By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com PublisherFollow Chris on Twitter @ChrisMWilliams
Future Cyclone Georges Niang won a championship over the weekend.
The words “Peach Jam” might not mean a lot to casual hoops fans, but trust me when I write that it is a big deal.
Niang and his Boston Amateur Basketball Club won the Nike EYBL title on Friday night (in a game that was televised on ESPNU), with an 84-67 victory over a team from Memphis. Niang, a verbal commitment in Iowa State’s recruiting class of 2012, went 9-of-12 from the floor and scored 21 points in the victory.
“The EYBL is a really good league,” Niang said. “We have a lot of top-ranked guys and guys who really compete. To come out of it with only two losses and an EYBL championship says something about our program and the guys who we have. We play well as a team.”
Hundreds of division one college coaches were in attendance on Friday night but Cyclone fans have no reason to worry. Niang told CycloneFanatic.com on Sunday night that even though he’s all of the sudden a hot commodity within college basketball’s class of 2012, he is still fully committed to Iowa State.
“I can tell you 100 percent that I am going to be in a Cyclone uniform,” Niang said. “I just have to laugh. I see coaches shaking their heads thinking, ‘why didn’t we get this guy?’ They had a chance but they didn’t believe.”
“That’s why I’m going to Iowa State. Coach Hoiberg believed in me from day one. He expected big things from me from the first time he saw me. He’s probably sitting back in his chair thinking that he got a good one and me, I can tell you straight up that I am going to Iowa State.”
That pretty much sums things up.
From here, Niang will turn his attention to improving as an athlete for the rest of the summer.
“I am up with my trainer at Integrity Hoops,” Niang said. “I work out and lift with him. We do two-a-days and stuff like that. I’m trying to to make myself better as a player. I want to be better at the next level.”
