It's never too early to start thinking about college basketball

This feels like blasphemy during football season. However, I have had the above pic saved on my MacBook desktop since Iowa’s spring football scrimmage way back in April and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. Iowa men’s basketball has been in the news recently, so I thought now was the time.

Yesterday, Cedar Rapids Washington standout Josh Oglesby announced his intention to play basketball for Fran McCaffery at Iowa. The 6’6” shooting guard is McCaffery’s first in-state recruit and will join the team in 2011.

Oglesby’s commitment comes after Jarrod Uthoff of CR Jefferson spurned the Hawks for Wisconsin in the summer. Olgesby called out other in-state ballers, asking them to stick to their roots and get Carver rocking again. Iowa has extended offers to Adam Woodbury, a 6’11” center from Sioux City, and Marcus Paige, a point guard at Linn-Mar.

The McCaffery era is well underway and the ball looks to be rolling on the post-Alford/Lickliter rebuilding process. Power forward Melsahn Basabe decommitted from Siena and followed McCaffery to Iowa City. Bryce Cartwright, a point guard from the CPT, committed to the Hawks after playing a year of junior college ball in Texas. The Hawks also picked up walk-on Darius Stokes, the son of legend Greg Stokes, and Jordan Stoermer, a local kid from Coralville who played at Kirkwood the last two years.

After an exhibition against Illinois-Springfield scheduled November 7, the Iowa men’s basketball season officially begins November 14 against South Dakota State. Barring any unforeseen complications, season tickets will be procured and I will fulfill a childhood dream of attending each home game. It should be an interesting season, and I am very eager to cheer the Hawks.