New Iowa State basketball coach Greg McDermott was quick to address questions about recruiting after being introduced to the Cyclone faithful Tuesday night. McDermott, who is moving to Ames from the University of Northern Iowa, says he plans to go after the best home-grown products.
McDermott says the Iowa high school coaches will know that I-S-U exists and he says I-S-U will be the number one option for in-state players, “We can’t have them going to Iowa.” McDermott says the Iowa high school coaches are “grossly underrated.”
McDermott says the players he’s had at Northern Iowa have been fundamentally sound and ready to compete at the college level. He says they’ll continue their relationships with the high school basketball people in Iowa. McDermott says he’ll also look outside the state’s borders.
He says the Minneapolis-St. Paul area has been a great recruiting area, and he says he plans to continue recruiting there. The coach says he’ll also recruit in the rest of the Midwest, and nationally if they have to. McDermott says he’ll use relationships developed by the current Cyclone players to recruit outside the state, as he says “recruiting is about relationships.” McDermott took over for Wayne Morgan, who was fired after three seasons at I-S-U.