Big Ten Basketball: Breaking down each program’s 2018 recruiting class

Iowa Hawkeyes

Class rankings: 11th in Big Ten, 54th nationally

Commitments: Joe Wieskamp (55), C.J. Fredrick (226)

Iowa’s 2018 recruiting class ranks near the bottom of the Big Ten but it does not have to be special. Fran McCaffery’s team was dominated by underclassmen in 2017-18 and it is expected that those players will all improve heading into next season. To put the youth of Iowa into perspective, the top six scorers were all freshmen or sophomores.

Given this, the two-man class that McCaffery is bringing in is quite impressive. With so many youngsters already on the roster, it can be difficult to find high school players willing to commit due to limited opportunities for playing time. Of course, this should not stop top-100 recruit Joe Wieskamp from finding a role.

A 6’4″ shooting guard out of Iowa, Wieskamp will either start on the wing next season or be the primary backup. The current starting shooting guard is Isaiah Moss, who averaged 11.1 points per game as a sophomore this past season. The other wing position is locked down by Tyler Cook, who will be a junior in 2018-19 if he decides to return to school. Cook is currently testing the NBA Draft waters without hiring an agent.

Another guard, C.J. Fredrick is the other commit in this class. Even though he is rated outside of the top-200 in the class, Fredrick is the No. 2 recruit out of Kentucky. He has solid size at 6’4″ but will need to get stronger as he currently weighs just 165 pounds according to 247Sports.