6/6/10 UPDATE: Tom Kakert of Rivals.com is reporting that Bryce Cartwright has committed to play basketball for Iowa. Below is what we wrote back on June 2nd.

Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery joined me on my radio show Wednesday morning (Miller & Deace in the Morning, 1460 KXNO in Des Moines) and one of the things he told me was that Iowa was hosting a recruit on Wednesday night, and he was hopeful they would get him signed.

That sent the World Wide Hawkeye Web into overdrive, as a lot of people were wondering whom McCaffery could be hosting…coaches are prohibited from specifically talking about players until they have signed letters of intent, and McCaffery followed the rules. You can listen to the podcast at this link.

The Des Moines Register reported on Wednesday afternoon that the player was Bryce Cartwright, a Juco point guard from Texas. He is originally from Compton, California and signed with and played for Fresno State.

Online scouting reports suggest he is a very fast and quick guard, more of a true point guard than he is a scorer.  Iowa is certainly in need of another point guard going into next season, as Cully Payne is the lone ranger on that front.

A Juco point guard makes a lot of sense for Iowa for a few reasons, namely the scholarship situation.  McCaffery told me on Wednesday that he is certainly mindful of the amount of talent in the state of Iowa for the class of 2012, and a Juco player with two years of eligiblity would not occupy any scholarships for the class of 2012.

McCaffery also said that he has been working the class of 2012 here in the state of Iowa as much as he can within the rules.  McCaffery has been a very busy man since he took over the Iowa job.  He has hired his entire coaching staff in addition to logging a lot of recruiting miles and establishing and reconnecting key recruiting relationships in the Midwest and the east.

Wednesday was the second time I have been able to interview McCaffery and the first one on one Q&A.  The more I speak with him and the more I hear him deal with questions, the more impressed I become.

I asked him if he felt it was important to hire a staff full of experienced coaches that are not afraid to tell him ‘how about we look at things another way?’  He said that was a part of his plan in how he assembled this staff, and that he needs people in Iowa City that have ‘been there and done that’ in the event he is out on the road recruiting.  He has certainly done that.

He also referred to assistant Andrew Francis as, and I quote, a “recruiting barracuda”.  I like that…

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