2015 Mr. Basketball chooses baseball instead

Iowa's 2015 Mr. Basketball isn't a basketball player any longer.

Sioux City North's Daniel Tillo announced Monday he has accepted an offer to play baseball at the University of Kentucky.

'Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way,” Tillo said on Twitter. 'Go big blue!!!”

Tillo, a 6-foot-5 wing, was a two-time first-team all-state pick by the Iowa Newspaper Association. He is only the second Iowa prep to score over 2,000 career points, with Mason City's Jeff Horner the other.

But he had no official Division I basketball scholarship offers and was contemplating going the junior-college route. Also an outstanding football quarterback, Tillo hit .495 last season for North and was 6-0 as a pitcher with a 0.98 earned run average.

Of the 36 Mr. Basketballs, 34 played at the Division I level. The exception was MOC-Floyd Valley's Josh Van Es in 2005. He played at NAIA Northwestern College.

Now Tillo is the only former Mr. Basketball not to pursue the sport in college.