Kai Rogers, Center, Milwaukee
T.J. Otzelberger is falling back into his home state and a lucrative area for the Cyclones in recent years by pursuing one of the top centers in the 2025 class.
Rogers, a 6-foot-10 Wauwatosa West prep, is considered the No. 58 player in the class overall, No. 11 center and No. 2 player in Wisconsin by 247Sports.
Iowa State offered on May 10 and he has 10 other offers to his name, including Florida State, Marquette, Georgetown, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Ole Miss, St. John’s, Texas and Wisconsin.
Amare Bynum, Forward, Omaha
One of two recent additions to Iowa State’s offer list, the 6-foot-8 forward out of Omaha Bryan also has legacy connections to the program as his dad, Omar, played for Iowa State in the early 2000s.
The younger Bynum has emerged as one of the top players in Nebraska and recently stood out during the Nike Elite 100 camp several weeks ago. He unofficially visited Iowa State last Wednesday and picked up an offer from Otzelberger and Co. while he was on campus.
Kyle Green has been the lead recruiter here, and you can expect competition to be stiff for Bynum. He also holds reported offers from Nebraska and Tennessee.
Braden Frager, Forward, Lincoln
Another top player in Nebraska’s 2025 class is Iowa State’s most recent addition to the offer board. Frager, a 6-foot-6 forward out of Lincoln Southwest, landed an Iowa State offer on Sunday.
Otzelberger and other members of Iowa State staff were in Kansas City to watch Frager over the weekend and came away impressed enough to extend the offer. That followed Frager taking an unofficial visit to Ames last Thursday.
Green is the lead recruiter here again, but Otzelberger has become closely involved in the communication over the last week. Frager also holds offers from Creighton, Nebraska and Northwestern at this point early in the cycle.
More Musings
*** There isn’t anything funny to say about the way Bob Huggins’ career at West Virginia came to a close over the weekend. The longtime Mountaineer head coach resigned after being arrested for a DUI early Saturday morning, just weeks after twice using a homophobic slur during a live radio interview in Cincinnati.
There was no other conclusion for this to come to. Huggins was already on thin ice with the West Virginia administration, and this isn’t his first strike as his tenure at Cincinnati ended under similar circumstances nearly 20 years ago.
The sad fact of the matter is many people likely knew there was a bigger problem at hand here than anybody ever let on. It was a long-running joke that you could spot Huggins at a West Ames establishment anytime the Mountaineers were in town.
Now, Huggins’ time as West Virginia’s head coach is over, and a long Hall of Fame career is likely over as well.
*** It will be interesting to follow the coaching search that takes place in Morgantown as they try to nail down Huggins’ successor. This is awfully late in the process to be finding a new coach, especially when you have a highly touted class of transfers that appeared poised to flip the script on West Virginia’s recent success.
In my mind, the top priority needs to be hiring someone who is capable of keeping all of that talent together and on the roster in Morgantown. Perhaps that means hiring an interim coach for one year then diving head on into a coaching search after next season.
All we know for sure is the clock is ticking. Players from West Virginia’s roster are eligibile to enter the transfer portal again for the next 30 days, and two of the top transfers, Kerr Kriisa and Jesse Edwards, were first time transfers who would not need a waiver if they chose to go elsewhere.
