After rescheduling his visit to allow both of his parents to attend the game, 2025 guard Phoenix Gill was in Hilton Coliseum to see Iowa State’s recent 71-64 win over West Virginia.
The Chicago prospect still came away impressed with the home atmosphere, despite a slow start for the Cyclones.
“It was great, Gill said. “The energy – you could tell – it was crazy. I could see why it’s called Hilton Magic. Coach Blount told me it wasn’t even the best its been, and it was still crazy loud. It’s always great to see a new atmosphere and really come down to a game in Ames and also just seeing the locker room and all that stuff – all the intangibles like pre-game speech, post-game speech. It was it was fun, really fun.”
Gill is rated as the No. 27 shooting guard in the country by 247 Sports, and is also slotted as the No. 4 prospect out of Illinois.
Gill’s focus in his recruitment has included the type of defense his top interests play, and he’s taken exceptional notice in Iowa State’s over the year.
“The biggest thing that impressed me was the defense, of course,” Gill said. “They just turn (the opposing offense) over like crazy. I think West Virginia had like 23 turnovers. So, I mean, they just turn people over a lot and they get out on the break, which I really do well. That will complement me really well. I love is he that. They let the guards play free. Tamin (Lipsey) of course, Keshon (Gilbert), and Curtis (Jones) – they’re all really good guards. They just let them play free within the frame of the offense, but they let them go. That’s what I really like to see on a visit.”
Gill says that his top three schools have separated themselves at this point.
“It impacted it a little,” Gill said.. “I feel like my top three are still Northwestern and Stanford right now, with Illinois being a close fourth. I feel like it’s just great seeing what’s going, on the atmosphere and kind of just taking everything in to see how they would fit me and how I could succeed in the program.”
Although, there is still an amount of time between now and when he wants to make his final decision.
“I think it’ll come later,” Gill said of a potential commitment date. “Probably around October or November, maybe even later, but I would say probably early November at the earliest. I don’t know for sure, but somewhere around there would probably be the earliest.
