By Chris Williams, CycloneFanatic.com Publisher Let the games begin.
It wasn’t very long ago when only Iowans knew the name Jarrod Uthoff. Now, this 6-foot-8, 190-pound power forward out of Cedar Rapids Jefferson is a Midwest recruiting commodity.
In a matter of months, Uthoff has gone from a relatively unknown prospect to joining the who’s who list of 2011 basketball recruiting targets in the region. Though Fred Hoiberg has only been at the helm in Ames for a matter of days, expect Uthoff to be on the Mayor’s priority list on the recruiting trail.
On Tuesday, CycloneFanatic.com caught up with Uthoff’s AAU coach, Jamey Johnson of the Iowa Barnstormers program for a scouting report.
Scouting Report – Jamie Johnson, Iowa Barnstormers head coach “He’s got a little bit of a mean streak in him. He doesn’t mind playing through and with contact, the bumping and grinding down low with the big guys. With us, we have other big guys so we also have him play out on the wing where he can catch and shoot or put it on the floor and attack the basket. His skill level in that regard has come a long way in the last six to eight weeks. I think that will be his natural position in college, at the wing and small forward. He’ll be able to attack the basket or hit the jump shot but also be able to go to the post and post up smaller players or use his quickness against bigger players. At 6-foot-8, he has a lot of potential and skill. That skill is still emerging.”
Uthoff’s Recruitment
According to his Rivals.com profile, Uthoff currently holds offers from Iowa State, Butler, Creighton, Albany, Arizona State, Illinois, Indiana, Indiana State and Northern Iowa.
Johnson described Uthoff’s recruitment thus far for CF.
“A lot of this stuff had kind of been bubbling under the surface. Nobody really knew about him. I have been getting a lot of calls. I talk to a lot of coaches and stuff. I have been letting them know that there is a kid out there who they need to look at. At first, they were kind of passive about it,” Johnson said. “They didn’t know who he was. They just appreciated the information and said that they would follow up on it another time. As the season progressed and he was putting up those monster numbers, coaches all of the sudden didn’t want to wait anymore.”
What put Uthoff over the top? Not only his impressive numbers, but coaches started to see him in person. That’s when the offers started flying in.
“A number of coaches came by and saw him play in open gym and the state tournament,” Johnson said. “I just think from there, when people actually got a chance to lay eyes on him, they saw what I was talking about. They saw that he is legit. You’ve seen what has happened here over the last three or four weeks and the interest and offers that have come.”
Uthoff averaged 21 points per game as a junior for Cedar Rapids Jefferson, while shooting 54.3 percent from the field on the season.
Uthoff will be participating in an AAU tournament in Des Moines this weekend.
HERE’S A LINK to the Iowa Barnstormers AAU page.
