All those schools offered McCabe very late because they had open roster spots they needed to fill, and McCabe was the best of the leftovers. The kind of players Iowa needs don’t get good offers (meaning offers from top programs) six weeks before the start of their senior year of high school; they get good offers after their freshman and sophomore years.

As good as Matt Gatens is, he’s the lowest caliber player we can afford to sign if we’re ever going to challenge for the top of the conference. And Matt is not going to play in the NBA, he’s not even a second rounder like Adam Haluska was (who never really made an NBA team). But NBA caliber players are our competition–other teams in the conference have them.

To put it another way, if Iowa ever is to challenge for the top third of the conference, we can’t sign any players ranked outside the top 200 nationally. And we’re going to have to sign a very highly rated (top 50) player who’s a bona fide NBA prospect every other year, or at least every third year.