Coe’s Cael Schmitt makes the jump from Division III to Division I with commitment to UNI men’s basketball

CEDAR RAPIDS — Funny how this ended up working.

Cael Schmitt was a starter for Coe College when it played a men’s basketball exhibition game this past November against Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

He didn’t particularly show out or anything, going 4-of-12 from the field and scoring 11 points as the Kohawks were expectedly beaten soundly. Coe is NCAA Division III, UNI D-I, of course.

But Schmitt obviously made an impression of some kind on Panthers head coach Ben Jacobson. He’s going to play for him this coming season.

The 6-foot-2 point guard announced his commitment over the weekend to Northern Iowa. The former Dubuque Wahlert prep is a graduate transfer who will be on full scholarship, the rare guy moving up two levels of college play.

“Coach Jake and the rest of the staff definitely did their research on me before obviously offering,” Schmitt said. “That was something he mentioned at one point, that he went back and watched that game. Did his research watching other games, too. So, yeah, just grateful that we had the opportunity to go up and compete against them.”

Schmitt started four seasons for Coe, helping it reach the Division III national tournament in consecutive years, including winning a first-round game this past season. The Kohawks also won the American Rivers Conference tournament for the first time.

He averaged 17.6 points and 3.0 assists per game in 2023-24 and 16.0 points and 3.6 assists over his career.

“I really loved my experience at Coe. It was a great place for me,” Schmitt said. “Everything about my experience there, I really loved: from professors to coaches and teammates, classmates. I just really grew a lot of friendships, life-long friends.

“Basketball was the same thing. A fun four years there. We were able to make the national tournament for the first time in nearly 50 years, got the first NCAA win there in nearly 50 years. Winning a conference tournament title, a conference regular-season title. Super thankful to do it with the guys I was able to do it with.”

If you think Schmitt is an emergency reach type of recruit for UNI, which has been gutted by transfers this offseason, think again. Schmitt said The Citadel, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and South Carolina-Upstate also reached out to him when he recently entered the transfer portal.

Upstate’s new head coach is former Drake assistant and Waterloo native Marty Richter. Coe head coach Bryan Martin recently stepped down after 12 seasons at the school, where he became its all-time wins leader, to take an assistant’s job for Richter.

It couldn’t have been easy for Schmitt to turn down his old coach.

“UNI kind of felt like home already,” he said. “Super close to family. I was a Panther fan growing up, and it truly felt like a good fit. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Coach Jacobson and his program. Just pumped for the opportunity. Looking forward to it.”

By the way, Minnesota just got a commitment from Caleb Williams, who is transferring from Macalester College. That’s another case of a Division III kid going Division I.

“That was definitely a goal of mine when I entered the portal,” Schmitt said. “I had a couple of Division I schools reach out. UNI reached out to me pretty early, was in contact with me consistently throughout the process, I ended up taking a visit there. Coach Jake ended up giving me an offer, and I took it.

“It was all a pretty quick process.”

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Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com