Iowa Hawkeyes get the forward they were looking for

The Iowa Hawkeyes are set to lose starting SF Zach McCabe and PF Melsahn Basabe upon their graduations after this season, so it was imperative for Fran McCaffery to land a forward recruit in the 2014 class. There’s more depth at PF than SF, too, so the fact that the Iowa Hawkeyes were able to land a forward who has most played PF in Dominique Uhl is an added bonus.

Uhl, who is a native of Germany but is playing in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, decided to commit to Iowa today in an announcement on SNY.tv, and he is an important commitment for the Hawkeyes. The three-star prospect is one of the top ten recruits in the state of New Jersey, and he’s also one of the top 250 prospects in the class overall. He chose Iowa over official visits to the Boston College Eagles and the Temple Owls, and Temple was actually regarded as the favorite to land the slim 6’8″, 180 pound PF.

Big Ten power forwards are usually significantly bigger than that, as the B1G is a notoriously tough conference that demands the best rebounding and defense out of its bigs. It will be interesting to see how McCaffery utilizes Uhl, and I think we’ll see a mix of him down low and on the wings in 2014.

Iowa currently has two commitments in its 2014 class in Uhl and shooting guard Brady Ellingson, who is at around the same skill level as Uhl is.