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A wise old coach – well he wasn’t so old at the time – once told me he always felt it was better for his team to be green and growing rather than be ripe and rotting.
The two more recent signatures Fran McCaffery has added to the Iowa basketball program’s 2011 recruiting class definitely can be classified as “green and growing.”
Anthony Hubbard and Gabe Olaseni will arrive in Iowa City in June with little previous experience in organized basketball.
Hubbard, a junior college all-American who signed with the Hawkeyes on Saturday, did not play on his high school basketball team.
Gabe Olaseni has lived in the United States just one year, playing at the Sunrise Christian Academy this past season.
One is a guard. The other is a big man.
Both have potential that McCaffery loves.
He said in a teleconference this evening with Iowa beat reporters that he doesn’t consider the lack of extensive organized high school experience on the basketball court to be a negative.
“Hubbard has played basketball for a long time,” McCaffery said. “He didn’t play organized basketball, but he’s been playing basketball, a lot of basketball, and he showed at the junior-college level that he can play.”
McCaffery said if anything, the adjustment may be greater for Olaseni simply because of his youth.
“Gabe can play the game, though,” said McCaffery, who said Olaseni is as athletic of a 6-10 player as he has been around.
“Hubbard is 26 years old, 225 pounds. He’ll be fine,” McCaffery said.
Olaseni is the fourth player to join Iowa’s 2011 recruiting class.
McCaffery said he felt good about his recruitment throughout the process.
“All along, I’ve had a feeling that we were right there with Gabe. A lot of times in those situations you feel like there are 1, 2 schools and you end up coming in second,” McCaffery said.
“Last weekend, I started to feel that things were breaking our way. Gabe had a great visit, an excellent relationship with (primary recruiter and assistant) coach (Andrew) Francis and our players did an excellent job of hosting him when he made his visit.”

It would have been easy for Fran McCaffery to pass on the player the Iowa basketball program signed to a national letter of intent on Saturday.
A handful of schools chose not to recruit Anthony Hubbard, a 6-foot-5 guard from Frederick (Md.) Community College, after learning the 26-year old had spent nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to robbery charges following an incident when he was 18 years old.
McCaffery, who learned of Hubbard’s past during first phone conversation with his junior-college coach, chose to look deeper into the situation.
They completed a thorough background check on Hubbard. They researched his past completely and administrators at Iowa signed off on McCaffery’s continued recruitment of the junior college all-American.
Saturday, the faith that McCaffery and Iowa coaches put in Hubbard was rewarded when he put his signature on a letter of intent.
Is there a risk?
Certainly.
But perhaps no more so than the risk a coach takes anytime a young athlete signs with a program.
Hubbard selected Iowa over offers from Nebraska, Penn State and Iona and he lives with the fallout from his past indescretions each and every day.
He’ll likely be reminded of them as Iowa travels to less-than-friendly confines around the Big Ten. At 26 years old and toughened by just under four years in prison, Hubbard may be uniquely prepared to deal with it.
Likewise, McCaffery believes that the experience has changed Hubbard, helped him mature.
“He’s proven that he has the character necessary to make a great impact with us,” McCaffery said in a statement announcing Hubbard’s signing.
Hubbard, who averaged 20.7 points, 10.1 rebounds and 4.5 assists last season, was a team captain and earned all-conference and all-region honors before being named as an all-American. He was the MVP of the County College of Morris Thanksgiving Tournament and he picked up all-tournament honors at two additional tournies over the past season.
McCaffery also believes the addition of Hubbard to the Hawkeye program will help Iowa continue to make progress in the Big Ten.
“Slowly but surely we are putting the pieces together that are going to make us highly competitive in the Big Ten,” said McCaffery, who has watched Hubbard play in person and whose staff has recruited Hubbard intensely since January.

Brennan Cougill isn’t waiting around for an Iowa scholarship offer that might have never come.
The former Hawkeye forward who spent the 2010-11 season working to regain his academic eligibility at Kirkwood Community College has made a verbal commitment to play at Wisconsin-Green Bay.
He chose the Phoenix over an offer from South Dakota State, visiting both schools over the past two weeks.
“I think I can bring some size down low,” the 6-foot-9 Cougill told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “The coaches talked about wanting guys that wouldn’t get backed down in the post and would add defense down there.”
Those were among the segments of his game Cougill worked on last season while earning third-team NJCAA all-American honors at Kirkwood.
He led a 28-5 team there with an average of 14.4 points per game.
Cougill arrived at Kirkwood last fall with hopes of rejoining the Hawkeye program next season. He averaged 4 points as a freshman at Iowa before being declared academically ineligible.
Iowa coaches charted Cougill’s improvement over the season. He said following a midseason game at Black Hawk College in Moline that Iowa assistant Kirk Speraw had watched him in a game in late December.
Those contacts became fewer as the season progressed and by late March, it became apparent that both Cougill and Iowa coaches were moving forward with separate visions.

Incoming Iowa forward Aaron White continued a string of strong outings in postseason play Saturday when he led the North Division I-II team with 26 points in the Ohio North-South All-Star Game played at Capital University in Columbus.
White, a 6-foot-8 forward from Strongsville, was named earlier as his team’s MVP at the Ohio-Kentucky All-Star Game.
White was part of a team Saturday which included Penn State signee of Trey Lewis of Garfield Heights. Two other Big Ten recruits, Michigan State-bound Travis Trice and Wisconsin signee Traevon Jackson, played for the winning South team in the game.

On a sadder note, former Hawkeye Floyd Magnusson died over the weekend in his hometown of Fort Dodge, Iowa. Magnusson lettered at Iowa in 1944 and again from 1947-49 when he was part of a lineup which included Murray Wier.
Magnusson went on to officiate at the NCAA level, working for 16 years in the Big Ten, Big Eight and Missouri Valley Conferences. He worked championship games three times at the Final Four.

The call was familiar, as was the question.
I’ve fielded a few over the past couple of days from people wondering when and if Iowa was ever going to fill its remaining basketball scholarships.
As mom and dad and grandpa and grandma are lining up today to pose for photographs with another crop of athletes signing letters of intent, none are hosting signing ceremonies to join the Hawkeyes.
Yet.
My standard answer to the callers has been that patience is important. Many of the players coach Fran McCaffery and the Hawkeye staff have been involved with are not signing letters today anyway.
A quick history lesson indicates how things can work during the spring signing period.
A year ago this week, Melsahn Basabe was still tied to Siena under the letter of intent he had signed the previous November and Bryce Cartwright was just beginning to work his way through the recruiting process.
Basabe was released from his scholarship on April 19 and visited Iowa City during the first week of May.
Cartwright didn’t commit to the Hawkeye program until June 6.
In between, names like Coco Ware and Anthony Salter drifted in and out of the list of possibilities that Iowa coaches were considering.
McCaffery has three scholarships remaining and that quick history lesson indicates that there is still talent out there to be found.
It’s a matter of finding it, connecting with it and adding to the mix of talent Iowa has returning. Guard Matt Glover of Sheridan College in Wyoming, a 6-4 fornia native who has three years of eligibility remaining, is currently scheduled to visit Iowa this weekend.
Callers earlier this week were disappointed that Wes Washpun had opted for Tennessee over Iowa. A week earlier, Washpun didn’t have an offer from either school although he did have a long-time relationship with new Volunteers coach Cuonzo Martin. In the end, that led the Cedar Rapids prep to the SEC.
When you step back, his decision makes sense, just as it made sense for Basabe to maintain his long-term relationship with McCaffery and Iowa assistant Andrew Francis by signing with the Hawkeyes last May.
For those who make their living coaching college basketball, that’s sometimes the way it works.
It isn’t always pretty, but finding the right ingredients always leads to the best product no matter how long it takes to get there.

Iowa basketball recruit Aaron White was named the most valuable player for the winning Ohio team which won the 20th Ohio-Kentucky All-Star Game on Saturday night.
One of five Big Ten-bound players on his team, the 6-foot-8 forward scored a team-high 19 points for an Ohio team which rallied for a 102-100 victory in the game played at Thomas More College in Crestview Hills, Ky.
The MVP for the Kentucky team was that state’s Mr. Basketball, guard Anthony Hickey, who has yet to select between offers from Cincinnati, Western Kentucky, Mississippi State, Nebraska, LSU and TCU.

The NCAA spring signing period for men’s basketball begins Wednesday, but Iowa won’t be getting a signature from Cedar Rapids Washington point guard Wes Washpun. He committed this afternoon to Tennessee without ever stepping foot on the Knoxville, Tenn., campus.

“A lot of it is about coach (Cuonzo) Martin just being the guy that he is and recruiting me for so long,” Washpun told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “Iowa kind of came in at the last second.”

Martin had offered Washpun a scholarship in late February while he was still coaching at Missouri State. The pair talked before Washpun made an unofficial visit to Iowa last Thursday, then talked again on Saturday when Martin offered him the chance to play for the troubled Tennessee program he took over last month following the firing of Bruce Pearl.

“He told me he wouldn’t have offered a scholarship if he didn’t think I could play at this level,” Washpun said.

Suddenly, Fran McCaffery finds himself with some options as he and the Iowa basketball staff work to fill the three scholarships the Hawkeyes now have available following Cully Payne’s decision to leave the Hawkeye program.
When he had just two scholarships to work with, McCaffery said the ideal scenario involved finding both a ball handler and a big who both possessed great shooting skill.
In the world of recruiting — which often can resemble the art of making sausage — coaches seldom find themselves working with perfect situations.
McCaffery said during a late-season news conference that his main objective on the recruiting trail this spring was to sign the best two players possible to complement the skill sets of players returning to the Hawkeye program, regardless of size.
He said he would be inclined to sign to smaller players with greater skill that get locked into a situation of signing one skilled guard and one lesser-skilled big man.
That’s sound, particularly since McCaffery will have four scholarships to work with in 2012 as well. That provides the Iowa staff with some flexibility as it recruits.
Payne’s exit only adds to that flexibility. If Cedar Rapids Washington point guard Wes Washpun accepts the Iowa offer he received following Payne’s exit, it will provide the Hawkeyes some needed insurance at the point.
It will also allow Iowa coaches to stay the course on the recruiting trail, continuing to look for the top two players they can find regardless of size.
Iowa certainly can use additional height — and incoming 6-8 forward Aaron White will provide some — but the Hawkeyes most desperate need continues to be finding players with a strong ability to put the ball in the bucket and frankly, it doesn’t matter if they are 6-2 or 6-10.

Recruits aren’t the only folks considering options these days.

Payne is studying his options as well and told PackPride.com that he has added North Carolina State to his list of possible places he might transfers. Mark Gottfried, the new Wolfpack coach, signed Payne to a letter of intent to play for Alabama when Payne was a prep senior at Schaumburg, Ill., and Payne is interested in finding out if there may be an opportunity for him at the ACC school.

“Hopefully I can talk to coach Gottfried about the situation at NC State here real soon,” Payne told the website. “I’d like to find out how strong of a possibility that could be.”

Payne also expects to visit Loyola (Ill.) this weekend.

Former Iowa coach Todd Lickliter has a few options as well as he searches for a new coaching position, although one NBA player told the Indianapolis Star today that he does not want Lickliter to coach at his alma mater.

San Antonio guard George Hill, the only NBA player ever to come out of IUPUI, told the Star that he is endorsing longtime IUPUI assistant Tod Howard as his choice to take over the Summit League program.

“No offense to coach Lickliter, but he got fired for losing,” Hill told the Star. Lickliter did lead Butler to two Sweet 16 berths before going 38-57 during a three-year tenure at Iowa. The former Hawkeye coach has also been mentioned as a possibility for the coaching vacancy at Eastern Michigan.

Ah, it must be spring.
The grass is starting to green, the Cubs have already blown a late-game lead and underclassmen in college basketball have begun their migration to other opportunities.
Cully Payne became the latest in the ongoing list of players who have left Iowa for a variety of reasons in recent years, announcing his intentions on Twitter late Monday night. Hawkeye coach Fran McCaffery announced the formal release from the scholarship this morning.
It’s a move that should not be all that surprising. As he recovered from surgery to repair a sports hernia, Payne watched his replacement grow into the position he vacated.
Bryce Cartwright will be Iowa’s starting point guard next season and McCaffery essentially said that during a late-season news conference.
He also said he felt the pair could play together at times and that Payne would see time at the point as well.
Apparently, the notion of sharing a spot was enough to prompt Payne to think about other opportunities.
It’s a risky proposition. Payne has proven he can play at the Big Ten level. He earned all-freshman honors in the league a year ago.
However, he’ll lose a year of eligibility if he moves to another Division I program having burned his redshirt year this year because of the injury.
That would leave Payne with two seasons to play with another D-I program, the same amount of time he would have had left at Iowa if he had chosen to stay and share the court with Cartwright next season.
The early announcement provides McCaffery with time to land another point guard with one of the three scholarships he has available. Payne’s departure makes securing a point guard a necessity for the Hawkeyes.
Payne indicated he reached his decision in consultation with his family. His father, a long-time coach at the high school and junior-college level, has guided his son to two Illinois high schools and watched him commit to DePaul and sign with Alabama before ending up at Iowa.
He’s not the only adult providing players with advice.
Illinois’ Jereme Richmond announced today that he has declared for the NBA Draft and will not return to school.
Like Payne before him, Richmond was an all-freshman pick in the Big Ten this season.
“I enjoyed my time at the University of Illinois … At this time, I’m ready to follow my dreams and achieve my life-long goal of playing in the NBA,” Richmond said.
Dream on, Jereme, dream on.
By comparison, Payne’s decision, his understanding of his situation at Iowa and potential playing time implications of additional recruits, makes his decision seem well informed.