Garza recaps visit, talks new offer
Having already visited Iowa last fall, Luka Garza had a pretty good feel for the University of Iowa and the campus.
What he didn’t get to do on the previous visit was get to spend much time with the Hawkeye basketball players, who were busy preparing for and playing a game when he was in town. This past weekend on his official visit, the 6-foot-10 big man from Washington, D.C. checked that box off his recruiting list.
“It was a great visit,” Garza said. “The last time I didn’t really get to meet the players and this time I did. That was really what I wanted to do. All of the players were great. Nicholas Baer hosted me and he was great, as were all the guys on the team.”
Garza was able to talk with his host, along with the rest of the players on the team about what it was like to play basketball at the University of Iowa and also the academic side of the school, which is an important part of his decision.
“They all really stressed how important academic advisors treat the student-athlete and how important that is for a Big Ten athlete. They really appreciate the support that the advisors give them and also how Coach McCaffery treats them and gets them ready for each and every game. They talked about how much he wants to win and how every player that comes into the program is high character and that is stressed by the players and coaches.”
While on the visit, Garza, who averaged 25 points and 13 rebounds in his junior year at the Maret School in D.C., also played some pickup games with the Iowa players on Friday night. That was also an important part of the equation as the 2017 big man tries to find a fit at the college level.
“We played pickup on Friday afternoon and I really got a feel for all the guys,” he said. “It was cool because I was trying to go at them and they were going at me and you could tell everyone was competitive and wanted to win. I played pretty well and I think they all appreciated my game.”
Garza was also able to spend time with the Iowa coaches, including Coach McCaffery, who sat him down for an extended video session going over players who have played for him while at Iowa and how he would be used if he became a Hawkeye.
“He showed me video of a couple of different players because he said I am kind of a fusion of a few players that he has had at Iowa. He showed me video of Gabe Olaseni, Adam Woodbury, Jarrod Uthoff, and Aaron White. He showed the outside shooting of Uthoff and White and the inside game of Woodbury and Olaseni. I think I am a combo of those type of players and it was good to see how he would use me and the spots I could score from on the floor in his offense.”
This weekend was also big for Garza on another front, as added to his growing list of scholarship offers with one from Louisville. The Cardinals hadn’t been in touch much in the recruiting process, but they have been following him and the offer was meaningful to the junior big man.
“It is really an honor to get the offer,” Garza said. “It shows that my hard work is paying off and it was great to get an offer from a program like that. The offer was surprising. I hadn’t really heard from them up until that point, but they had been watching me for a while.”
Garza is now up to up to 20 scholarship offers and he plans to make several visits during the month of May and June prior to returning to the AAU circuit in July with Team Takeover.