A Quick Look at the Top Five Recruits Under Fran McCaffery
By Tyler Devine
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery has searched far and wide for talent during his 10-year tenure at Iowa, but most of his success has come close to home.
That much is clear when looking at the five top rated recruits to come to Iowa under McCaffery, three of which are Iowa natives and one from just across the border in Nebraska.
The criteria for the list was to take all eight four-star recruits under McCaffery and rank them by their national ranking according to Rivals.com to get the top five.
All five of the players on the list were ranked in the top 100 nationally. Two of them, Joe Wieskamp and Patrick McCaffery, are still on the Iowa roster with two and four years of eligibility left, respectively.
The three that did not make the list were center Luka Garza, and guards Connor McCaffery and Ahron Ulis.
Garza’s omission from the list might be the most surprising to Iowa fans because he is the biggest success story under Fran McCaffery. He was named Big Ten Player of the Year last season and is the first Iowa player since 1952 to be named a consensus first-team All-American.
Garza ended up being ranked No. 111 nationally by Rivals in the 2017 class, while Connor McCaffery was unranked in the same class.
Connor McCaffery is currently on the Iowa roster, while Garza is going through the NBA Draft process. He has yet to announce whether he will return for his senior year or enter the draft.
Ulis is a part of Iowa’s incoming 2020 recruiting class and is currently ranked No. 109 nationally, according to Rivals.
All of the recruits on the top five list are either from Iowa or a state that borders Iowa.
Pos., Name, Height, Weight, Hometown, National ranking, Years at Iowa
- G Joe Wieskamp, 6-6, 190, Muscatine, No. 43, 2018-present
In high school, Wieskamp was named the Iowa Gatorade Player of the Year twice. In his first two years in a Hawkeye uniform, Wieskamp has started all 66 games that Iowa has played, averaging 12.5 points per game while shooting over 45% from the field and 38% from three-point range. Wieskamp announced in April he would not go through the draft process and will return for his junior year.
- C Adam Woodbury, 7-0, 250, Sioux City, No. 50, 2012-2016
Woodbury did most of his work as a Hawkeye on defense. He played in 138 consecutive games at Iowa, starting 137 of those. Woodbury went undrafted after graduation and has since carved out a career in the NBA G League where he is currently a member of the Grand Rapids Drive.
- F Tyler Cook, 6-8, 240, St. Louis, Mo., No. 74, 2016-2019
Known for his rim-rattling dunks and expressive attitude, Cook is the only player on this list to have been named to an All-Big Ten team when he was named second-team All-Big Ten as a junior. Cook started 92 of the 93 games he played in at Iowa and his one of nine players in Iowa history to total more than 1,300 points and 600 rebounds in his career. Cook decided to forego his senior season to enter the NBA Draft. He went undrafted and after a brief stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he has found his way to the G League where he currently plays for the Oklahoma City Blue.
- F Patrick McCaffery, 6-8, 180, Iowa City, No. 75, 2019-present
McCaffery left Iowa City West as its all-time leading scorer. In his season at Iowa, he played sparingly in two games before sitting out the rest of the season due to health complications. McCaffery has since been given a clean bill of health and was recently granted a hardship waiver by the NCAA which allows him to maintain four years and eligibility.
- G Mike Gesell, 6-2, 180, S. Sioux City, Neb., No. 100, 2012-2016
Gesell was named the Nebraska Gatorade Player of the Year has a high school senior. He holds the Iowa single season record for assists with 205 and left Iowa fourth in career assists after playing in 134 games.