This year Iowa has 7 guys from the state of Iowa. Last year they had 7. The year before that they had 7. ISU has one and last year ISU had one. Is this because good players grew up watching the Hawkeyes and want to be one or a difference in recruiting philosophy? If the former, ISU has been better the last 10 years (when these in-state guys were paying attention). If the latter, does CSP not see the same talent as Fran for the local kids?
This state doesn't produce elite basketball talent. Look at the recruiting rankings. Iowa State is recruiting a higher caliber player than this state, generally, produces.
Fran recruits to his style of play. Prohm (and Hoiberg, too) preferred using a wider scope, unafraid to reach for higher level, more desirable players. They didn't hit a home run every time, but at least they were swinging hard. Personally, I think Mad Fran can have the majority of them. I'd make a BIG exception for Xavier Foster, though. Sounds like he's going to be really special. EDIT: Fran's style of play is pretty disciplined - which doesn't really jive with his personality.
I remember Johnny Orr describing the type of players he needed to win. Johnny then said there were not many of those to be found in Iowa. (I cleaned this up a bit from the way Johnny actually said it).
Look at ISU’s success over the last 6 seasons, then look at Iowa’s. That’s why we don’t recruit many players from Iowa.
ISU would have taken Gatens, Gesell, Woodbury, Uthoff, Jok, Wieskamp and the younger McCaffery if the situation presented itself.
I'll give you most of those. That said, Iowa would have taken just about every player ISU has had in the past 6-7 years (that has played), with a few exceptions. Wait, I forgot. You wouldn't because right way
We didn't want Woodbury and contrary to what some people think we weren't going to offer Jok after we got Thomas even if we could have. The only reason Iowa offered Jok was because they missed on EC Matthews and Hogue. Jok was Drake bound until Fran struck out
