After the grind of a high school season that culminated with a state championship for Oskaloosa High School, Xavier Foster needed some down time.

The five star in-state big man took a few weeks off to enjoy the title and now he’s back on the AAU circuit with his Pure Prep AAU team this spring.

“Right after the state title I took some time off and just relaxed a bit so I could be a kid again,” he said. “It’s good to get back to playing basketball again this spring, but I kind of needed a little break.”

Foster has continued to add weight and strength to his 7-foot frame and he can feel it in his game, especially when he is down on the low block.

“I’ve gotten stronger and I can feel it in my low post game. I would kind of avoid that a little bit in the past, but now I feel more comfortable down there, so the work that I have put in is paying off.”

There won’t be many breaks for Foster in the coming months as far as basketball. He’s scheduled to play in the Pangos All American Camp this weekend in California. He has also been invited to the NBA Top 100 camp for the second straight year and that takes place in the middle of June. Foster will also be part of an Iowa select team traveling to Kansas City later in the month of June.

Then there’s also recruiting, which never seems to slow down for Foster, but he has kind of put that on the backburner for the time being with the exception of one visit.

“I took official visits to Iowa, Iowa State, UCLA, and USC during my junior year and those visits helped a lot,” he said. “It was a lot of fun to take those trips and it kind of showed me what it was like at the college level.”

His next trip will be to Baylor coming up in June and then he’s going to only focus on basketball in July.

“I’m not really thinking about recruiting at all. I probably have to start thinking more about it once the summer is over and when I start my senior year of high school.”

Foster said that Iowa, Iowa State, Baylor, and USC remain in contact on a regular basis and Texas A&M has started to show more interest recently. Programs like Kentucky and Duke, who were tracking him this spring haven’t really been in touch and Kansas, who has offered, sends him messages every so often.

The Hawkeyes have continued to be a steady presence in his recruitment and their message remains consistent.

“Iowa’s approach has been pretty much the same. They talk about how I would be a great fit there and how they would use me in their offense and defense. They also talk to me about how they are close to home, but it’s mainly about being a great fit there,” Foster said.

He said the Cyclones have a similar message in their recruitment about how he would fit into their system and that he would be close to home.