Iowa hoops begins hosting portal visitors

With the end of the college hoops season, it’s officially fully portal season for basketball. Despite the narrative from some corners that Fran McCaffery doesn’t embrace the transfer portal, he has been very open about the need to seek help this spring. Unlike last year, the Iowa head coach will have a collective to back up his recruiting efforts.

McCaffery has already lined up five official visitors for the month of April, beginning this weekend. Iowa currently has three open scholarship and two of them are expected to go to frontcourt players. We don’t know if the Hawkeyes have a specific pecking order from their visitors, but it could end up being first come, first serve.

Leading things off this weekend is 6-foot-10 big man Josh Cohen. He’s a traditional big man who averaged 21 points and 8 rebounds per game at St. Francis (PA). He took a one day unofficial visit to Penn State before their coaching change and has indicated he will be back in Happy Valley this month.

Cohen, who scored 30 points this season against Miami (FL), also recently made an official visit to UMASS. He will see Iowa and Florida this weekend on official visits. It certainly feels like Cohen is tracking towards a decision sooner rather than later.

Also arriving this weekend is Rienk Mast, a 6-foot-9 and 240 pound center who played at Bradley. He is originally from the Netherlands and averaged 13.8 points and 8.0 rebounds per game. He is a rugged player on the block and not afraid to battle on the glass.

Watching his film, Mast is skilled and can finish with both hands. He has the ability to step out shoot a little bit, making 35% from three this past year.

Another player who is expected to visit this weekend is Ben Krikke, who played last year at Valpo. He’s 6-foot-9 and 220 pounds and was a first team MVC player this year. He led the Valley in scoring at 19.4 points per game and he pulled down 5.9 rebounds a contest. Krikke is not a shooter from deep, making just 28% from three this past season. But, he shot 55% overall from the floor last year.

Two other visitors who will arrive later this month are Jordan Minor and B.J. Mack.

Minor, who played at Merrimack, is a 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds and averaged 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds this year. He is not a three point shooter, taking only nine all season, but he made 51% of his field goal attempts. He is schedule to visit Iowa on April 14th and will also visit Virginia this weekend, followed by Florida Gulf Coast, then Iowa, and wrapping up with Seton Hall on the 17th and 18th.

On Tuesday, Mack announced that he had cut his list of schools to five and the Hawkeyes are on the list. The 6-foot-8 and 245 pound forward from Wofford averaged 16.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Here is what he told On3.com earlier on Tuesday regarding Iowa.

“Coach (Fran) McCaffery and his staff have been following me since high school. I grew up playing against Patrick (McCaffery) in AAU so I have a great relationship with him. Iowa has put people in my position in the NBA and they have a similar system to Wofford.”

He will start his visits with LSU on the 7th, Alabama starting on the 14th, then Iowa on the 17th and 18th, South Carolina on the 21st, and Arkansas on the 28th.

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