Basabe Following McCaffery

New England Recruiting Report | Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Melsahn Basabe is heading to the University of Iowa to play for head coach Fran McCaffery, who he originally committed to last fall at Siena. 

Basabe announced his decision via his twitter account saying, "It's offical - I'm an Iowa Hawkeye now."

The New York native received his release from Siena a few weeks ago and quickly generated interest from a variety of other high major programs including Indiana, Boston College, and Texas. 

But he only took one additional visit and that was to Iowa's campus earlier this week.  He committed one day after returning home and is the first player to pledge to Iowa since McCaffery took the reigns of the program on March 29th.   

Basabe was a breakout performer on last summer's live curcuit, as he starred at the Hoop Group Elite Camp and then earned all-star nods at the New England Elite 75 Showcase before running with the New York Gauchos for the rest of the month. 

He originally selected Siena despite interest and offers from a variety of Big East programs close to his New York home, citing his relationship with McCaffery and the opportunity to play immediate minutes. 

In Iowa, it seems that Basabe will have many of the same opportunities, as he will again have the opportunity to star for McCaffery and join a team that will be looking to build their identity under a new head coach. 

"I've liked Coach McCaffery and Coach Francis for a long time.  It is going to be a great situation for me," Basabe told the Quad-City Times.  "They believe I can help them build the program at Iowa and I'm ready to help do that."