NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Iowa of last decade

3. AJ Green – Northern Iowa

When healthy and able, Green was a weapon that every team in the country would have wanted on their roster. A 6’4 guard from Cedar Falls, he was actually a top 100 recruit who chose to play for Northern Iowa back in 2018, with his father having already been on staff for years. Before he left college, Green emerged as one of the finest shooters of a generation at the collegiate level.

He made an impact from day one, averaging 15.0 points per game as the league’s premier freshman. Green was a dynamic scorer and shooter who unfortunately had his sophomore season cut short by the pandemic and the next season almost completely lost to injury. As a redshirt junior, he bounced back, averaging 18.8 points per game, just under the mark he’d achieved two years earlier. Among his memorable performances was a 35-point outing at St. Bonaventure and a 32-point performance late in his final season against conference champion Loyola-Chicago.

Green was the MVC Rookie of the Year and was twice the MVC Player of the Year, winning the major awards for each of his three full seasons of college ball. He lead the conference multiple times in free throw percentage and 3-point field goals, led the league in points as a sophomore, and remains among the all-time college basketball leaders by converting over 90% of his free throws. Green was on everyone’s eyes when he announced he was transferring, but wound up going pro instead, currently owning a spot on the Milwaukee Bucks’ roster.