Iowa basketball: What Xavier Foster’s decision means for Hawks

The Iowa basketball program was delivered a big blow this morning when four-star center Xavier Foster announced his commitment to the Iowa State Cyclones.

Today was the day that four-star center and Oskaloosa, Iowa product Xavier Foster would announce his commitment decision between the Iowa State Cyclones and our beloved Iowa basketball program.

Foster decided to head to Ames to play for Steve Prohm and the Cyclones leaving the Iowa basketball team missing out for the second straight year on the top player in the state of Iowa (last year Ohio State swooped in and got Bettendorf’s DJ Carton).

I cannot overstate how big of a blow this is for the team. Foster is a top-100 player who could have made a huge impact on the Iowa basketball team instantly. He is a program-changing type of talent as was Joe Wieskamp. Foster is a center who stretch the floor and shoot the three while also playing well with his back to the basket.

To be quite honest, he would have been a perfect fit in Fran McCaffery’s system.

Now with the early signing deadline fast approaching, the Iowa basketball team has four verbal commits, but it sounded like Fran McCaffery would love to add to that if possible.

So with Foster not heading to Iowa City, you better believe the Hawks are going to be jumping in to try to round up one or two more guys such as Worcester Academy’s Josh Ogundele or even Jamari Sibley, who’s Iowa recruiting appears to have cooled in recent months.

In the class of 2020, the Iowa basketball team has two guards, two small forwards, and no front-court depth. Both of the guys above would certainly provide that.

As Fran McCaffery has had to do quite a bit in the past six months, he’ll need to work fast to figure option B while option A fell through and keep this Iowa basketball program on track.