Dickerson goes in-depth on decision

Trey Dickerson came into the weekend saying that he would only commit if he fell in love with the University of Iowa. By Saturday night, he was head over heels for the Hawkeyes and the junior college point guard ended his recruitment by committing to Fran McCaffery.

"It just felt like home," Dickerson said. "After the game was over Coach Fran invited me into the locker room and I told him I was coming and I wanted to be a Hawkeye. I think he hugged me for like five minutes. He was pretty happy."

The 6-foot-1 point guard, who averaged 20 points per game this season at Williston Junior College in North Dakota, will have three years of eligibility remaining when he arrives in Iowa City. He committed to Iowa over offers from Arkansas, Nebraska, Washington, and St. Louis with interest from Wichita State, Purdue, Oklahoma State, UCLA, and LSU.

After coming into the weekend thinking he would take a few official visits, Dickerson even surprised himself by making the commitment to Iowa.

"Honestly I was surprised. I wanted to take three or four visits, but when I got there, I just fell in love with it. I know a lot of people say that I should take more visits, but I just felt at home and now all the pressure is off and I can focus on school and getting to Iowa this summer," Dickerson said.

Dickerson said the Hawkeye coaching staff played a huge role in his decision to commit on his official visit this weekend.

"The relationship with the coaches, that is what really sold me. I have known Coach Francis for a long time and I've really got to know Coach McCaffery and he knows some of my family. Then when I got to see the atmosphere of the game and the crowd, I just felt like I could picture myself here and it felt like home."

The Iowa recruiting efforts were led by assistant coach Andrew Francis, who had recruited Dickerson during his prep years. They renewed their recruiting relationship starting this past fall and the level of trust he has in his fellow New York native really helped the Hawkeyes cause.

"The one thing about Coach Francis is he was just so honest about everything all the way. That was a huge part of my recruitment because I wanted to play for a coaching staff that I could trust and would be honest with me and Iowa has been that way every step of the way," Dickerson said.

For the past month, Dickerson has also been talking about being part of a package deal with junior college forward Willie Atwood, a 6-foot-8 forward originally from Memphis and now at Connors State College in Oklahoma. The duo originally met on a recruiting trip to Murray State, where Dickerson once committed to and attended for a few weeks during the summer. Now Dickerson is now in full recruiting mode with the JUCO forward, who is near the top of Iowa's wish list to compete the Class of 2014.

"I talked to Willie last night about it and he said he has to come up there for a visit," he said. "I am going to come back to Iowa City when he comes on his official visit and I'm going to try and push him to commit. He knows that now we aren't just talking about going to the same school, we are going to try and make it happen."

Dickerson said he is going to speak with Atwood this evening to try and get him to set up an official visit to Iowa soon.