The 2025 recruiting class will be an important litmus test for Iowa. Coming off a national championship game appearance and with the best player in college basketball returning next season, Iowa’s stock as a program is higher now than it's ever been.

Iowa also has momentum on the recruiting trail, landing commitments from three nationally ranked prospects in the class of 2024: Ava Heiden (#32 overall by ESPN), Teagan Mallegni (#62 overall by ESPN), and Taylor Stremlow (#71 overall by ESPN).

But Iowa has also had its fair share of recent recruiting misses as well. In the 2023 class, Sahara Williams and Audi Crooks were both nationally ranked recruits from Iowa that had significant interest from the Hawkeyes. They landed neither prospect; Williams ultimately chose Oklahoma, while Crooks picked rival Iowa State.

In the 2025 class, Iowa is chasing several very highly ranked prospects from the west coast. The Hawks are also pursuing a few ranked in-state recruits and a recruit from Missouri with ties to the state. Let’s take a deeper look at some of Iowa’s top targets that could make or break the 2025 recruiting class.

Basic Information: 6’1" wing from St. Charles, Missouri

Ranking: #17 overall by ESPN and #17 overall by Prospect Nation

Offer List: Iowa, Iowa State, Vanderbilt, West Virginia, Marquette, Oklahoma State, Florida Atlantic, Arkansas, DePaul, Purdue, Missouri, Missouri State, Kansas State, Illinois, Kansas

Using the 2024 class as an example, Spieser’s offer list so far is much closer to the offer list for Callie Levin (unranked thus far in 2024 by ESPN) than the offer lists for Mallegni or Heiden. That seems somewhat surprising for a Top 20 prospect. That said, St. Charles, Missouri isn’t particularly close to most of college basketball’s top programs. The only top schools relatively close to Spieser that haven’t offered so far are Indiana and Louisville.

Iowa Visits: June 16, 2021, September 28, 2021, February 26, 2023

Reasons for Optimism: In August 2022 Spieser moved to All Iowa Attack to finish her AAU career. Iowa has had plenty of success recruiting All Iowa Attack players recently, landing seven high school commits and one transfer from the program in the past five years, including Caitlin Clark, Sydney Affolter, Taylor McCabe, Kylie Feuerbach, Jada Gyamfi, and Hannah Stuelke from the current roster.

Speiser has taken multiple visits to Iowa, which is a sign of continued interest. Iowa has also had more recent success than the other teams that Speiser has offers from. And geographically, Iowa is as close or closer to Speiser’s home than most of the teams that have offered her, apart from Missouri.

Reasons for Pessimism: In an interview last summer, Speiser said she thought she would know a school was right for her when she visited. She’s visited Iowa multiple times now but hasn’t committed yet. Speiser might also have a big role sooner at some of the other schools that have offered her.

Basic Information: 5’11" wing from Davenport, Iowa

Ranking: #19 overall by ESPN

Offer List: Iowa, Iowa State, DePaul, Michigan

I can't recall a major Power 5 recruit with an offer list this small. Usually recruits like Houston get a dozen or more offers, even from schools with little realistic chance of landing them. That said, Iowa, Iowa State, and Michigan are all Top 25 programs with recent success, so it's a strong list even with just four total offers.

Iowa Visits: October 1, 2022, likely many others

Connection to Iowa: Journey’s sister Jinaya committed to Iowa as part of the Class of 2017. Jinaya ultimately left basketball before playing for the Hawkeyes, but it doesn’t appear that Iowa itself did anything to lead to that decision. Journey mentioned in an interview that she’s known the Iowa coaches most of her life, likely through their efforts to recruit Jinaya.

Reasons for Optimism: Journey’s connection to the Iowa coaching staff should be a plus. Her sister felt comfortable going to Iowa, and consciously or unconsciously, she’s likely compared every other school’s staff to Iowa most of her life. Journey also plays for All Iowa Attack, and Iowa generally does very well with the state’s top recruits. Geography is also a major plus, as Iowa is just an hour from her hometown. Finally, her offer list isn’t extensive, so Iowa doesn’t currently face significant competition to get her.

Reasons for Pessimism: Perhaps this is overthinking things, but if Iowa is Journey’s top choice, why hasn’t she committed already? Some recruits have a top choice in mind, but take plenty of visits to other schools to make sure their initial pick is best. Journey didn’t have any visits planned as of October 2022 and hasn’t reported any additional offers since then.

Basic Information: 5’10" guard from Davenport, Iowa

Ranking: #34 overall by ESPN

Offer List: Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois, Florida, DePaul

Iowa Visits: September 25, 2021, likely others

Reasons for Optimism: Bourrage doesn’t have the same history with Iowa’s coaching staff that Houston does, but otherwise the reasons for optimism are very similar. Iowa is very close to Bourrage’s home, and she also plays for All Iowa Attack. Houston and Bourrage are also teammates at Davenport North, so if they want to stay teammates in college, Iowa could be an attractive option for both.

Reasons for Pessimism: Bourrage was offered by the same schools as Houston, but also holds offers from Kentucky and Florida. That brings additional competition into her recruitment, but also signals that Bourrage might be more interested in an expansive recruiting process than Houston. Iowa also went fairly guard-heavy in its 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes, so playing time concerns could weigh against Iowa.

Basic Information: 6’1" wing- Clackamas, Oregon

Ranking: ranked #2 overall by ESPN and #1 overall by Prospect Nation

Offer List: Stanford, Oregon, Utah, UCLA, North Carolina, Texas A&M, Cal, USC, Iowa, Baylor, Michigan, Ohio State, Tennessee, South Carolina

Iowa Visits: None Known

Reasons for Optimism: Davidson is on the same AAU team as Iowa commit Ava Heiden. Davidson has also retweeted several tweets about Heiden recently, so clearly the two get along well. Iowa can offer Davidson the chance to play significantly right away with a program that recently made a national championship game, while also playing with an AAU teammate and friend. That’s a combination most other programs can’t offer.

Reasons for Pessimism: Davidson has been offered by some of the best programs in the country. The Pac 12 schools are all much closer to her home than Iowa, and South Carolina is a Top 3 program in women’s basketball at the moment. Competition for Davidson will be fierce, and other than Heiden there’s nothing clearly connecting Davidson to Iowa. If she takes a visit to Iowa, that would be a good sign, but for now this seems like a long shot.

Basic Information: 6’0’ wing- Santa Ana, California

Ranking: #12 overall by ESPN and #6 overall by Prospect Nation

Offer List: LSU, Iowa, others unknown

Deal posted about an offer from LSU on Instagram. She mentioned an Iowa offer in an interview. Otherwise, her recruitment has been kept fairly quiet. She does mention offers and visits for top schools in major conferences, but hasn’t provided specifics. It’s fair to assume most of the top programs in the country are interested.

Iowa Visits: August 3, 2022

Reasons for Optimism: Many top recruits give generic answers when asked how a recruiting visit went. They try to answer the question without saying something that might diminish another school or give too much away. Deal’s interview about her Iowa visit sounded anything but generic. She seemed to really enjoy her visit and was open about the things she liked and what she’s looking for in a program.

Just taking the visit in general is also a positive sign. Some recruits take plenty of visits, but you wouldn’t just fly from California to Iowa unless you were legitimately considering Iowa as an option. Finally, several current Iowa players or recruits follow Deal on Instagram. Those same players and recruits don’t follow Davidson.

Reason for Pessimism: Like Davidson, the competition for Deal will be intense. LSU is the hottest program in college basketball at the moment. If South Carolina or UConn are involved, they can sell years of sustained success as top programs in the sport. And USC and UCLA seem to be building legitimate contenders much closer to Deal’s home. Recruiting is a zero-sum game. Deal might really like Iowa, but if she likes another school just a little better, that won’t matter in the end.

Basic Information- 6’6" center from Brownsburg, Indiana

Ranking: #44 overall by ESPN

Offer List: Iowa, Maryland, Illinois, Purdue, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Oklahoma State, Xavier, Toledo, Nebraska Omaha, Evansville, Butler

Gordon’s offer list is solid, but also missing offers from some of the best teams in the region like Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio State. Ohio State’s current system isn’t as conducive to a traditional post, so that could explain the lack of an OSU offer, but both Michigan and Indiana still use traditional posts .

Iowa Visits: June 2022, October 1, 2022

Reasons for Optimism: Jan Jensen’s reputation for developing posts is extremely well-known at this point. That was a big reason Heiden committed to Iowa, and could be a big factor in Gordon’s recruitment too. Gordon is also three inches taller than Monika Czinano or Megan Gustafson, so she would give Jensen something she really hasn’t had in the recent past: a center who is taller than most of her opponents.

In terms of prestige, Iowa and Maryland are both far ahead of the other schools that have offered Gordon so far. Iowa is quite a bit closer to her home (5 hours versus 9 hours), so that could also give Iowa an edge.

Reasons for Pessimism: Maryland coach Brenda Freese has had trouble losing players to the transfer portal in the past few seasons, but she’s also recruited at a higher level than Iowa for most of her career.

Purdue and Illinois are both improving programs closer to Gordon’s home that could likely offer Gordon playing time earlier than Iowa can. Finally, Gordon has taken plenty of visits but hasn’t committed yet. Could she be holding out to see if she gets an Indiana offer?

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