Flint Beecher senior-to-be Monte Morris has made his college decision. The Michigan-native will take his talents to Ames to be an Iowa State Cyclone. The news comes on Morris’ 18th birthday.
Morris, a 6’1″ point guard ranked in the top 100 by all the major recruiting services, made the announcement in front of an audience in his high school gymnasium. He put ISU assistant coach Cornell Mann on speaker phone so that he could hear the news at the same time as everyone else.
According to MLive.com (article linked above), Morris averaged 19.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists in his junior season with the Beecher Buccaneers. There is a connection between Ames and Flint: the Cyclones were led in the 1980s by a pair of Flint products in Barry Stevens and Jeff Grayer.
The final three schools for Morris were Iowa State, Illinois and Butler. He was recruited by a number of other B1G schools, including Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State, but did not report offers from any of those programs.
Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg has put together an impressive 2013 backcourt duo, as Morris joins Matt Thomas, a shooting guard from Onalaska, Wisconsin. Thomas is a top 150 recruit that chose ISU over Virginia just shy of two weeks ago.
Morris will join fellow Michigander Sherron Dorsey-Walker, an incoming freshman from Detroit, on the 2013 ISU roster. State’s 2012 class is also solid, headlined by big man Georges Niang.
Hoiberg has made ISU a popular transfer destination in his first few seasons at the helm, but now that he is getting things done on the high school front the Cyclones are poised to make a splash in the Big 12 Conference.
