Official 2026 Panther Basketball Recruit List

[BCPanther]

Something I noticed while perusing the recruiting threads. We don't have any offers or interest in bigs. It seems all the guys we're after or have committed are between 6'3-6'8. Just thought it was interesting.

Two things.

Kids see Hornseth and Wilson and Zens and Gerdes and know there aren't going to be a ton of minutes at those spots the next couple of years.

We've had a lot more success with transfer bigs than guards.

[PantherAlum09]

Two things.

Kids see Hornseth and Wilson and Zens and Gerdes and know there aren't going to be a ton of minutes at those spots the next couple of years.

We've had a lot more success with transfer bigs than guards.

I would also say, they probably expect a big jump from Marino this year into next. And he's a legit big.

[PantherAlum09]

Texas just got a commitment from Bo Ogden. He's a 6'5"-6'6" SG who plays the same position and similar style to Joe Sterling and also happens to be a top 35-45 recruit in the country. It doesn't rule them out of still going after Sterling but it's something of note for sure.

NOTE: After I write this, I find out he has since scheduled an official visit with Texas, so nevermind I guess.

[orangetennis]

I would also say, they probably expect a big jump from Marino this year into next. And he's a legit big.

Negative. Marino is a space taker. He's not skilled. I don't expect him to get many minutes this season, and I won't be at all surprised if his tenure at UNI resembles that of Ege Peksari, and he transfers out without making an impact at all. Hope I'm wrong, but I don't see it with Marino. I think the staff is taking a lottery ticket on size, and hoping we get lucky.

[PantherAlum09]

Dr. Franklin did a little day in the life of an AD post yesterday and mentioned that she met with a potential recruit at men's basketball practice yesterday. I'm trying to figure out who it was but not having any luck.

[PantherAlum09]

Welp... Looks like Kingston Whitty is going to West Virginia. He was probably my favorite of the group, but I'm not surprised. He's just a really smooth gifted basketball player. Washington or Sterling would be incredible pieces. Washington especially has a really high ceiling to me and would be a different player than we've had.

[krusej23]

Kingston Whitty had around 30 offers from all over the country. Is that typical to have that many offers? Why would a kid talk to that many schools enough to get an offer from each of those schools? Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that schools are talking to kids a lot before they give an offer. 30 offers just seems like offer fishing.

[PantherAlum09]

Kingston Whitty had around 30 offers from all over the country. Is that typical to have that many offers? Why would a kid talk to that many schools enough to get an offer from each of those schools? Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that schools are talking to kids a lot before they give an offer. 30 offers just seems like offer fishing.

Nah. These kids play in these travel ball tournaments and all of these colleges come and watch. He's a really good player who was kind of a later bloomer. He had a good mix of lower D1 offers, mid major offers, and obviously a high major offer as well. He just exploded over the summer and got a ton of interest.I don't think it's atypical at all.

[krusej23]

I guess I think of recruiting differently where you actually think there is a chance the kid will come to your school before you offer. He has by far the most offers on 247 sports. There are some kids and AAU programs that want to show/brag about the amount of offers instead of just telling a school they aren't interested.

I see Julian Washington has Cincinnati in the final 4 but I don't see an offer from them. He must be essentially a preferred walk on. I have a feeling he ends up at FAU unfortunately judging from his X account.

[PantherAlum09]

I guess I think of recruiting differently where you actually think there is a chance the kid will come to your school before you offer. He has by far the most offers on 247 sports. There are some kids and AAU programs that want to show/brag about the amount of offers instead of just telling a school they aren't interested.

I see Julian Washington has Cincinnati in the final 4 but I don't see an offer from them. He must be essentially a preferred walk on. I have a feeling he ends up at FAU unfortunately judging from his X account.

Kingston Whitty had all low and mid major offers until West Virginia just recently offered. I assume he was using all those offers to promote himself to possibly get that bigger offer. All of these kids make sure to thank schools for offering them. Would it look better or worse if they just ignored the fact a school offered?

I would caution against putting too much thought into what exactly 247 sports has on the site, too. There are too many kids for them to cover accurately. I'm sure certain regions and bigger universities get better coverage but they are not always accurate on offers. Nor do they rank kids all the time. Julian Washington doesn't even have a ranking on there, but he's getting offers from high majors. He's obviously a talented kid.

He just had his official visit to FAU. I assume he will be taking his official visit with us soon.

[krusej23]

Kingston Whitty had all low and mid major offers until West Virginia just recently offered. I assume he was using all those offers to promote himself to possibly get that bigger offer. All of these kids make sure to thank schools for offering them. Would it look better or worse if they just ignored the fact a school offered?

I would caution against putting too much thought into what exactly 247 sports has on the site, too. There are too many kids for them to cover accurately. I'm sure certain regions and bigger universities get better coverage but they are not always accurate on offers. Nor do they rank kids all the time. Julian Washington doesn't even have a ranking on there, but he's getting offers from high majors. He's obviously a talented kid.

That's what most kids do is they put the offer on X so that it looks good on them but pushes other schools to meet with them and possibly offer if they are interested. What I'm saying is Seth Tuttle isn't going to offer a scholarship to a kid if he doesn't have some sort of information that says the kid is interested in UNI. When a kid has 30+ offers, that tells me that either has no idea where he wants to go, has someone helping him that doesn't really know what they are doing, or he's just fishing for offers to have the attention. Comparing his offers to our other kids we have offered, he by far has the most scholarship offers. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing but it certainly tells you something about the kid. When I see a kid has 5 offers from mid majors and maybe 1 or 2 from power 5 conferences, that tells me they have certain criteria they were using to find a school that matches that criteria.

[PantherAlum09]

Big one coming up… Julian Washington is making his decision on Friday October 24th at night during his high school football game. It’s down to either Dayton, FAU or us. This would be a massive get and would give us two very solid recruiting classes in a row.

[kochrab]

Big one coming up… Julian Washington is making his decision on Friday October 24th at night during his high school football game. It’s down to either Dayton, FAU or us. This would be a massive get and would give us two very solid recruiting classes in a row.

The fact that we got this far is pretty impressive, especially with a non-Iowa kid. He would be a huge get for us for sure.

[PantherAlum09]

Joe Sterling is taking a visit to Texas this weekend, and a decision is expected on his commitment in the not too distant future. I'd be pretty surprised if he ended up here at this point, but who knows!

[Wxcpanther]

Joe Sterling is taking a visit to Texas this weekend, and a decision is expected on his commitment in the not too distant future. I'd be pretty surprised if he ended up here at this point, but who knows!

I feel reasonably confident we get one of the two between Sterling and Washington. We only have one ride left, right?