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Wieskamp recruiting for Iowa

Joe Wieskamp is recruiting for the Hawkeyes

When you make an early commitment to a college program, there’s an expectation that you turn from being an athlete that is recruited, to an athlete that recruits. When Joe Wieskamp gave the University of Iowa in June of 2015, he heard that almost immediately from the Hawkeye coaches.

“As soon as I committed, Coach Speraw was saying that I have to start helping to recruit the guys that I want to play with, so it’s part of the process,” Wieskamp said.

Recruiting isn’t something that probably comes natural to Wieskamp, who has a quiet personality that lends itself to letting his play on the court do the talking. But, he has come to embrace that role with his low key recruiting pitch.

Wieskamp is ranked by Rivals.com as the 35th best prospect in the Class of 2018 and a four star player, so that alone will attract other high level players. Simply put, good players want to play with other good players at the college level.

With that in mind, the Muscatine native has been working on a pair of prospects, including one of his AAU teammates. This spring, Wisconsin prep standout Joey Hauser (rated by Rivals.com as the 45th best player in the 2018 class) joined the Iowa Barnstormers AAU program and played with Wieskamp. They lead their 2018 group to several championships in the spring and summer and developed a solid on the court chemistry.

“We feed off each other on the court running pick and pop and stuff like that,” Wieskamp said. “With as good of a player as he is, I want him to come to Iowa. You have to let him make his own decision, but you have to constantly be in his ear.”

In June, Wieskamp and 2017 Iowa commit Connor McCaffery were among the attendees at the prestigious NBA Players Top 100 camp in Virginia. Also in attendance was one of Iowa’s top remaining targets in the Class of 2017, Luka Garza. During the spring, Garza rocketed up the Rivals rankings and is current the 103rd best prospect in the class with offers from Indiana, Louisville, Georgetown, Georgia, and Alabama. While they were that the camp, Wieskamp and McCaffery were in Garza’s ear quite a bit.

“We worked on Luka the whole camp. When we were walking around or eating, we were talking to him. He said he really likes Iowa. He would be a good pickup for us.”

On the court, Wieskamp had another good AAU season despite battling illness and injury in June and July. A few weeks before the NBA Players Camp, he was diagnosed with mononucleosis, which prevented him from participating in the scrimmage portion of the camp. Then in early July he was battling a sprained ankle, but still played in all of the Barnstomers AAU events.

After taking a few weeks off in August to fully heal up, the sharp shooting 6-foot-6 guard is now back on the court and working on his game.

“During the AAU season it was constantly go, go, go, and now I am back at it hard again,” he said. “I lost 12 pounds when I had mono and I’ve put that back on and I’ve hit the weight room a little bit. I’m working on improving my ball handling so I can dish for a three or a lay-up.

Wieskamp is also already focused on the high school season this winter. He is just 150 points away from breaking the Muscatine school record for points scored, which currently stands at 1,066 points. And a reminder, he would be setting that school record in his junior year, which is a pretty remarkable achievement.

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