Fran McCaffery is known for uncovering a few gems on the recruiting trail.

Sometimes they are in his own backyard.

For example, a few years ago he jumped in and signed Keegan and Kris Murray and now both will be major contributors to the Iowa program. McCaffery also talked an interesting forward named Nicholas Baer into walking on at Iowa and he went on to become a valuable member of the Iowa program for four straight years.

McCaffery might be in the hidden gem in the state of Iowa in Cameron Fens.

The 6-foot-11 and 250 pound big man from Dubuque Hempstead is seeing his stock start to rise after a strong summer playing for the Martin Brothers AAU program.

The Hawkeyes started their recruitment of Fens about a month ago when assistant coach Billy Taylor contacted him to schedule a visit to one of his workouts. From there it’s become even more interesting.

“He (Taylor) came to practice and then after that Coach McCaffery came out with Coach Taylor and then they scheduled a visit for me to come down to Iowa City.”

That unofficial visit for the Class of 2022 prospect took place this past weekend. Fens is a big Iowa basketball fan so this whole situation has been somewhat surreal to him.

“It’s been insane,” he said. “I was super excited when I heard they wanted to come watch me at practice and then when Coach McCaffery came it was really cool. Iowa is my dream school and after visiting it even strengthened that feeling.”

The visit this past weekend included a tour of the Iowa basketball practice facility and meeting with the strength coach and the nutritionist for the team. Then he watched practice and had lunch with the Iowa players, along with sitting down with McCaffery and his staff to watch some film and discuss his recruitment.

“It was really cool to meet some of the players on the team and talk to them,” he said. “Coach McCaffery talked to me about how I could potentially fit into the Iowa program and he gave me general tips on how continue to improve my recruitment.”

McCaffery was straight forward with Fens and his family that right now they are not offering a scholarship, but they would be continuing to recruit him and watch him this season.

“They haven’t talks about an offer. They kind of talked about just general things and that they would be watching me this season and see where things stand in the spring.”

In addition to Iowa, Fens says that he will be scheduling a trip to visit Western Illinois in the near future.