ISU eyes another JUCO prospect for 2013

Iowa State is in the mix to add another junior college post player to its 2013 basketball recruiting class.

That man is Billy Reader, a 6-foot-9, 245-pound banger out of Southern Idaho Community College.

“Billy is getting a lot of interest,” Southern Idaho C.C. head coach Steve Gosar told CycloneFanatic.com. “Junior college big men always get a ton of interest, especially the good ones. Billy is a very talented 6-9, 240-pound four/five man who has the ability to step out and knock down a 15-footer. There is interest there from a number of other schools.”

As of now, those schools include Utah, Arizona State and Montana. Texas Tech had also recruited Reader early in the process, before Billy Gillispie’s recent departure from the program.

“A bunch of other schools are still working on coming out here,” said Gosar. “He’s a guy who really understands angles. He competes for every inch in the post and plays really hard.”

Reader arrived at Southern Idaho via the way of Montana, where he averaged around five minutes per game as a redshirt freshman last season. Reader originally hails from Lake Oswego, Ore.

Gosar said that the plan is for Reader to sign with his future school during the spring period.

“We have a lot of time between now and then,” said Gosar. “We really want to make sure that he is getting his class work done and that we put him in a position where he can get to the division one level. 

Iowa State currently has four known verbal commitments in its 2013 recruiting class. Two of those prospects hail from the junior college ranks – those men being Richard Amardi (F) and Dustin Hogue (F) – both from Indian Hills C.C.

Matt Thomas (G) and Monte Morris (G) are members of the class coming from the high school ranks.

According to our scholarship chart at Cyclone Fanatic, Iowa State currently has two open scholarships for its 2013 class.