Iowa assistant: No decision made on open scholarship

Iowa assistant coach Chad Walthall said the team looks to add a guard who can play multiple positions or maybe a post player if the team chooses to fill its open scholarship next season.

"We think there's a couple of players out there worth continuing to watch and monitor, and if we feel they can come in and help us right away, I think we'll definitely do that," Walthall said this morning on the Big Ten Coaches Teleconference.

"If not, then we're probably better off just banking it for the following year and then having two for that 2011 class. But it wouldn't surprise me if we did either/or at this point."

Iowa has four freshmen coming in next year, including two forwards -- 6-foot-9 Cody Larson, 6-foot-7 Zach McCabe -- and two shooting guards -- 6-foot-5 shooting guard Devyn Marble and 6-foot-2 Ben Brust. Iowa has another scholarship available next year after guard Anthony Tucker was released from his scholarship on Feb. 12.

Walthall, who cannot talk about specific recruits, has watched games in southern Missouri involving Scott County Central senior Bobby Hatchett and junior Otto Porter about 10 days ago. He then had to make a flight early the next day to hit Iowa's game at Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind.

Walthall also was in Boone last week watching Iowa Central guard Kurt Alexander. Kirkwood guard (and Cedar Rapids Kennedy graduate) Kaylon Williams also could be in the mix. Iowa also could save the scholarship for the 2011. Iowa loses only one senior -- guard Devan Bawinkel -- off this year's team.

"We could certainly use it for a combo guard or maybe a big, but again it's got to be that right fit," Walthall said. "It's got to be somebody we think can come in and mesh in well with our guys and help us on the floor. If we find that right person, we definitely will use it. If we don't, then we will be patient with it because we've got four young men coming in next year that we're really excited about. We'll just kind of wait and see that this point. We don't have a definitive answer for that one yet.

 "We continue to evaluate and go to different games and talk to different people and kind of see where we're at."