Locure trusting the process

Iowa is on the hunt for a point guard in the Class of 2019 and the Hawkeyes have extended a couple of offers to players at that position. The recruitment of prospects like D.J. Carton and Tyrell Terry will be highly competitive, so Fran McCaffery and his staff are also continuing to evaluate other options.

One of those possible options is Tyreke Locure, a 5-foot-10 and 155 pound point guard from Des Moines North High School. This past season he averaged 28.1 points, 7 assists, and 3.6 steals per game.

This spring he is playing with a new AAU team, Beyond Ball, and he and his team has a successful first evaluation weekend playing down in Texas.

‘The first weekend went really well,” Locure said. “I’m playing with a group of guys that I know really well and we are coming together quickly as a group on the floor.”

One hurdle for Locure this spring is this year he’s not playing on an AAU team that’s part of the shoe sponsor circuit. That means instead of college coaches automatically being courtside for every game, they have to find Locure, but they are doing just that with an assist from his AAU coaches.

“It was a little different because in the EYBL, the coaches are right there and you know they are going to be there,” he said. “Our coaches do a really good job of reaching out to college coaches and letting them know when and where we will be playing and they come out to see us.”

Three schools have been in fairly close contact prior to and during this first evaluation periods: Iowa, Minnesota, and Wright State.

The Hawkeyes have been tracking Locure for more than a year and they were out at one of his games in Texas last weekend. They plan to get out and see him again this weekend in Indianapolis.

“Coach Dillard called this week and said they are going to be out to watch me and continue to evaluate me into the summer,” he said. “I really like Iowa and that’s not going to change.”

Locure also knows the Hawkeyes are involved with other point guards in the 2019 class, including in-state prospect D.J. Carton. He knows he has to stay patient and see what happens with other recruitments at his position.

“I just have to trust the process,” he said. “I know they are recruiting D.J. and other point guards and I just have to keep working hard every game and stay patient with the recruiting process.”