How Iowa HC Convinced Top Recruit to Commit Early

At 17-years-old, the Iowa Hawkeyes were able to land four-star forward Trey Thompson. Somehow, head coach Ben McCollum was able to convince the highly touted recruit to re-classify and join Iowa for the upcoming 2025-26 season.

In the end, things worked out perfectly. Back on July 5, Thompson committed to Iowa over the likes of Purdue, Tennessee, Kansas, among many others. His decision to reclassify was relatively last minute, but he stayed true to Iowa throughout the entire process.

"I had a visit scheduled for both Kansas and UConn and I cancelled both of them to come here," Thompson told Hawkeyes reporters.

Trey Thompson is gonna be so good at basketball pic.twitter.com/nQjFwEZ1gf
— The Analyst (@analyst4sports_) October 15, 2025

He continued, "Coach McCollum called me and was like 'we could use you this year. We need you this year.' My situation in high school wasn't the greatest, I loved my coach, the people there were awesome, but I don't think I was challenged every single day."

"I think here I'm challenged every single day by the best of the best," Thompson added. "I mean, we have an NBA player on our team, it's hard to guard. Big guys, 260, 20-years old, it's hard to guard. It's just going to make me a better basketball player overall so that's why I came here."

Trey Thompson decided to skip his senior year of high school to head to Iowa early.

"Coach McCollum called me and was like, 'We could use you this year,"

Why the 17-year-old made the decision:@KCRG_Sports pic.twitter.com/xRT3nLBABc
— Collin Davies (@DaviesCollin) October 15, 2025

As part of media day, assistant coach Bryston Williams had high praise for Thompson, "He's going to be special. The best thing about him, he loves to learn. Because you have kids that just want to ask questions to act like they really care; he truly cares. He wants to know why, what’d I do wrong? The kids that care like that, those are the kids that turn out to be special.”

Iowa's ability to land Thompson was seen as a bit of a miracle knowing the steep competition they were going up against. Standing 6'8'' 220-pounds, the Greeneville, TN native was one of McCollum's definitive four-star recruits ahead of his first season.

2️⃣0️⃣ days until tipoff. @treyyy_2k x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/kZN0VjVG6A
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) October 15, 2025

The No. 1 player in Tennessee heads to Iowa where he faces the gauntlet that is the B1G. Iowa's schedule kicks off on November 4 as part of five straight home games for the Hawkeyes.

Thompson may not be the tallest players on the floor, but he's one of six freshman's that Iowa has for the upcoming season. Joey Matteoni and Trevin Jirak are the lone freshman's taller than Thompson, with Jirak's 6'11'' frame being the tallest player McCollum has on the roster.

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