Nice article from today (Feb 13) on Joe Wieskamp.
LINK: http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...amps-place-iowa-basketball-history/330687002/
LINK: http://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sp...amps-place-iowa-basketball-history/330687002/
"He might be one of the best, if not the best, player to ever come out of the state of Iowa"
- Thread starter Franisdaman
- Start date
We could use him immediately. He is one of the missing pieces. I can't wait til he's a Hawkeye.
I'm hoping he is the full package. If he ends up being a 3 point shooter I will be very disappointed. I'd sure like to see him be able to get to the rim.
Good piece, and I hope he is that good at the next level. Surprising to me that nobody mentioned Bobby Hansen as one of the best. Maybe he's too far back, but he played in a F4 at Iowa and in the NBA for a long time.
Good points, Bobby Hansend was the real deal.
I usually go to a few MAC games when I come back to Iowa for a week or so every January, and have managed to see him play FR, Soph, & JR year (missed him this year)... I thought from day one that the kid was was deserving of the hype. Anyone else who's seen him play knows he's not just a stat stuffer, but a very smooth, almost effortless flowing player. Great form to everything he does, and smart with the ball. I played in the conference the same time frame as Ricky Davis when he was at Dav North, and while he's always been the most accomplished guy from the MAC, and a freak athlete, Joe is the best basketball player, hands down. He's going to be as advertised.
Just a great article about, from all accounts, a great young man, team mate, and basketball player. It will be a pleasure to watch him over the next 4 years.
He could play for any team in the country, but nah he can't help Iowa.
He and Connor are the missing pieces. Sorry to pee on the pessimism parade usually present.
He and Connor are the missing pieces. Sorry to pee on the pessimism parade usually present.
Look - if an Iowa team cannot start playing defense none of it will matter. The obvious is so glaring it's laughable yet no one including the coaches seems to want to take any accountability. Our basketball program is in shambles let's be honest. Pull the covers over your head again it will be ok.
Fran has emphasized scoring. With JW coming in (and I can't hardly wait), it will only add to the scoring part. Now, that said, Fran can focus on developing the defense we need. Wasn't that a part of the deal with GB? Well, wasn't it? 
He sounds like a great player and certainly a terrific "get" for the Hawks. but it's awfully early to start calling him the best ever.
I don't think he's a break his guy down and get to the rim type of player. But he doesn't need to be next year. Again offense isn't the problem with this team.
"Full package" to me means an excellent defender as well.
I have seen hundreds of posts saying that Iowa needs someone that can breakdown the defense, usually assigning that need to a "true point guard". A 2 guard can fill that role as well, and I am hoping Joe can provide some of that ability.
Awfully early? His HS career is nearly complete. The article and discussion is about his HIGH SCHOOL career. How long does his season need to over before it’s not “awfully early”?
Yeah. Extreme hyperbole. Until I see him in a Hawk uniform playing with the big boys, I hesitate to put him in the top 10.
Best ever Iowa high school player? Maybe, but impossible to truly quantify comparing him to others he didn't play against or with etc.
From the sound of it though, he's exactly what Iowa needs at the swing spots. Hopefully it ain't something like he's a tweener that doesn't fit the 2 or 3, but is a no question 2 only or 3 only - and holds onto it from the moment he steps on the court until he moves onto graduating (or better).
That alone would be a tremendous improvement for this roster. Not having a "sometimes decent 2 or 3", or a guy playing woefully out of position.
From the sound of it though, he's exactly what Iowa needs at the swing spots. Hopefully it ain't something like he's a tweener that doesn't fit the 2 or 3, but is a no question 2 only or 3 only - and holds onto it from the moment he steps on the court until he moves onto graduating (or better).
That alone would be a tremendous improvement for this roster. Not having a "sometimes decent 2 or 3", or a guy playing woefully out of position.
This is what was quoted:
"He might be one of the best, if not the best, player to ever come out of the state of Iowa"
There are lots of great kids who came out of Iowa, to differentiate them you need to see what happened with their careers when they stepped up in class.
I would disagree that this article is only about his high school career:
"It’d be hard to say his high school career, numbers-wise, wouldn't be the best we’ve ever seen," Clark said. "As far as where he stands amongst the players that have come out of Iowa, like Marcus Paige, Doug McDermott and Kirk Hinrich — what he does after this, potentially, could get him to the point where he might be one of the best, if not the best, player to ever come out of the state of Iowa."
Joe certainly has a lot of those same qualities of one of my favorite all time Hawks, Matt Gatens. That Matt stuck it out at Iowa, and helped begin the process of bringing Iowa out of the dark days will always stand for something with me. I'd be thrilled if Joe had Matts career at Iowa, but I'll bet he gets off to a better start. He'll have a lot more to work with around him, and if we can land D.J. or another such guard we should be in for a good run.
Matt Gatens should get a lot more recognition on this board. I frequently saw him jogging / working on his conditioning his junior and senior years.
Not from Iowa so I have a couple questions. Does he play in the highest class? In the article it also gives his career record, not overly impressive. Has he always been a one man band? I’d think given his abilities his teams would’ve won a lot more games. Still can’t believe that Ames team had Barnes and McDermott.
if he's really that good, probably shouldn't expect him to be around for 4 years. Maybe 1 or 2.
Highest class. He's a one man band. He had 54 of the team's 64 points against DJ Carton's team (2019 top 150 recruit). Faces double/triple teams every game.
Are you guys more excited for the arrival of JW than you were for this season's 4 returning starters and 2 highly touted freshmen?
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Wieskamp isn't in the top 5 of best players to come out of Iowa. May not be in the top 10.
Hopefully JW brings with him something to spike the other players and coaches pre-game drinks with that will make them all actually see the importance of Defense.
Honestly David, my only concern for rating Joe W. is what he'll bring to the Hawks lineup for the next four years. Certainly there were more high level athletes, Ricky Davis from my home town of Davenport, not to mention several players already mentioned, most of whom never played at Iowa, or had minimal impact as Hawks like Ricky before leaving in just one year. Joe's story hasn't been written yet, and I'm excited to watch it unfold.
Thinking this through. Here's NBA players, or in the case of Street, a guy that would have played in the NBA, from the last 50 years.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/high_schools.fcgi?state=IA
Hanson
Fish
Street
Meyer
Hoiberg
Bullard
LaFrentz
Bowen
Davis
Oliver
Korver
Collison
Hinrich
Barnes
McDermott
Uthoff
Paige
Is he the best of that bunch just looking at high school? Probably not. LaFrentz and Barnes were definitely higher ranked heading into college. I think you can easily make a case for Joe being one of the top 10 high school players from Iowa heading into college. Being in the top 5 is disputable though. 5 of those guys played for Roy at blue blood programs. If Joe makes the NBA some day to get added to this list he'd probably be the only Iowan to have turned down blue blood offers to stay in state.
Yeah I would say the top kids in terms of recruiting are: based on rankings and McDAA
Lafrentz
Collison
Worley
Barnes
Davis
Paige
Lorenzen
Wieskamp is in the Hinrich, Woodbury, Bruner level but it is hard with some of the older ones to know really high high they were considered nationally like Hoiberg, Oliver etc.
I am talking in terms of where they are at coming out of HS in terms of recruiting. That I can definitely say.
What if he hadn't committed to Iowa so soon? No other big time programs would have wanted him? You don't know, no one knows. Not having a pissing match here as I agree with what you post 99% of the time, but no one is perfect
What if he hadn't committed to Iowa so soon? No other big time programs would have wanted him? You don't know, no one knows. Not having a pissing match here as I agree with what you post 99% of the time, but no one is perfect
I was just talking about rankings. I think he definitely would have had more offers but I don't think his ranking would have gone up.
Based on High School career, I would say JW is in the top 3. JW plays team ball, rebounds, plays defense, can handle the ball well, and looks for his team mates. Name one of these 7 players that had all of those attributes. Name one of them that averaged over 30 points per game when being double and triple teamed. After 4 healthy years at Iowa, I believe he will be considered one of the top 3 based on college performance also.
Wiekamp is a stud----no doubt. Connor oozes high B-ball IQ and gives us a coach on the court.
Iowa's problems this year was due to dry spells on offense. When an opponent hangs a 100 on us, we need 105 pts. The defensive issues we had were due to the team's overall youth and lack of experience and not following scouting reports. Some might question whether adding two players with virtually zero college level defensive experience will be the key to turning around Iowa's defense. Those posters fail to realize the rest of this squad that goes 11 deep will be back next year and 11 guys with more experience trumps two guys with near zero.
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