Iowa State basketball's improved perception on the high school recruiting scene

The most intense week for high school basketball recruiting starts this Saturday; Nike Peach Jam finals are scheduled for July 13, North Augusta, South Carolina. Quite possibly, the Cyclones have never been in better shape as they head into the all-important assessment phase. 
 
Peach Jam is known as the championship tournament of the elite high school basketball players of the United States and Canada as well as is held sponsored by Nike. It started in 1996 and is among those two tournaments of the AAU whose standard is considered the highest annually. 
 
Simultaneously, Peach Jam starts, but at the same time, there is another Adidas 3SSB Palmetto Road tournament in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Similar to Peach Jam, which is for the players seeking a place on Adidas-sponsored AAU clubs, the 3SSB finals are a competition. 
 ‌ 
Every event provides college basketball coaches a chance to see their high recruiting targets on the circuits; Iowa State’s coaching staff – which is in its third year with head coach – T. J. Otzelberger included. 
 
Many are saying that Cyclone basketball is now building a momentum it has not had for over a decade. Overall, Otzelberger is in his first three seasons in Iowa State; they got to two Sweet 16s and in 2024, they beat the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri, and celebrated with a showering of confetti. 

Otzelberger took over a Cyclones team that won two games before his first season after being hired from UNLV where he spent two seasons with the Rebels and before the pandemic, Iowa State fired previous head coach Steve Prohm and with Otzelberger, high school and transfer players wanted to believe that the program could get back to what it was during the Hoiberg reign. 
 
I guess when you’re coming into a situation early, you’re trying to peddle hope and some of those areas,” Otzelberger said. “Now there are some things to support that. It does add, or I think it has been very positive for us on the recruiting front. " 
 ‌ 
Success on the court in Otzelberger’s early years at Iowa State has made it possible to bring the program’s recruiting a notch higher. Today in current 2025 recruiting class, Iowa State is at the top of the recruiting list in the nation with three recruits, these are Jamarion Batemon, Xzavion Mitchell, and Macari Moore. 
 
Starting next year, Batemon came to a decision to play for Iowa State University on July 1, Otzelberger’s team gets another top 100 recruit. Cyclone assistant coach J. R. Blount found Batemon early, and ISU did not let up in any way to go after a top 60 national player. He will be a perfect addition to Cyclones due to his sharp shooting and V tenacious on the ball defense. His commitment means Iowa State could be done in the 2025 recruiting class with three commits the focus of the coaching staff during the evaluation period will shift closer to the 2026 recruiting class. 
 
Cyclones have already mired a good contact base with many 2026 prospects. Biographies of the players show that Yusef Gray Jr. , Cedric Tomes, Christian Wiggins, Navon Shabazz, Dothan Ijadimbola and Sheek Pearson have been to the Hilton Coliseum for a game in the one year period. Jaidyn Coon is a rising star at Storm Lake in Iowa and Cameron Ryans is another prospect the Iowa state is pursing and is another in-state talent, similar to Moore, joining the 2025 recruiting class. 
 
This spring and summer have not been the easiest for Moore who plays for the ‘Family’ in the Nike EYBL. He has been a participant in very few of the spring’s EYBL events in Indianapolis and Kansas City, MO, due to ankle injury; however, Iowa State assistant Nate Schmidt is absolutely sure about Moore’s performance as the key Cyclone offense, as Moore’s Cyclone staff preferred him to Phoenix Gill who just committed to NW. 
 
Mitchell – at times this spring – has resembled a world-beater running with Team Herro on the EYBL tour. He was the Most Valuable Player for the second session of EYBL after scoring a total of 25. 6 points and 7 rebounds resulting to a shooting of 62 percent for the final decision. 2 rebounds a game. Observing Mitchell on the floor, he demonstrates a nice sense of the game and is an alert, focused rebounder on the offensive end. 
 
According to MarketSubset, Otzelberger’s 2024 recruiting class consisted of Nojus Indrusaitis, a top 100 guard, a Chicago-suburban kid , a Brewster academy NIBC high school league offence maker. Indrustis was the ranked as a top 100 recruit and based on his first months in the Cyclone, he has adapted well to Cyclone Basketball. 
 ‌ 
Defenders Iowa State Cyclones’ 2023 recruiting class is one of the best recruiting classes of the program’s history. Otzelberger signed the program’s only five star recruit in the class of 2023 – Omah Biliew – and top 50 recruit Milan Momcilovic. Biliew struggled during his first year in West Virginia so he transferred to Wake Forest in the spring, but Momcilovic was a part of the All-Big 12 freshman team and certainly can become an NBA prospect with a great second year. Another athlete in the 2023 recruiting class with high rating is J. T. Rock. Rock transferred from the 2024 class into the 2023 class and did not play his incoming freshman season with Iowa State in 2023-2024 season due to redshirt. 
 
“A lot of times, you want to have some, a consistency with a pattern over time, continual successful development,” Otzelberger said. Hopefully, when people watch us play, they can see our guys having a lot of fun playing, they can see us caring for one another, putting in great effort and they can see us on the baseball field developing. ” 
 
Well, when you see those things year in and year out the confidence builds belief in young people that if they are to be in our program they will win they will have success they will develop they’ll have fun those are things that are really important to me.