Would guess USC has a decent sized NIL program. Would figure if that’s who the coach really wants. He’d go there.
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They also just got Saint Thomas and have a crystal ball in to land Agbo--both forwards who will likely start. Not sure how much USC will push for Cross given that they just landed those 2. Guess we will see.
Good. Wisconsin is about on equal footing as Iowa I think in NIL. Not sure about TCU.
With Garza, Iowa got in on him very early because Dillard was friends with Garza’s high school coach. As is often said around the Iowa program, “Coach Dillard knows EVERYONE.” Garza mentioned his relationship with Dillard as a big reason he chose Iowa. Same goes for Cook.
With White, Dillard identified him as a prospect when he was little-known and likely headed to Duquesne or Akron. He strongly advocated for Fran McCaffery to offer White even though White wasn’t highly thought of at the time.
Dillard saw Jack Nunge’s potential when he was a high school sophomore and because of that was able to get Iowa involved early. As was often the case with these star players who ended up at Iowa, Dillard pushed for McCaffery to offer before the big name programs came in.
Dillard has contributed mightily to Iowa recruiting. The proof is in the pudding with Garza, White, Cook, Nunge, Payton Sandfort, et al. Contrast his recruiting haul with Andrew Francis, whose top recruit, Gabe Olaseni, wasn’t even a starter.
I forgot where I heard this, but it was put this way: “A lot of people owe Sherman Dillard favors from his time at Nike.” In addition to the players listed above that Dillard was lead recruiter for, I would imagine there are others Iowa got involved with because Coach Dillard got a tip from someone he knew in the basketball world who knew about the prospect. If you follow Iowa basketball recruiting closely, you hear this same sort of scenario playing out again and again involving Coach Dillard.
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He was also supposedly the lead on Thelwell's recruitment (though Fran was involved in that one from the jump too).
Most casual fans just don’t understand the value of existing relationships in recruiting. There’s this persistent idea that what ramps up recruiting (besides money) is having energetic, charismatic young guys the recruits can relate to. The Andrew Francis experiment showed that that isn’t necessarily going to work.
To be successful as an assistant without having a ton of money to throw around, you have to either know a lot of people well or have really strong relationships with a few of the right people.
Seems like our 3 + Tristan have really good ins right now. Eldridge has consistently been bringing in east coast kids + got Tadjo out of Canada this past year. Spurlock seems to have good relationships with Takeover + Boo Williams to get in with some of these DMV recruits so hopefully that will start to materialize. And Gatens has more of the local midwest scene.
I get why some are frustrated with recruiting since it's a bit like Lucy with the football, but the fact that Iowa has been really close with several 5 stars means that Iowa's recruiting is at an uptick. Iowa shouldn't even be getting looks from these kids without serious NIL in place. And tbh, the backup options have not been nearly as bad as they were 5+ years ago.
Can’t vouch for the person posting this, but they’re not an Iowa fan:
The staff recruited him out of high school and based on where Cross played his prep school and grassroots basketball, I’m sure Coach Eldridge has a long-standing relationship with him.
Nah man. Cross actually can play on the perimeter like 99% of college basketball teams use with their 4, isn't a total sieve on defense, and actually has good rebounding numbers.
He also has already played 2 years of high major ball in the ACC. So he isn't going to come in and be surprised by the physicality and speed.
Matt Cross is listed as a 6' 7", 230 lb. forward from Beverly, MA.
For the Class of 2020, Rivals had him as the #99 overall prospect and a 4 star.
2024-2025 will be his 5th college season. He's played for 3 schools already; so this will make it 4 schools in 5 seasons.
2020-2021: Miami (FL)
2021-2022: Louisville
2022-2023: UMass
2023-2024: UMass
2024-2025: ???
In 28 games played last season at UMass, Matt's averages:
30.1 min
15.3 pts
8.3 rebs
3.0 assists
1.5 steals
He shot 32.9% from 3 and 54% overall. He made 79.8% of his FTs.
For the Class of 2020, Rivals had him as the #99 overall prospect and a 4 star.
2024-2025 will be his 5th college season. He's played for 3 schools already; so this will make it 4 schools in 5 seasons.
2020-2021: Miami (FL)
2021-2022: Louisville
2022-2023: UMass
2023-2024: UMass
2024-2025: ???
In 28 games played last season at UMass, Matt's averages:
30.1 min
15.3 pts
8.3 rebs
3.0 assists
1.5 steals
He shot 32.9% from 3 and 54% overall. He made 79.8% of his FTs.
Anyone who is 6'7" and averages over 8 boards/game is not a stiff, and has a motor. 3 assists/game shows he can handle the ball some, and he took more than two 3s/game, so he has some versatility. Seems like a really solid addition to me.
A well-rounded guard would also be a really great addition.
A well-rounded guard would also be a really great addition.
I, too, really like the two stats you mentioned - 8 boards a game (solid for 6-7) and 3 assists a game which probably indicates he's a team player and skilled at passing. And I agree he'd be a solid addition. And that we need another guard. Damn, you're good!!!
What starter roles are locked up for next year? I can think of two: Payton and Freeman. I don't know what NIL is available, but starter minutes should be something still in play when talking about the last spot.
Dix too.
I like anyone with 8 boards per game at 6'7 i am sure you heard of Nick Baer?
Actually this guy appears to be a better defender, better rebounder, and much better 3 point shooter. Never know until they step on the floor but appears he would be a solid upgrade over Ben.
Just a question, you think he would be brought in to Iowa to start every game and average 30 minutes? That's what it took him to average over 8 rebounds a game and almost 15.5 points. I just don't see it, but maybe Payton has already told Fran that he's not coming back, that's a possibility, but if Payton comes back you can't play them both and leave Owen on an island, either way, not sure there's enough minutes to satisfy him. You can never know, maybe.
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Same music used in highlight videos of Thelwell and Cross. So I guess Cross to Iowa is a done deal😉
The scout on Cross is he’s physical, skilled, and productive. Good defensively. The negative not athletic. If he comes to Iowa and assuming Payton comes back. I wouldn’t want them on the floor at the same time much. Hopefully Iowa adds another athletic guard SG,CG,PG whatever.
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I can promise you, Payton is currently in the plans for next year. It's going to take a lot for him to stay in the draft. Could happen, but that's currently not the plans.
If Cross was 2 inches taller, he'd be going to a blue blood and likely would have never dropped down to UMass to begin with. Luckily for us, he's a bit undersized but that does not not make him a good fit at the 4. There's very few 4s in the Big Ten that he will have issues guarding due to size--almost all of the returning 4s are similar sized perimeter players to Cross: Brooks Barnhizer, Juwan Gary, Evan Mahaffey, Will Tschetter. I'm willing to bet that when the season starts over half of the Big Ten will start a 6'6-6'8 F who primarily plays around the 3 point line at their 4 position; that's just what modern basketball is moving towards. The only team last year that played with a 2 big lineup most as their primary lineup was Indiana with Reneau at the 4 and Minnesota with Garcia at the 4. A few other teams could go to a bigger lineup if needed such as Purdue with Kaufmann-Renn and Illinois when they played Dainja and Hawkins together; but those were not their most used lineups.
Teams don't play nearly as big as they did even 5 years ago. Basketball is adapting towards a more perimeter game with athletic 6'6-6'8 wings who can switch onto guards as their 3s and 4s.
To me, it seems likely that Freeman, Cross and Dembele will split most of the minutes at 4/5, with Dembele playing both positions. Until he is here and the freshmen show what they can do, that is just a guess. It seems like Cross is a 4, not a 3, like Payton. The two freshmen are 3/4s, and Pryce is a 2/3, so plenty of options at 3. Who knows, maybe the two centers on the bench will show they can play some solid minutes. Fran knows that better than we do. Cross just fills a need. of an experienced interior player, who will mix it up on the boards.
?? The guy shot only 37 times in 3 years of basketball, barely seeing the court for some bad Mizzou teams. Why exactly is this someone worth bringing up? He'll be playing on a low major next year I'd assume.
He’s big for a guard. That’s only nice thing you could say about him. Looking at his profile.
Don't let @curtisj57 get wind of this LOL....Matt Cross is listed as a 6' 7", 230 lb. forward from Beverly, MA.
For the Class of 2020, Rivals had him as the #99 overall prospect and a 4 star.
2024-2025 will be his 5th college season. He's played for 3 schools already; so this will make it 4 schools in 5 seasons.
2020-2021: Miami (FL)
2021-2022: Louisville
2022-2023: UMass
2023-2024: UMass
2024-2025: ???
In 28 games played last season at UMass, Matt's averages:
30.1 min
15.3 pts
8.3 rebs
3.0 assists
1.5 steals
He shot 32.9% from 3 and 54% overall. He made 79.8% of his FTs.
He's gonna go thru with his threat to staple his nut sack to the floor 😆
I'd play Dembele over Cross, if everything is equal, I expect Ladji to be vastly improved from last season, and I don't want Dembele to get less minutes this coming season because Fran brings in Cross and promises him starter minutes, and don't tell me Fran doesn't do that to get a player to come to Iowa, all coaches do it.
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Not sure what leaving Owen on an island means but Fran most certainly can and will play as many tweaner forwards at the same time as he can.
I wouldn't put it past Fran to play Sandfort at the 2 with Pryce or Koch at the 3 and Dix at the 1. That's the type of lineup he can't resist.
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