Recruiting guru points Hawks to Chicago area

Under Coach Fran McCaffery, Iowa will shift from a deliberate half-court style of play to an up-tempo offense designed to move the ball in transition. That means the program will recruit players who can adapt to McCaffery's style of offense.

Van Coleman, a national basketball recruiting expert, sees opportunity for Iowa in re-establishing relationships throughout the Midwest. The state of Iowa has always produced Hawkeye basketball players, including current starters Matt Gatens and Eric May. But the Chicago metro area is where Iowa needs to grab players who fit McCaffery's style, Coleman said.

“When you look at the success of this program over the years, that's at least been the second place you were looking at kids,” said Coleman, who runs Hoopmasters.com in Stanwood. “They have an ‘in' right now, in that they have Cully (Payne) here, they've got Ben Brust coming. They have a chance to establish some things. I think there's some other relationships that Fran will have to make to some of the other players in the inner city.”

McCaffery has a recruiting history in the Midwest, including Iowa. He served as a top assistant coach at Notre Dame for 11 years and tried to snag former Iowa star Jess Settles. He directly recruited NBA players Pat Garrity and Troy Murphy at Notre Dame and helped land NBA players LaPhonso Ellis, Monty Williams and Ryan Humphrey.

McCaffery puts a priority on developing relationships with players and parents, as well as AAU coaches. That begins, he said, with Iowa's players and recruits. He has met with all players and said Wednesday they all seem excited, including sophomore Aaron Fuller. He will meet with all four signees beginning April 8, per NCAA rules. He has at least one available scholarship to offer.

“My intention is to interact directly with the student-athlete, his parents or his legal guardian,” McCaffery said. “There are some AAU coaches who are fabulous and truly are in it for their student athletes' best interests. Others are not. I think I've been pretty good at identifying those who are not and those who are.”

Coleman said dealing with AAU coaches is a fact most coaches - including McCaffery - must face.

“He wants to recruit the player and his family, but sometimes you've got to go and have who that family trusts most,” Coleman said. “One of the things in this business, the family today trusts most is the guy who they travel with for six months out of the year. That is that AAU coach, that summer coach and there is a lot of them.”

While the head coach sets recruiting philosophy, it's usually up to assistant coaches to carry it out. Mitch Buonaguro, McCaffery's top assistant at Siena, seems to have an open invitation to join Iowa's staff if he doesn't replace McCaffery at Siena. Coleman said Buonaguro has a good recruiting reputation.

“He's recruited inner cities for the last 30 years so he's going to understand what it takes to get in and formulate his relationships,” Coleman said. “If he's not coming, then the key will be to hire who's going to be that chief No. 1 guy that he has on the staff. I think until we know that, we're going to wait and see what that is.”

McCaffery said he hopes to complete his staff by late next week, He mentioned adding a former Iowa player as an assistant and will consider his other Siena assistants. Payne said he put in a good word for current Iowa assistant Chad Walthall.

No matter who takes over as an assistant, Coleman said upgrading talent is crucial to Iowa's fortunes.

“One of the keys here is you don't always have to recruit a top 25 player,” Coleman said. “But if you can get a top 50 player (pointing to Settles), a top 100 player (pointing to Ryan Bowen) and they want to be here and they want to work, those are the guys that we've seen from a lot of mid-majors now that are in that fourth year and they're in an Elite Eight, or they're in Sweet 16. Well you want them at Iowa, but you want a Big Ten player that is in that same situation. That's what gets you there with a chance to be at the Final Four.”