By Pat Harty

MUSCATINE, Iowa – The legend of Joe Wieskamp continued to grow on Saturday with yet another spectacular individual performance, but the future Iowa Hawkeye was in no mood to celebrate.

His 42 points weren’t enough for Muscatine as it lost to Cedar Rapids Prairie 72-65 before a raucous home crowd that cheered wildly every time the 6-foot-6 Wieskamp did something to show why he is considered one of the top players in the 2018 senior class and why Hawkeye fans are so eager for him to finally get to college.

Wieskamp is also excited about his future as a Hawkeye, but there is a time and a place to show that excitement and the moments after Saturday’s loss was neither the time nor the place.

“I’m not worried about next year right now,” Wieskamp said. “Obviously, I’m working towards my skills for next season. But I’m focused on the season at hand and trying to do as much as I can to help this team win.”

Wieskamp did an incredible amount of stuff to help his team win on Saturday, but still it wasn’t enough against a Prairie squad in which two of its best players are the 6-5 twin sons of former Iowa basketball player Kenyon Murray.

The older Murray is an assistant coach for Prairie, so he knows all about competing against Wieskamp and about what makes him special.

Kenyon Murray played small forward for Iowa from 1992 to 1996 and is ranked 22^nd on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,230 points. But Murray excelled even more on defense, his 200 career steals ranking third all-time at Iowa.

So what he says about Wieskamp carries extra weight because Murray has been there and done it before as both a Hawkeye and as a heralded recruit.

Murray grew up in Battle Creek, Mich., and was considered the top prospect in his state as a senior, along with being a McDonald’s All-American.

Murray expects Wieskamp to make a significant contribution as a freshman, most likely at Murray's old position of small forward.

“I think right now his ability to stretch the floor with his shooting and his ball handling has gotten so much better and he’s also more explosive this year, you can see that,” Murray said. “So I think as a freshman next year, he can definitely help them.

“I think the athleticism that people once questioned, they don’t question it anymore. He’s real good.”

Wieskamp used a combination of athleticism, size and solid fundamentals to dominate Saturday’s game. He showed the ability to use both hands, to score in traffic, to make 3-point shots from all over the court and to rattle the rim with high-flying dunks.

And he did those things while being defended mostly by Murray’s two sons, both of whom also have Division I potential in basketball as juniors.

“You saw I put my boys on him tonight,” Murray said. “With a kid like that, you’ve got to make him work for everything. And he made shots in the first half.

“I think we just wore him down eventually and that’s what you have to do. Great players make plays and he made a lot of them tonight.”

With his 42 points on Saturday, Wieskamp passed former Ames stars Fred Hoiberg and Harrison Barnes into sixth place on Iowa’s all-time Class 4A scoring list.

But that was little consolation for losing.

As great as Wieskamp has been in high school, Muscatine still hasn’t made it to the state tournament with him on the team. His team came within a game of making it to state last season, but lost to eventual Class 4A state champion Iowa City West with a berth on the line.

Muscatine has only made the state tournament once since 1960 and that came in 2002 when Wieskamp probably was just learning to dribble a basketball.

Wieskamp was named Iowa’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior after scoring 30.4 points and grabbing 10.2 rebounds per game. He would seem to be a lock to win the award again this season, but a trip to the state tournament probably would mean more because it would involve his teammates. 

Wieskamp was polite after Saturday’s loss, but he also was depressed about the outcome. He was willing to talk about his future as a Hawkeye, but only because he was asked to do so.

Wieskamp watched Iowa defeat Drake 90-64 on Saturday and was impessed with what he saw on television.

“They played pretty well,” he said.

Wieskamp and 6-4 Kentucky shooting guard C.J. Fredrick both signed national letters of intent with Iowa during the early signing period in November.

Wieskamp does allow himself to look ahead at times when it’s not a distraction. He pictures himself playing with his future Iowa teammates and gets excited about how he will fit into Iowa coach Fran McCaffery’s system.

“Absolutely,” Wieskamp said. “When I’m watching their games, coach says just imagine yourself out there, looking at the guys and seeing what they’re doing and just learn from them the different things that they do and see where you can see yourself fitting in.”