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Iowa basketball: Hawks land dynamic point guard for class of 2020

By Ryan Sikes

DAYTON, OH - MARCH 19: Head coach Fran McCaffery of the Iowa Hawkeyes looks on during the first round of the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Tennessee Volunteers at UD Arena on March 19, 2014 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
DAYTON, OH - MARCH 19: Head coach Fran McCaffery of the Iowa Hawkeyes looks on during the first round of the 2014 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament against the Tennessee Volunteers at UD Arena on March 19, 2014 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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Fran McCaffery and the Iowa basketball team got some good news when point guard Ahron Ulis became the first commit of the 2020 class today.

It’s never too early to talk hoops and the Iowa basketball team received some good news today as three-star point guard, Ahron Ulis has declared his commitment to the University of Iowa.

The 6-2, 185 pound guard from Chicago Heights is the first commitment in the 2020 recruiting class.

He also happens to be the brother of a former Iowa basketball team recruiting target Tyler Ulis.

He’s ranked as the 6th best prospect in the state of Illinois and the 45th best point guard in the nation.

Ulis has a dozen offers in hand from Depaul, University of Illinois-Chicago, New Mexico, Northern Illinois, Siena, and South Dakota, among others. He’s long been a favorite to land with the Hawkeyes and today’s news only solidifies that.

Ulis has been playing on the varisty team since he was a sophomore in 2017. That season, he averaged 13.7 points-per-game (ppg), 2.9 rebounds-per-game (rpg) and 4.0 assists-per-game (apg). His minutes took a dip in his junior season but he managed to put up better numbers than the year previous.

In the 2018-2019 season, Ulis averaged 18.3 ppg, 3.0 rpg, and 4.4 apg. He has largely gone unrecruited by many big name schools because of his height but he grew two inches and added 20 pounds of muscle to his friend between his sophomore and junior seasons. Iowa coach Fran McCaffery should be really pleased with Ulis’ development and he received high praise from his high school coach, Mike Taylor.

"“Ahron is taking the responsibility to be the floor general,” Marian Catholic coach Mike Taylor said. “He’s playing under control and getting his teammates involved. You can tell he paid attention to watching his brother.”"

His commitment potentially creates a problem though on the Iowa 2020 frontcourt as 2019 recruit, Joe Toussaint is also a point guard. That being said, I have all the confidence in McCaffery to figure out how to get both guys on the court at the same time.

Ulis led Marian Catholic to the Class 4A Eisenhower Sectional semifinals but fell to Simeon in the closing seconds in heartbreaking fashion. However, he kept his team in the first half of the game, scoring 13 of the team’s 21 points. He was held in check in the second half scoring just 2 points.

Next. Providing a blueprint to winning the Big Ten. dark

Simeon is no joke of a program. They have several notable alumni who have come from there and gone onto the NBA with Derrick Rose and Jabari Parker being the most recognized recent players.

Regardless, it was a very impressive showing for Ahron Ulis and Hawkeye fans everywhere should be really excited with this commitment and how this class is shaping up given the recently released top-5 list of in-state target Xavier Foster.

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