Iowa State earned another addition to its 2025 recruiting class in Dominykas Pleta, a 6-foot-9 post player out of Germany Thursday.
The overseas recruit announced the news over his Instagram account, and he’s as ready to win as anyone that’s already in Ames.
“I saw they were ranked third for a long time,” Pleta said. “That’s what I really like. I’m a winning guy. I like to win – I’ll do everything to win, to be honest. It don’t matter what.”
The big is late addition to the class, which is currently rated as the No. 15 class in the country.
He will round out the recruiting class, which already features a talented player at each position: point guard Macari Moore, shooting guard Killyan Toure, wing Jamarion Batemon and forward Xzavion Mitchell.
Pleta, who does not yet own a rating on 247 Sports said the connection with Iowa State started early in his recruitment.
“The second I hopped on a zoom meeting with coach T.J. (Otzelberger), coach Nate (Schmidt) and all of the others from the staff, we had good chemistry from the first second on,” Pleta said. “Even when I got there, I meant some players, I really liked the atmosphere. I watched a practice and saw that they’re really competing at every practice.”
Pleta and his camp wanted to keep his recruitment private, and are not disclosing the names of who’s been recruiting him.
However, CycloneFanatic can confirm that he held offers from 10 high major schools including at least one from every power conference.
BREAKING: Dominykas Pleta (@dpleta_), a 6-foot-9 forward out of Germany, announced today he will play his college ball at Iowa State.
He had 10 high major offers from schools in each of the power conferences.
It’s a big get for the 2025 class.pic.twitter.com/Oy0kyHXsfB
— Connor Ferguson (@cfchangs9) February 14, 2025
Pleta took a visit to Ames during his school’s four-day break from classes at the end of November, touring one other school that was stationed in a ‘big city.’
He liked the focus on basketball that he saw at Iowa State.
“I took the chance and went there, but unfortunately couldn’t see a game live,” Pleta said. “I saw one other school – one that I can say is in a big city – one where you get to see the city and you have a lot of other impressions. I really liked that I could just concentrate on basketball at Iowa State.”
Pleta wasn’t able to attend a game, but said that he fell in love with videos he’s been shown of Hilton Coliseum and that everyone in Germany knows about Iowa State.
“What I liked as well, was that when we were walking around, people immediately recognized coach and the players,” Pleta said. “I could really see that it’s a basketball city and a basketball school. When I saw clips of the arena, I gotta say, I fell in love with the atmosphere there. You don’t see that here (in Germany).”
He threw a deep pull out there for Cyclone fans, too, bringing up Nick Weiler-Babb, who has played for Bayern Munich for each of the past five seasons.
“Everybody knows the school here in Europe and Germany,” Pleta said of Iowa State. “Everybody knows Iowa State as a big school with big names from there. We all know of Tyrese Haliburton, and us Germans, we all know Nick Weiler-Babb, so I’ve known of Iowa State.”
Otzelberger and co.’s latest commitment brings a multi-tooled game to Ames and plenty of experience on the court.
Pletta added the team he’s on right now has a big focus on defending, so he’ll fit right into the type of basketball Otzelberger utilizes in Ames.
“Whatever they need from me,” Pleta said. “I’ll do anything.”
