The who’s who in Iowa basketball recruiting

HawkeyeReport.com publisher Tom Kakert joins the On Iowa blog today for some recruiting breakdown.

Tom, how about that Iowa football recruiting?

Oh wait, it's pretty much in hibernation. Iowa has a goodly number of football recruits who've verballed. Also, it's the season. Under Kirk Ferentz, the recruiting always has taken a steep drop when the Hawkeyes are playing games, which is the top priority.

Could there be a trickle of recruits with recruiting coordinator Seth Wallace in place? Maybe. Iowa has an entirely new recruiting structure, but know that the Ferentz and his assistants remain a huge part of the recruiting effort.

So, season means a slow down.

That, however, doesn't mean a slow down in all recruiting. Any one up for some basketball recruiting news? I thought you might be.

We'll try to do this as the needle moves with Hawkeye recruiting. Big thanks to Tom! I hope you enjoy.

I'll be chatting tonight on HawkeyeReport.com.

With the fall signing period coming up in November, high school basketball prospects have been busy setting up and making official visits this month. Many more will continue that process into the month of October.

Fran McCaffery

and his staff have been busy hosting official and unofficial visitors and evaluating prospects on the recruiting trail during the past month and that will continue into October.

Where are the Hawkeyes at with their 2015 recruiting class?

A little over half full at this point, with three commitments for five open scholarships. Iowa has verbal pledges from a trio of three star prospects. Iowa's first commitment in the Class of 2015 was 6-foot-5 wing forward Brandon Hutton from Chicago, who chose the Hawkeyes over Wisconsin back in March. The next commitment came from 6-foot-4 shooting guard Andrew Fleming, who is originally from Tennessee and is now attending prep school power Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. Fleming chose Iowa over reported offers from Vanderbilt, UNLV, Auburn, Nebraska, Florida, and Memphis. The last commitment came from 6-foot-7 forward Ahmad Wagner

, who committed to Iowa August and held offers from Minnesota and Texas Tech.

The clear need in filling out this recruiting class is in the frontcourt. After last season, Iowa lost seniors Zach McCabe and Melshan Basabe. Kyle Meyer, who wasn't a significant contributor last season, but had size, transferred in the spring. Following the upcoming season, Iowa will lose key frontcourt players in seniors Aaron White and Gabe Olaseni

.

Iowa did add 6-foot-7 forward Dominique Uhl

in 2014 and they will official add Wagner in November, so the logical thinking is that the final two open spots will end up being forwards or even a center.

Our handy recruiting hot board, which was once filled with several names, has been shrinking as commitments become known or interest level fades as prospects make their college choices this fall. That's the nature of the business of recruiting, you hit and miss on the recruiting trail and no one bats 1.000. Sometimes it's the prospect simply opting for another school and other times, Iowa may end up cooling in their interest in a player, or it could be a combination of both.

This past weekend, two Iowa targets who visited this fall, Alex Illikanien and Edward Morrow

decided that they would attend other Big Ten institutions and neither decision should have been considered a surprise. Illikainen, a 6-foot-9 forward from Minnesota, decided to attend Wisconsin over Iowa. His home state school had filled up their scholarship allotment and there were rumblings that perhaps the Hawkeyes were cooling in their overall interest and push toward the end of his recruitment. Illikainen skill set was certainly a better fit at Wisconsin.

Morrow, who hails from Chicago, picked Nebraska over Iowa this past weekend after his official visit to Lincoln. The 6-foot-7 forward was down to Iowa and Nebraska before making his decision and said the previous week that his trip to Iowa City really opened his eyes. But, Morrow was born in Lincoln, where he lived until he was 10 years old, and both of his parents were student-athletes for the Cornhuskers in the mid-90s. His decision shouldn't have come as a surprise given the family times to the Nebraska program.

So, where does that leave the Hawkeyes in this class?

Well, there are two known prospects that still appear on Iowa's radar. The top prospect on Iowa's wish list right now is 6-foot-7 forward O.G. Anunoby from Jefferson City, MO. Anunoby visited Iowa earlier this month and is scheduled to make a trip to Georgia this weekend and Indiana the following weekend. He recently told Peegs.com that Iowa, Georgia, and Indiana are his three top schools. McCaffery made a visit to see Anunoby recently, as did Hoosier Head Coach Tom Crean

on the same day. Anunoby is scheduled to make his college choice around October 21st.

The other prospect still out there for Iowa is 6-foot-6 forward Evan Boudreaux

from Lake Forest, IL. Boudreaux has been a long time target for the Hawkeyes, who offered early in his junior year. He is slated to make his official visit on the weekend of October 11th. Boudreaux also will make official visits to Dartmouth and Yale.

Another name who has emerged on the Iowa radar, at least from an evaluation standpoint, is 7 footer Rozelle Nix

, who currently attends Pensacola Junior College in Florida and is originally from Cincinnati, OH. Nix already holds offers from South Carolina and Loyola Marymount and is generating interest from Pittsburgh, Missouri, Tennessee, and Maryland.

The Hawkeyes could hold over one or both open scholarships until the spring if they end up missing or passing on prospects this fall. One name to watch is 2015 forward Nate Grimes

. Iowa extended a scholarship offer to the Las Vegas native this fall and he has said he will make an official visit to Iowa City at some point, probably in the spring. This past week, Grimes narrowed his list of schools to Iowa, Boise State, Wichita State, Fresno State, San Francisco, Utah State, and Washington State.

There are certainly other names that will potentially emerge in the Class of 2015, especially if Iowa holds open a scholarship(s) for the spring. McCaffery dipped into the JUCO ranks last spring and signed top point guard Trey Dickerson

and he's not shy about diving into the always plentiful post season transfer market place, which included over 600 players last year. Bottom line, there are going to be a lot of players, some really good players, out there this spring if they are needed.

McCaffery currently has one commitment in the next two classes and other are in-state prospects. 2016 forward Cordell Pemsl from Dubuque has given his verbal commitment to Iowa. The 6-foot-7 prospect is a three star prospect according to Rivals.com. In the Class of 2017, Iowa has a verbal commitment from Connor McCaffery

, the son of Fran McCaffery. Connor is a 6-foot-5 lead guard playing for Iowa City West High School. Rivals.com has not ranked McCaffery yet, but ESPN.com has ranked him as one of the 25 best players in the Class of 2017