It has been a relatively quiet summer for Iowa Men's Basketball as they ramp up workouts to prepare for next season.
Excluding the strange Tavion Banks saga, the program is locked and loaded for next season with multiple new faces on board. After welcoming 2026 Iowa Mr. Basketball Jaidyn Coon and Ethan Harris via the 2296 recruiting class, Ben McCollum and the program have shifted their focus to the future on the recruiting trail and received some excellent news from one of the top prospects in the 2027 class.
Top-10 prospect Cayden Daughtry has Iowa in his top-14
As the summer has progressed, very few prospects have risen as high as Cayden Daughtry. When McCollum started his courtship of Daughtry in the summer of 2025, he was ranked as the No. 24 overall prospect in the 2027 class, and he has already vaulted into the top-10. Rivals has currently ranked Daughtry as a five-star prospect, Florida's No. 3 overall prospect, the No. 2 overall point guard prospect, and the No. 3 overall prospect in the 2027 recruiting class.
After a historic summer, Daughtry has jumped to the top of most recruiting boards, and after receiving over 30 offers, he has narrowed his focus to 14 programs. Luckily for the Hawkeyes, they are on the list.
5⭐️ Cayden Daughtry is down to 14 schools, he told @Rivals.
— Joe Tipton (@JoeTipton) August 26, 2026
The 6-0 point guard is a top-10 recruit in the 2027 class. https://t.co/32Yzi1lxcA pic.twitter.com/ooJF2IxMWq
The top-10 Florida star has narrowed his focus to 14 schools, with Iowa joining SEC powerhouses Arkansas, Florida, and Kentucky, and Big Ten powerhouses Michigan and USC, among others. Iowa has been diligently pursuing Daughtry since he was playing a lot of under-17 basetball, and Bennett Stirtz has been a key figure in Iowa's attempt to bring Daughtry to Iowa City.
Daughtry has greatly appreciated Iowa's intense interest since McCollum took over the program, and he has developed a great relationship with the program. Stirtz has been critical in his recruitment and was even spotted at one of Daughtry's games last week, which Daughtry said "meant a lot" to him. Daughtry has been tearing up every court he has stepped foot on this summer, including guiding Team USA to a gold medal and dominating the 2026 Nike Peach Jam for the Florida Rebels.
Daughtry was named the Peach Jam MVP after guiding his team to the title. He averaged an impressive 32.3 points, 6.1 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game. As Daughtry continues to play at an extremely high level, his top-14 teams will ramp up efforts to sign him, and the Hawkeyes have to simply keep doing what they are doing. They have maintained an aggressive recruiting approach, and even though he is currently preparing for his rookie season with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Bennett Stirtz has been a prominent figure in his recruitment.
To come out on top and earn one of the biggest recruiting victories in the program's history, McCollum and the program must continue leading on Stirtz, while also proving why Iowa is a perfect destination. With Stirtz going from Division II Northwest Missouri State to a first-round NBA Draft pick, Daughtry has seen how well the program develops guards, and McCollum can use that to his advantage in recruiting. There is no doubt it will be extremely hard to pry Daughtry out of Florida and away from multiple top-tier teams, but they have put the early work in, and need to stay aggressive if they want to bring him to the Hawkeye state.
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